# Why do white people like to eat bloody meat? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 20, 2015, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-white-people-like-to-eat-bloody-meat/732021 "2015-09-20T23:08:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-white-people-like-to-eat-bloody-meat/732021/81 "2015-09-21T17:07:38Z")
White person here. I will only eat steak rare at super exclusive and expensive restaurants, where they care about the food chain and how the raw meat is handled from farm to table. For regular dining, including chain restaurants, I want them to cook it, thoroughly. I’m mostly posting to point out that quite a lot of cuisines world wide use actual blood in soups and sausages. Quite a lot of people can’t afford to be picky about where they get their protein. They did the best they could to make something tasty out of what they had. Most blood dishes are cooked, of course, but I watched Anthony Bourdain … in Thailand, I think I recall, making a soup of raw pig blood. The process is to take a bucket of pig blood and sort of kneed it to to keep it from coagulating properly. And you keep that up for a while - I want to say, about a half hour. Then you add spices and stuff, and voila! Soup!. He said it was tasty but I don’t really believe him. Raw blood just sounds like a disease factory, in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-white-people-like-to-eat-bloody-meat/732021/82 "2015-09-21T18:34:49Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > Yeah, and there is some dinosaur piss in the coffee I’m drinking, but it’s clearly ridiculous to say that’s what I’m drinking. Not a particularly apt, true or proportioned comparison, but whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-white-people-like-to-eat-bloody-meat/732021/83 "2015-09-21T18:39:08Z")
> [@Mosier](#): > > People who don’t like steak order it well done or medium well whenever they occasionally order it just to see whether they still don’t like it. Inevitably it turns out that yep, they still don’t like steak. > > People who actually like steak have at some point been given a piece of meat they thought was under cooked, but they didn’t realize it until it was too late and they had already taken a bite or two. Those are the people who realized that steak is FUCKING GOOD! They ask how to order a steak to get it as good as the one they’re eating right now, and if they’re lucky there’s someone around who knows what they’re talking about that can tell them “medium rare”. In this person’s mind, they’ll usually tell themselves “I like this steak a lot but I don’t like seeing all the blood, so I’ll just order medium instead.” And the next steak they got was shitty again, like all the others before that one gloriously delicious steak. They’ll wonder why nobody can make steak like that one time that was so goddamned good, not realizing that they’re ordering it wrong. > > Nobody likes a well done steak. Some people have convinced themselves they prefer it that way, but that person has never considered steak to be one of their favorite foods. I can understand why someone might like the flavour of the significant searing that one finds on the outside of their well-done steak - one of the risks of ordering rare steak is that it will have been too gently cooked so it may be just pale brown on the outside. Not all restaurants can seem to execute the necessary searing. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-white-people-like-to-eat-bloody-meat/732021/84 "2015-09-21T19:40:36Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Not all restaurants can seem to execute the necessary searing. No, but good ones can. I’ve found that the older I get, the rarer I want my steak cooked. It also helps that I’ve gone from ordering “steak” at Sizzler to ordering bone-in ribeye at Delmonico. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![piepiepie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47774/32.png) [@piepiepie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/piepiepie)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-white-people-like-to-eat-bloody-meat/732021/85 "2015-09-21T20:32:46Z")
> [@Tammytulip](#): > > As a black person, I know why black people eat their meat well done, but I cannot understand why someone would knowingly eat blood, juiciness or not. “As a black person”? What are you fresh off of reddit? My goodness. For what it’s worth, I order my steaks and burgers medium rare. I’m not white. > [@Surreal](#): > > I’m white and even if I preferred my steak well done, I would be reluctant to order it prepared that way since well done meat is generally considered to be prole food. > > Other prole foods you may wish to avoid include hot dogs, crawfish, fried foods, fast food, sodas, sweet tea, beer from domestic megabreweries, blended whiskey, bologna sandwiches, etc. How human biodiverse of you. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-white-people-like-to-eat-bloody-meat/732021/86 "2015-09-21T21:54:25Z")
This whole thread is just further proof of deep-seated institutionalized racism against whites. White lives matter! (But when you throw me in jail, make sure the steak is no more than medium rare. If you take it to well done, you might as well go all the way to jerky.) ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-white-people-like-to-eat-bloody-meat/732021/87 "2015-09-21T22:03:33Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Le Château du Boeuf > We only serve pink meats “_Mais no_n, Monsieur. We serve everyone.” ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-white-people-like-to-eat-bloody-meat/732021/88 "2015-09-21T22:14:33Z")
