Why can some meat be cooked medium rare but others have to be fully cooked?

Why is it that salmon can be cooked medium rare but chicken has to be cooked all the way through? Why can steak (beef) be partially raw (medium rare or rare) and still be safe to eat? What are the rules on knowing which meat is which?

Why can some meat be cooked medium rare but others have to be fully cooked?
[don't let the negative ratings deter you because people don't understand food, and where it comes, or how it is treated. everybody thinks food just comes from the supermarket in plastic. if you research where our food comes from, and the specific threats that face it, you will understand what i'm saying (rather crudely) is true.]





salmon should be cooked all the way, or medium well.





salmon is a fresh water fish, and anything that lives close to land will have a lot of most parasites on it. even the most clean looking pristine freshwater fish will contain parasites.





here's a diagram on what to expect if you eat raw freshwater fish


http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/y4743e/y47...





deep ocean fishes don't usually have parasites as they don't come near shore with the exception of tuna. tuna runs a slight risk of parasites, but it can be eaten raw without treatment. However, the FDA requires all fish that is to sold with the intention to be eaten raw to be commercially frozen prior to sale (usually it is flash frozen to below -15 so large ice crystals don't form which would destroy the texture of the fish--nearly ALL sashimi in the usa is made from frozen fish, including the $500 a plate sushi at masa in nyc--read the nytimes link). unless the salmon is "sushi grade", i.e., frozen, don't eat it raw. medium well done is fine. and don't try freezing fish at home, it is not the same (home freezers can't freeze that cold which will result in large ice crystals forming in the fish)





here's a source on why raw sushi is frozen.


http://www.co.boulder.co.us/health/envir...





and commercially frozen fish doesn't affect fish quality, all sushi places in the usa use frozen fish.


http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.ht...





....as for pork and chicken, there is a small risk of trichinellosis (in pork), and salmonella (in chicken) depending on sanitary conditions at the farm and the butchering plant. also for pork and chickens, how they are raised (often in cramped conditions) makes them more susceptable to parasites than cattle. you really want to cook that meat well.





another big part of the equation is WHERE the meat was sourced, and how it is handled prior to it landing on your dinner table. with shellfish, you are required by law to have a label on where the oysters and clams were caught. for meat, it's nice to know which farm the meat came from because sanitary conditions vary from farm to farm.
Reply:Well: it is very important with Meats ,Fish %26amp;Poultry as known


food items also they are Nutritional when cooked completely


for better results and knowing about this would be


related towards Food Quanities because of per serving
Reply:Just like everyone else agrees on, ground meat is more vulnerable to contamination.





I only eat meat that is fully cooked, pork especially has parasite worm eggs, and they can hatch inside you if you don't cook it thoroughly.





Check out this video and you may never eat Pork again!





http://www.metacafe.com/watch/447498/wha...
Reply:Okay, I don't know ALL the ins and outs of it, but I do know that the reason you can have steak rare is because the inside of the steak has never seen the light of day (or the germs that are in the air of the light of day :) The reason ground beef must be cooked all the way through is because when its ground all the meat is exposed to all the germs.





Chicken can have salmonella and pork, trichonosis, but beef doesn't have those things.





I imagine salmon is that way also.





What I don't know is why we can eat meat like sushi raw.
Reply:Chicken is disgusting when it's not fully cooked, and there's also some risk of salmonella, a microbe that makes people sick. this is why people are urged to wash the cutting board, knives, etc and to not put the cooked chicken back in the same bowl that held the raw chicken, unless the bowl has been washed with detergent (which kills most germs).





Many people prefer their beef bloody. Risk e-coli (another nasty microbe) is also present but mostly with ground beef as this mixes the contaminating germs into the meat. A slab of beef is less likely to be contaminated and the surface temperature when cooking would kill the e-coli on a rare steak. E-coli originates in the cow's intestinal tract and ends up on the meat in the slaughterhouse when they cut up the dead animal, often contaminating everything with the contents of the gut.





