On Dec 17, 2006, at 8:58 AM, michael raiti wrote:
> Ginny,
>
> It seems to me that raw beef is more common than
> raw/lightly cooked chicken or pork from what I have
> come across. Do you find that that is the case?
Yes, and I feel the quality can be higher. Not many good pig and
poultry farms around yet.
> Is
> there a reason that you cook the pork and chicken a
> little rather than eating it completely raw?
Well, pork I can eat raw, but I like the flavor brought out by a
quick searing. Understand, when I say "cook", it's a one minute
excursion through a pan greased with meat fat or butter, or a quick
run under a broiler. It's not a moral issue for me, so I might as
well enjoy it a bit. It's definitely NOT cooked, and I wouldn't have
qualms about eating it raw. Chicken, OTOH, is really tough until the
protein reaches a critical temperature. I cook it just enough to eat,
and it's still pink and firm. I suppose I could eat ground raw
chicken, but it doesn't seem worth the trouble.
I feed my dog raw, and am not panicked about licking my fingers or
cleaning the knives and cutting surfaces. We do some whacking of
quite large pieces occasionally, like whole livers, up to 15 pounds
in a big cow, so it gets pretty bloody.
> What do
> you do with chicken livers?
I'd heat them in butter, and eat raw. Usually my dog gets them, not
because I don't like them, but because there's only one in each
chicken:)
> Do you find there is a
> difference between ground beef and steak?
No. If anything, the ground beef tastes sweeter, I think because of
the concentration and rapidity of the taste bud assault. I don't get
a lot of tender cuts like steak; all mine takes some work to chew,
and some creative knife work across the grain. It's all sold as dog
trim. We know in dogs, and I suspect it might be similar in humans,
that the act of chewing releases enzymes and acid in the stomach as
the food is prepared for ingestion. This could alter your reception
of the meat, digestively speaking.
> I am
> wondering if the ground beef is having an acidic
> effect on me that would be lessened by soaking a
> little to remove some of the blood. One thing that I
> have noticed is a saltiness to the meat that makes me
> think that (over) cooking has the effect of losing a
> lot of the electrolytes - particularly potassium and
> sodium. Do you eat the marrow or bones?
That's kind of a "well, DUH!" to me:) Of course, meat loses liquid
and changes composition when heated, and that's why I don't cook it.
The only exception would be bone broths, which I make with
accumulated inedible bones and the occasional whole neck, tongue,
hock, etc, purloined from the dog supply. I eat whatever bones I can,
chewing up chicken bones, especially the joint ends. These are of
course raw, in my version of "cooked". I chew on lamb and pork ribs.
In soup, which I make with acid, the small bones all become edible,
but all the good stuff is dissolved out anyway. I don't get many
marrow-type bones, but I suck all the marrow from the soup bones. I
find I have a real craving for the broth, too, an appeal besides
normal appetite. I suspect there is a lot of nutrition in there. This
is my only glutamate habit:)
ginny
All stunts performed without a net!
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