As a type A+ Scorpio, I prefer my turkey smoked. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-white-people-like-to-eat-bloody-meat/732021/89 "2015-09-22T02:26:14Z")
> [@Mosier](#): > > People who don’t like steak order it well done or medium well whenever they occasionally order it just to see whether they still don’t like it. Inevitably it turns out that yep, they still don’t like steak. > > People who actually like steak have at some point been given a piece of meat they thought was under cooked, but they didn’t realize it until it was too late and they had already taken a bite or two. Those are the people who realized that steak is FUCKING GOOD! This describes me to a T. I think I must have been 26 before I started liking steak, having only ordered it well done my entire life. The first time I lived/worked in Mexico we Americans would often eat at the hotel steak restaurant, which was high-end for Mexico but well within our per diem allowance. Me: well done steak, well done prime rib, whatever, I didn’t understand the fascination. Of course we ate out sometimes, too, and I really grew to enjoy a local dish, cecina, that was essentially fried beef jerky that you used to make tacos as an appetizer. This is the well done version of well done. One day at an Italian restaurant, unsophisticated me didn’t understand the word “Carpaccio,” but I understood the Spanish words for beef and thin slices, and so naturally thought I was ordering cecina. After the waiter refused to send it back to the kitchen so that it could be cooked, I discovered what delicious meat is supposed to taste like. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-white-people-like-to-eat-bloody-meat/732021/90 "2015-09-22T03:04:34Z")
Well, I’m mixed, with white being slightly more than half. Steak-type cuts I like medium rare, erring on the rare side over the medium side, except pork which should err on the side of medium. Chicken needs to be cooked until it is safe, around 165 degrees. Most BBQ meats need to go to ~200. > [@bump](#): > > You can still have rare steaks with little to no risk; almost all of the beef recalls are for factory-packed ground beef where one contaminated piece will spoil hundreds or thousands of pounds of otherwise fine ground beef. **aceplace57** is the person that the scare tactics used by news programming commercials entice. Generally speaking, if he thinks something is dangerous, the rest of the world can proceed without caution. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-white-people-like-to-eat-bloody-meat/732021/91 "2015-09-22T03:38:44Z")
I was stating a choice my own family made. I grew up eating steak and roasts medium rare. Now we go medium well. We check home cooked beef and chicken with a food thermometer. Primarily because of the E coli illnesses and recalls over the last 20 years. Hamburger is the biggest concern and some places will no longer serve anything but well done burgers. Others still let the customer decide. Everyone has to make their own choices. What risks you feel comfortable taking. A lot of places still offer rare and medium rare for those that want it. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-white-people-like-to-eat-bloody-meat/732021/92 "2015-09-22T03:45:54Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > I mistakenly assumed that Lunch Friday and Dinner Saturday must be two separate photos. So I looked at the yummy fish, and then clicked to the next one to find . . . A CAT!?! It only took me a microsecond to realize what you meant, but it was a very _BAD_ microsecond. LOL! Sorry about that. I only took a photo of the first sandwich. The second one looked pretty much the same. Of course, Creamsicle is named after an ice cream bar. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-white-people-like-to-eat-bloody-meat/732021/93 "2015-09-22T03:58:27Z")
Another data point: White guy here; I prefer medium-well. But I just picked that up from my dad; I’ve only ever _tried_ medium-well and well-done. My mother prefers hers medium-rare. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-white-people-like-to-eat-bloody-meat/732021/94 "2015-09-22T04:11:32Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I was stating a choice my own family made. I grew up eating steak and roasts medium rare. Now we go medium well. We check home cooked beef and chicken with a food thermometer. Primarily because of the E coli illnesses and recalls over the last 20 years. Hamburger is the biggest concern and some places will no longer serve anything but well done burgers. Others still let the customer decide. > > Everyone has to make their own choices. What risks you feel comfortable taking. A lot of places still offer rare and medium rare for those that want it. Rare burgers are actually risky. Rare steaks and roasts are pretty safe. Safer than most raw vegetables, for sure. ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-white-people-like-to-eat-bloody-meat/732021/95 "2015-09-22T05:17:58Z")
