Anthony wrote:
> There is a constant drumbeat of warnings about food to avoid, for
> example raw eggs and oysters, meat which has not been cooked to near
> destruction, fish which may contain mercury and so on. Yet the odd
> thing is that nowhere have I found a warning against pre-ground meat
> although in the stories one reads it often seems to be ecoli infected
> hamburger which is being recalled.
>
> I've looked (not too diligently, I admit) for stats on the subject but
> they seem rather thin on the ground and often are agenda driven, for
> example linking an increase in genetically modified foods to an
> increase in the incidence of food poisoning. But overall the problem
> seems to be quite minor, with about 5,000 deaths annually in the US,
> compared to about 40,000 road deaths (with presumably an even larger
> number of serious injuries).
>
> So I've decided to maintain the practices of a lifetime and continue to
> eat eggs, beef and seafood all the way from raw to well done, but to
> continue to cook chicken and pork to the recommended minimum
> temperatures. And to be sure to fasten my seat belt.

I'm with you on every point except the pork part. You don't have to
cook pork to death these days. Now, I don't like it rare, but medium
to medium well can be nice. The concern used to be trichinosis, but I
don't think that's an issue anymore. I've eaten raw beef 1000+ times,
and have never noticed ill effects. I nearly always make eggs lightly
basted. The goal is getting the white 100% hard, while leaving the
yolk as runny as possible. Using jumbo size eggs helps.

--Bryan