Why Some Meats Can Be Eaten Raw And Others Can’t

Why can you eat a steak raw but not a chicken breast? And what about pork or fish? What’s the deal with that? It turns out that the answer comes down to a complicated relationship between meat and the things that want to live on it.

Ever stop to think about why you can eat fish and beef raw, but not chicken? Well, if you hadn’t, you’re going to now because that’s the topic of today’s article. So, it turns out that the difference between things that need less cooking and things that need more cooking actually boils down to a number of different factors. These include complicated nuances that traverse everything from anatomy to pathogens, parasites, and farming practices, among other things.

Beef vs. pork

Let’s kick things off with beef, because it’s perhaps the obvious example of eating meat raw. A cut of beef is generally quite dense, and so what this means is that the bacteria it can be prone to, E. coli, for instance, is mostly only introduced to its surface while it’s being slaughtered or processed.

And because it’s mainly the surface it inhabits, a quick sear on either side renders it all but safe to eat, allowing you to enjoy it all nice and pink in the centre, if that’s what you’re into. Don’t mistake this for me saying it’s foolproof; as always, there’s a sliver of risk tied to everything, but what it does mean is that the odds here are pretty firmly in your favour.

Pork, on the other hand, is a little more complicated. Historically, pork carried a significant risk of Trichinella, a type of parasitic roundworm that could be transmitted through undercooked meat.

While modern farming and food practices have made the issue far less common than it used to be, other pathogens, like Yersinia, can still be present in the meat. Also, wouldn’t it be kind of funny if you suggested Yersinia as a baby name and someone unwittingly took you up on it? No? Just me? Okay.

There are exceptions, of course, and one of these you’ll find in Germany, where they serve Mett. Mett is essentially raw pork eaten with bread and a bit of seasoning. But before your curiosity gets the better of you and you run off to the fridge to pick out that pork chop, you should know that it relies on a set of very specific production and handling standards. Chances are that your average supermarket pork isn’t German Mett, and you certainly wouldn’t want to find out the hard way.

Fish vs. chicken

Now, what about fish, though? Famously eaten raw worldwide thanks to the populace that brought us both Hello Kitty and Studio Ghibli, fish are generally much safer to eat raw primarily because they’re cold-blooded. This means that they live at temperatures considerably different from that of warm-blooded animals and, as such, are exposed to completely different microbial environments.

That doesn’t mean they’re inherently safe to eat, though, and that you can just grab one off the ice at a supermarket and bite a chunk off it. There are still parasites like anisakid nematodes to worry about, which is why fish intended for raw consumption is often frozen under controlled conditions to kill parasites before it ever reaches your plate.

Chicken is perhaps the most pertinent example when it comes to meats that shouldn’t be eaten raw, and for good reason too. And it’s not just chicken, poultry in general can carry bacteria such as Salmonella and Campylobacter, both common inhabitants of their intestinal tracts that can contaminate the meat during processing. And unlike a nice slab of beef, there’s no convenient culinary method of giving a chicken breast a quick sear and then calling it a day.

The exceptions

But then again, when you tell people they can’t do something, what tends to be their first instinct? That’s right, to try and find a way they can. Now, because the bacteria on beef primarily resides on the surface, that means minced beef isn’t as safe to eat as it was before it got minced, because obviously all that surface bacteria gets mixed in with the rest of the meat.

Steak tartare is perhaps the most famous contradictory example, but then again, here the sourcing, handling, and freshness of the meat matter to an enormous degree.

Then you have lesser-known dishes like the Japanese torisashi, which consists of very lightly cooked or raw chicken, and a few other raw pork preparations found around the world. Yes, they exist and they’re out there, but that doesn’t mean they translate to home kitchens as well as one might hope. These dishes, much like electrical wiring and open-heart surgery, are best left to the professionals.

Opening image: Skyler Ewing | Pexels