I’m white. I really prefer medium rare burgers though I know there’s a risk, prefer most steaks medium rare, and would die without steak tartare (and sushi). However, the meat I use for shish kabobs, like a flank steak or flap meat, needs to be close to well done to be right. Of course it’s heavily marinated. By the way, my understanding of chicken sushi is that the outside of a piece is cooked with boiling water, so the bacteria is any are killed–same as with a beefsteak. My vote on this is culture with a class overlap. My childhood memories are of burgers cooked to bricks and steaks done to shoe leather. I did not like either until I was an adult and found they could be done better. My father was very poor growing up. My mother was middle class, but the child of parents who came of age in the Depression. I suspect the beef they got had to be cooked until overdone for safety and because it was tough, stringy stuff–meat we’d only consider for stews now. Come to that even my mother’s beef stews were crap–big pieces of tough meat. They had bad meat and didn’t know what to do with it–and still didn’t know when they were able to afford better. There may be a component of WASP cooking too–the English and their progeny are notorious for overcooking meat, perhaps that seemed like the thing to do? My family is mostly Italian and I have had incredible medium rare pan fried steaks made by my Tuscan relatives; but I don’t know that this really bears on the experience of my parents, especially my mother who was the cook when I was growing up. Remember too, “a chicken in every pot” was Hoover’s campaign slogan because most people couldn’t afford chicken! Given that, most people wouldn’t have been able to afford beef–and to risk experimeting with how it tasted best–until the 50s or 60s. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-white-people-like-to-eat-bloody-meat/732021/96 "2015-09-22T05:54:05Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > No, but good ones can. > > I’ve found that the older I get, the rarer I want my steak cooked. It also helps that I’ve gone from ordering “steak” at Sizzler to ordering bone-in ribeye at Delmonico. 😉 I have a half-formed idea in my head to heat up a chunk of iron to glowing red and cook a steak on it. Probably 10 seconds a side; the trick will be getting a big enough mass or iron that the steak doesn’t significantly cool it off when it hits. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-white-people-like-to-eat-bloody-meat/732021/97 "2015-09-22T06:53:30Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > DORNTROlD! The bad news is: I have absolutely no idea what this means. The good news is: Your post is the one and only hit on Google when I tried to look it up. So, major points for originality, but would you please explain? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-white-people-like-to-eat-bloody-meat/732021/98 "2015-09-22T11:20:55Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > The bad news is: I have absolutely no idea what this means. > > The good news is: Your post is the one and only hit on Google when I tried to look it up. > > So, major points for originality, but would you please explain? 😉 Google translate brought back “dorn” for “fist” and “troid” for “fight”. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-white-people-like-to-eat-bloody-meat/732021/99 "2015-09-22T11:36:53Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Rare burgers are actually risky. I’ve eaten many rare burgers without a problem (so far). If I order a burger rare and the restaurant says they can’t do it, it’s not a restaurant where I wanna spend my money. For my grill at home, freshly ground beef works for me. ETA: I’m so white you gotta wear shades. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-white-people-like-to-eat-bloody-meat/732021/100 "2015-09-22T12:17:23Z")
> [@Mosier](#): > > People who don’t like steak order it well done or medium well whenever they occasionally order it just to see whether they still don’t like it. Inevitably it turns out that yep, they still don’t like steak. > > People who actually like steak have at some point been given a piece of meat they thought was under cooked, but they didn’t realize it until it was too late and they had already taken a bite or two. Those are the people who realized that steak is FUCKING GOOD! They ask how to order a steak to get it as good as the one they’re eating right now, and if they’re lucky there’s someone around who knows what they’re talking about that can tell them “medium rare”. In this person’s mind, they’ll usually tell themselves “I like this steak a lot but I don’t like seeing all the blood, so I’ll just order medium instead.” And the next steak they got was shitty again, like all the others before that one gloriously delicious steak. They’ll wonder why nobody can make steak like that one time that was so goddamned good, not realizing that they’re ordering it wrong. > > Nobody likes a well done steak. Some people have convinced themselves they prefer it that way, but that person has never considered steak to be one of their favorite foods. Who died & left you in charge of tastes? I [del]like[/del] love steak. I like mine medium-well (but not the overcooked shoe leather of well done). I’ll eat it if it comes out medium in a restaurant. However, if there’s any chance it’ll get up & walk off my plate, no way. If I go to a mass-served dinner (banquet, wedding, etc.) I _never_ order the prime rib as they usually walk it past the flame & by the time you get it back, cooked everyone else is working on dessert. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-white-people-like-to-eat-bloody-meat/732021.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-white-people-like-to-eat-bloody-meat/732021.md?page=6)