Today, I’m in the meat section of the grocery store wondering where they hid the chicken wings when I look up and see a young girl (5 or 6? I’m terrible with ages) standing alone poking at one of the wrapped packages of raw beef.
I think: “Huh, kid is poking at something squishy, they do that.” Then she brings something up to her mouth and eats it. I mumble to myself: “What in the world?” The kid looks up, sees me, and runs off, yelling: “Maaaaahm!”
Curious, I check out the package. Yep, she’d poked a hole in the plastic and was pinching off bits of raw beef to eat.
1st: Ewwww!
2nd: So kids crave raw red meat? Who knew?
3rd: The mother must know that her kid is a vampire? Or has a tape worm? Or definitely doesn’t know a thing about sanitary meat handling? Right?
“These days” as if liking raw meat is a new thing? Raw beef tastes good. Very good. You seem to be under the incorrect impression it tastes bad until it’s cooked. It doesn’t.
I ate raw hamburger when I was a kid. It was delicious. I’m sure it still is, I’m just afraid to eat it now unless I grind the meat myself from a primal cut.
Wow, now I know, I was sheltered. I blame my mother, the nurse. I never imagined raw meat was something people ate without getting sick (until I learned about steak tartar, which I’ve never had).
My mother (the nurse) always threatened us with trichinosis. “You’ll get trichinosis, if you don’t cook that enough!” (I guess that explains all the dry pork chops I had when growing up.)
My mom used to eat pinches of the raw hamburger, when making meatloaf or hamburgers. And of course we did too Of course, my mom actually ate dirt and clay when carrying me, and I was sucking salt from her while in the womb and ever since, literally eating boullion cubes when younger, so…maybe there’s a genetic deficiency somewhere.
The only time his has caused me concern as an adult is when I was at a friend’s house, whose parents owned a farm and slaughtered their own cattle. He brought out a bunch of fresh beef for us to bbq, and while I was making hamburger patties, I of course noshed on some of the ground beef. It was even better then I remembered, which I attributed to being from very fresh cows and all.
My friend freaked out, of course, as the meat was not inspected at all and so who knows what I’d eaten. I was fine, btw. It was really good!
Well, my main reaction is not, “Eeww, the kid’s eating raw meat.” My main reaction is “Where the hell is the parent, and why is that person not keeping that kid’s grubby hands out of the food?”
So my reaction is disgust, yeah, but not for the same reason as the OP’s.
Here in Wisconsin we have a relatively popular hors d’ouevre called, variously, Cannibal Sandwiches or Wildcat (depending on whether you are from the southern or northern part of the state). Wildcat is raw ground sirloin or round, served on sandwich rye bread with raw onion and salt and pepper.
We did that in south central Texas, except we also mixed freshly ground horseradish in with the ground meat. Dad’s folks said their grandparents did it in the old country (East Prussia)
I did kind of assume this was learned behavior from the parent, so I wasn’t too worried the mom would be disgusted by this, but since it was totally foreign from what my parents taught me, I was quite shocked. I’m now learning that I’m in the minority. Go figure.
Ever watch kids at buffet lines or free sample spots in stores? Kids are slippery and get away from their parents to put their hands all over all sorts of things. That doesn’t shock me any more. Apparently the raw meat thing shouldn’t either.
Raw food can be quite yummy. However, the reason cooking is so very popular and widespread is because properly cooked and treated foods are so very much safer to eat.
My stepdaughter is in the big city for the first time. (She’s 20 and from a very tiny town in north-eastern Ontario.) She thought she liked sushi and sashimi. California roll, ok. Salmon roe, raw tuna, eel, snapper… not so much. I felt sorry for her, her adventuresomeness just took a bit of a set-back.
Of course, my mom actually ate dirt and clay when carrying me, and I was sucking salt from her while in the womb and ever since, literally eating boullion cubes when younger, so…maybe there’s a genetic deficiency somewhere. 