I make my own mince - it is in general only the outside of a primal cut that will be contaminated, the interior is in general clean. If one washes the outside of the cut of chuck, or sear it lightly, then you can chop it with impunity. [or so I learned working for US Foodservice] So, a quick going over with a food torch on all exposed surfaces, pop it in the grinder and le voila! Or slice it into carpaccio =)
I will send a steak back if it is not done properly. I like mine ‘black and blue’. I can distinctly remember when the family was on a road trip, we hit a place in Detroit [The Sundog] for dinner, and they brought out my petite filet well done. I cut into it, and it was medium well so I complained to my dad [what, I was 9 years old…] So technically he sent it back. The waiter scoffed, but my dad told him outright that I knew what I liked, and I liked my steaks rare or at least medium rare and that if the chef had sent the steak out to an adult it would have been sent back, so a kid who knows what they like can send it back. I did end up getting a nice rare steak after that.
On a reverse look, he took me to lunch at The Pen and Pencil in NY the same year, and we looked at the menu and I spotted Steak Tartare, and ordered it, and all the way up until I started eating it the waiter was trying to convince us that he could take it back and have it turned into a burger =)
I’m afraid to eat undercooked hamburger meat in the US. But last time I visited Germany I went to some place that was the only place still open, and my friend negotiated with the management to get us food (since they were only barely still open) and what arrived was a platter of bread, meats, and maybe some olives or something. And a lot of the meat was a giant pile of raw ground beef. And OMG it was delicious. I decided I was going to trust their health regulations, and enjoy what I was served. Whether that was a good decision or whether I just got lucky I don’t know. But I thoroughly enjoyed quite a lot of that raw ground beef.
While i like my steaks medium to medium rare. I do enjoy Beef Tartare or Beef Carpaccio occasionally. I’d say I’d only order it in a fancy steakhouse, but i don’t think i’ve seen anywhere else but a fancy steakhouse.
Beef tartare is different from eating raw hamburger, of course. If the beef is ground fresh, the risk is low. However, hamburger found in chubs, etc is mixed with meat from dozens if not more sources and is fairly dangerous to eat undercooked.
There’s some pubs/bars around here that have it or had it. You can also sometimes find it for sale at various Eastern/Central European delis. And I do believe I’ve seen versions of it at a couple Middle Eastern joints (Lebanese kibbeh nayeh – I know I’ve had it in Dearborn, Michigan, but I think there’s at least one place in Chicago that has it.) Oh, and Korean joints, too, as yukhoe. Wherever I see raw meat, I’m likely to order it. Even had raw pork in Hungary (though it’s more popular in Germany, served as mett) I might be a bit squeamish at raw chicken, as I treat that stuff like radioactive waste, but I have heard of chicken sashimi dishes in Japan that are safe (enough) to eat.
Unfortunately Covid killed the steakhouse that served our favorite tartare: Morel’s at the Palazzo in Las Vegas. All three of the versions they produced over the years were superb.
I wouldn’t dare try tartare anywhere outside a steakhouse with prices that make your nose bleed. That’s for the young and daring. Me, I’m old and cautious.
Then you’re going to miss some really fine dining in Europe. In Italy and France, I’d say about half of the restaurants you’d stop for a nice lunch will have tartare on the menu. And it’s always yummy.
I’ve had horse, though not raw. Too lean for my tastes. But I’d rather have horse sashimi than chicken. I guess chicken just squicks me out too much because undercooked chicken is something I’ve been alerted to my whole life but under cooked horse, not soo much.
“All 458 pounds of beef we examined contained bacteria that signified fecal contamination (enterococcus and/or nontoxin-producing E. coli), which can cause blood or urinary tract infections. Almost 20 percent contained C. perfringens, a bacteria that causes almost 1 million cases of food poisoning annually. Ten percent of the samples had a strain of S. aureus bacteria that can produce a toxin that can make you sick. That toxin can’t be destroyed—even with proper cooking.”
“Just 1 percent of our samples contained salmonella. That may not sound worrisome, but, says Rangan, “extrapolate that to the billions of pounds of ground beef we eat every year, and that’s a lot of burgers with the potential to make you sick.” Indeed, salmonella causes an estimated 1.2 million illnesses and 450 deaths in the U.S. each year.”
Sure, ground beef carries risk with it. I probably wouldn’t eat random raw meat from a chub, but I can’t exactly say that when I make burgers for myself I always grind my own meat. I typically just get the in-house supermarket grind. I’m comfortable with that level of risk, but I’m not immuno-compromised or in a particular enhanced risk group (yet.) Were I, I’d probably not take my chances. So far (20+ years of eating hamburger like this), I’ve been fine.
My brother lived in Germany for a while and told me about mett. He now lives in Michigan, but he found a place where he was able to get mett as well as chicken sashimi. I loved mett. I tried raw chicken out of curiosity. It wasn’t bad, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to get it again.