Sneaking raw meat from the kitchen counter

[sazji]

One of our favorite "fancy" meals when I was a kid was boef fondue, where there was a pot of hot oil (kept heated by a can of sterno burning underneath) in the middle of the table, and everyone got a bowl full of cubed steak, which you'd put on a skewer and cook in the hot oil, and when it was done, dip in various sauces. I always used to eat a lot of it raw. I never got sick. Actually here, where cases of "the gurgles" as we affectionately call it, are fairly commonplace, it's usually badly-washed salad that's the culprit, though everyone suspects the meat. The only time I've gotten *really* sick, I mean the twisting-knife-in-the-side kind of food poisoning, was from a vegetarian dish. But I did have two friends get sick from (probably) a meat dish that had gone a bit off, and I don't *ever* want to be that sick in my life. (Still I have my doubts, as I ate the same dish and only got a bit of upset a few days later...my gut having grown accustomed to a lot...)

[mike_r]

there's something i've also always found captivating about raw meat; half of it is no doubt the sense of illicit thrill-seeking; when i was in school it was pretty well drilled into me that undercooked meat was DANGEROUS and a SIN of some kind. and for a long time i went along with that; until the first time i had steak tartar--flank, i think it was. a little worcestershire, some chives, dash of soy...ooohh....i do save a couple small scraps even now when i butcher meat...sometimes...i do remember the first time i broke down some dry-aged meat; the outside had this dark, almost jerky-like color and texture, had that sweetish-bitter smell of rot (good rot)...i had to try it! and i wish i hadn't, it was quite foul. the interior was amazing when cooked but not quite as nice in the raw form...lesson learned.

wonder if shawn mcclain's Custom House would do a raw beef tasting menu...?

[chow guy]

yum yum yum... I love the raw beef too... tartare, carpaccio, steaks grilled from frozen solid so that there is still cool raw stuff left in the middle.

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Ditto. Yum....I think I got the gene from my mother, who used to eat freshly ground round with salt and pepper, while watching the late show. My father and brothers thought we were sick. Truth is, I have never gotten sick from raw /rare beef. Seafood, is another story.