Food Snob wrote:
> 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

The raw egg thing is pretty much overblown too. The United Egg
Producers estimate that about 1 in 20,000 eggs sold in the US are
contaminated by salmonella. I haven't done the math, but I think I
would have to eat an awful lot of eggs to have a likelyhood of
encountering two such eggs in my lifetime. In any event, it sounds like
pretty good odds.

BTW, I think I cook my eggs the same way. As soon as the white is done,
I'll flip the egg just to "seal" the top side and serve. Oh...I flip
'em hard so the yolk breaks in the pan. And nothing but jumbos. Three
jumbos and a pork belly is a balanced breakfast.

b.