While we do read of people getting sick from salmonella and e-coli, IMO common sense and simple hygiene will keep us safe. Sometimes we get overparanoid about germs, resulting in a lowered resistance to them because our immune systems haven't been exposed and had a chance to develop antibodies.
Reply:idk i eat all of my things well done
Reply:Raw chicken has tons of bacteria that can make you horribly sick, witch is why you cook it to kill the bacteria and germs. (not to mention parasites,
Reply:Long ago, your meat came from farmers at nice little farms. The chickens and cows ranged free, lived nice lives until they were slaughtered. The farmers kept things clean.





Now everything is in the giant processing plants. Chickens are shoved in cages on top of one another, with excrement falling through the cages. The animals are fed antibiotics daily to counteract the disgusting conditions.





So many cows are processed at the same time that one bit of spoiled ground meat can end up in thousands of packages, sickening many many people.





As they said earlier, if the insides are not exposed, then they won't be tainted and can be eaten with minimal cooking...if it was ground...fugetaboutit.





If you'd like more info on food safety and what you can do about it, check these people out:


http://www.cspinet.org/foodsafety/


(Center for Science in the Public Interest)


They also publish a newsletter thing with lots of great info on food safety and health issues in general.
Reply:Juanita S, "WOW"you asked a very serious question! "You are what you eat",it is good of your concern for cooking habits.FISH:need not to be cooked long,because it cooks quickly,PORK:there was a time in the past when pork was infected with triciana worms in the muscles and the only way to kill them was to cook the meat well at a high temp.,but now trichinosis is well controled by FDA,POULTRY:has salmonella,not only do you have to cook it well but wash your hands%26amp;utinsels very well afterwards,BEEF:???Sorry to be so crude,but we are cannibals and I personally I Love a rare stake even tho medical authorities say to stay away from red meats."SO",if you like to eat? Please check all possible consiquences with the food you prepare.And remember "You are what you eat"!
Reply:I'm sure that beef (steak) purchased in restaurants cannot be served partially raw anymore. I'm not a steak eater but i know hamburgers at diners have to be cooked all the way through.


I have all meat well done including poultry.





AMBER F.........YOUR LINK HAD SUCH AN EFFECT ON ME, THANK YOU FOR SHARING. I DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW YOU COULD GET SO MANY THUMBS DOWN ON YOUR RESPONSE. THOSE POOR ANIMALS THAT WE EAT. THANK YOU AMBER.
Reply:Each type of meat has different parasites or bacteria in them.





Most items should be cooked to 160.





Beef is different. When you cook a whole piece of meat there is not a chance of having bacteria in the middle of the meat. All the bacteria is on the outside. This comes from how the blades when the cow is butchered. When you grind up beef you are litterally spreading the "outside" surface to the rest of the meat. That is why you need to cook ground beef thouroughly.
Reply:beef and most seafood are safe enough to eat if they have been cooked to 140 F, and this is due to the fact that they contain e.coli. However, most poultry contain salmonilla which cannot be killed until the meat reaches a tempertature of 165 F. Which is why, if you worked in a restaurant, you would find refrigerated uncooked poultry always lies below the uncooked beef, seafood, etc. And likewise, all cooked meat would sit above that on another shelf.





This is what happens when you work in a restaurant. Some of the rules actually stick in your mind, along with the reasons behind them.








