Friends,

one thing annoys me, while watching food programmes. It seems to me that chefs go out of their way to NOT cook their meat dishes, until they are well done. I know we all have different tastes. Anyone wanting to eat at my house, will never have meat that hasn't been thoroughly cooked, even if it's organic. I'm sorry, what with all the food scares in recent years, I don't think it's clever to serve meats that aren't well done.

Francesco.

A lot of people don't like meat well done, the health risk is minimal except for chicken, even that can go dry if cooked too long. If a recipe is written for underdone meat you can always take it a bit further but you can't take it back if it is overcooked for your taste.

obviously not chicken, but both beef and lamb have to be eaten medium-rare, (specially beef!) if you are a true food lover. It will taste soooo much better.

Most food poisoning is caused by poor hygiene in the kitchen and not originating in the food itself. If you are cooking steak rare then ensure that all the surfaces it comes in touch with - including your hands - are clean.

Food scares are normally exactly that - scares. These scares based in the supply chain tend to revolve around intensive farming and the use of inferior products (eg reconstituted meat and battery farmed eggs).

If you always use good ingredients and have good hygiene you are minimising the risk to health.

I like my steak what the French call "blue" by the way. I always buy a full piece of rump from the butchers (costs about £10) and the meat is far superior than a fillet from a "Major Retail Supermarket" (that would cost about 3 times that much for equivalent weight). Supermarket steaks are always too thin anyway, making it very difficult to cook and get a "rare".

T-Bone is right. If you have poor food hygiene that causes the problem. I eat all my red meat rare, actually very rare. I heard the other day that food poisoning issues with take away food are mainly caused by the rice being re-heated, not the meat being under cooked.

Francesco.... I am slightly inclined to agree with you. Many times have the wife and I been watching all these programmes and on countless occasions she has said to me " wouldn't eat that, it's not cooked properly". Whilst I like my food medium, I would sooner have it medium- well done than medium-rare. If I cooked something as rare as they do then everyone would starve in my house......

Hi, I am happy to eat beef raw - carpaccio, steak tatare (here I have an issue with the raw egg!) and I love rare steaks and pink roast beef. I have also eaten venison carpaccio in Austria which was very nice.
Nevertheless, I have seen undercooked pork on a number of programmes, the thought of it makes me feel queasy. Perhaps it is OK, but here in Poland I'd be most likely to get a tapeworm I think.
I was taught by my Mum that all poultry should be cooked through, whilst I have seen pink duck meat frequently. I don't know if ducks carry salmonella, but as I've had it before I never want to get it again.
So I really would err towards being cautious especially in foreign countries.
Alex

Alex, you are absolutely right - undercooked pork and poultry are scary. Parasites are very common in meat, and when I buy meat in a supermarket I always cook it through, no matter what kind of meat it is. I have no idea where the meat came from and how it was handled.

The reason chefs do not like showing meat well-done is bacause it is too easy to overcook and nobody wants to be embarassed.

I just have a thing about pink meat. I know that many people eat it with no problems but it just doesn't look cooked to me!

If you don't like pink meat, cook it a little longer to the colour you like. Simple

I would be interested to know what the vet's take on this subject is.

who is the vet?