-Argiope
Reply:some meat contains more parasites that are harder to get rid of so we cook then well and not rare
Reply:soothsayer above is mostly right, except for the fact that salmon is over 95% farm-raised, and thus can be eaten raw, if desired.
Reply:The Soothsayer hit the nail on the head. Eat, drink, and be merry.
Reply:Meats that are known for causing harmful diseases are supposed to be cooked longer. Also, ground meats, such as hamburgers, need to be cooked thoroughly. Why? Because most bacteria and viruses are on the surface of the meat and since meat cooks from the outside-in, they will be killed. But when you grind up meat, the viruses are distributed throughout the dish and so you have to cook it to medium well or more.
Reply:They are all recomended to be fully cooked. If you notice on most resturant menu's there is a disclaimer for food poinsoning if you order your meat anything less than well done. It is just a matter of what you like.. no meat or egg is safe under cooked!
Reply:You have to heat food to about 70° to kill bacteria. Heating it above 100° (or even less in the mountains, where water is boiling at a lower temperature) will drive off the moisture and ruin the texture.





Human beings are non-obligate carnivores: barring rare genetic disorders, we can survive long enough on a vegetarian diet to die of something other than malnutrition. (Unlike cats! If you fed a cat on a vegetarian diet, it would go blind and eventually die in screaming agony. This applies to the whole cat family, from pet kittens to lions and tigers.)





Stomach acid both kills germs and breaks down food. Human stomach acid measures, on average, a whole pH point higher than a dog's stomach acid, which means 10x fewer H+ ions: the equivalent of diluting one volume with 9 volumes of water. (The tolerance on the measurements is such that there is still an overlap. You might find a human with exceptionally strong acid and a dog with exceptionally weak acid.)





But we've been cooking our food for tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of years. Heat kills germs and begins the decomposition process, so the acid doesn't have to work as hard. Evolution only selects against deleterious mutations, and only when mortality rates are significant (which, for westerners with flushing toilets, plentiful cheap food, central heating and subsidised medical care, they aren't). Having weaker stomach acid won't kill you if you cook your food, and it might even be slightly beneficial.
Reply:It's called parasites. Heat kills them.
Reply:bacteria
Reply:becuz chicken is a dirty meat and beef isnty
Reply:The most common and easy answer is because of salmonella. Chicken has salmonella in it that will make you get horribly sick (It isn't fun. Trust me, I've had it.). Steak doesn't. HOWEVER. Any meat can make you sick if undercooked. ALL meats should be cooked all the way through to make sure it is safe to eat. NEVER eat any meat that is cooked rare. Any meat cooked rare can and probably will make you sick. Medium rare and well done are much more safe to eat.
Reply:eating steak(beef) medium rare or rare is not safe to eat...there is still a possibilty of some bugs in there.... but it's tasty!
Reply:Cook all meat until it's done throughout.
Reply:I'm not an expert on what causes these meats to be so different, but I think Sushi is basically raw fish and there doesn't seem to be much of a health danger with that. Seems the salminella (sp?) is mostly a danger in poultry.
Reply:First of all Chicken is not a meat,it is a poultry.The reasoning is bacteria. Meat such as steak and lamb has to be washed thorough and in some cultures have to be blessed. There is also Pork which has to be cooked thoroughly also due to parasites that live in the pig. I know i know it sound gross but when properly prepared is very eatable and good.As you know Susi is another type item that is prepared raw fish item or seafood item has to be keep at the right temp and when preparing has the ability to carried parasites. Safety with all meats ,poultry and fish is in the preparation! Bon Apite
Reply:All has to do with"Bacteria", All meats, be it red, chicken, game. or seafood and even some vegetables has bacteria. Now some of these bacterias are harm full to humans(in some cases can kill or make very sick) So this is the main reason why we cook our meats.


if you need more info im me and i will go into more details
Reply:It is the bacteria. That can be deadly if you do not cook it right or you can be ill for days. i get my steak well-done just to be on the safe side and always check for no runny or blood when it is on my plate.





It also might have to do with the thickness of the meat and where the meat came from as well.





Different areas of country can be cooked differently too.


You never know.


Check it out on the website. Something to learn everyday right?


Joanne
Reply:because some people may not want them full cooked or it might be that meat is sometimes ment to be cooked in special ways
Reply:Go vegetarian, like me! Here's why:





http://www.goveg.com/feat/chewonthis/ind...
Reply:Peter K is correct