Raw Meat by Proggie (flickr.com)OP (Original Poster):
yeah yeah you all love your raw seafood and beef, but how about raw chicken and pork? I know that in other countries like Japan and some in Southeast Asia they eat these items raw. How do they do it without getting sick? I have some chicken breast in the fridge, does that mean I can eat it straight?
I would really love to try it but I'm kind of scared. I have no problem eating raw beef (from the grocery store) like a bite or two and I also love eating raw eggs - mainly the yolk.
How do they eat raw chicken and pork in other countries? Do they dip them in particular sauces?
Also I heard both are quite delicious -bitsubeats
>There's a correlation between eating raw pork and chicken and higher death rates. Eating even cooked chicken from a less than reliable source is flirting with illness. -beevod
>In the west it is now OK to eat pork less than well done. Supposedly trichinosis hasn't appeared in the US for years now, so it's not a big health scare anymore. -PeterL>I have heard of chicken served raw like sashimi in Japan. The only reason not to eat chicken less than well done in this country is that the mass processing of chickens is very unsanitary and the chickens are contaminated with salmonella and who knows what else. Why can you eat duck breast rare and not chicken breast? It's dependent on how they are raised and processed. If you raised your own chickens and when slaughtering made sure that the intestinal tract was removed cleanly and in a sanitary environment, I'm sure you could enjoy your chicken without a hazmat suit. -scubadoo97
>Ducks aren't affected by the same pathogens are are chickens. It doesn't matter how they're raised- the "raw chicken" that is supposedly consumed is probably irradiated or something, or the consumers are risk-taking idiots. Not to mention the fact that raw chicken is completely disgusting. -John Manzo
>I read a review recently of a Japanese place in Manhattan that serves chicken sashimi. The reviewer admitted he was too.... um.... "afraid" to try it. I really don't think I could force myself to order that. -egit>The worst pathogens associated with chickens are not the ones of 50 years ago. Campylobacter jejuni is a danger in (large?) part because of battery production and "modern" processing and distribution. Salmonella can get into hens' ovaries and contaminate eggs--from the inside!--prior to shell formation. New more lethal strains (e.g., DT104) of Salmonella are not uncommonly found in pork--given new pig resistances to several anti-biotics. -Sam Fujisaka
>I'm with Sam: if you can get fresh local birds, you're safe. I have no desire to eat raw chicken, but I roast our local birds to a lower temp than I would industrial chickens, and they are very juicy and tender. Industrial birds are disgusting and immoral, and they are not tasty.. Militate for locally raised birds, and vendors will start producing the real deal. -pikawicca>I'll eat any meat raw if I know that it is extremely fresh, and I trust the supplier. If I don't trust the supplier (because they practice intensive animal rearing), I wont even eat the meat if it's cooked. Haven't tried raw chicken, but I do like my poultry very rare. I have had pork sashimi before, and it was delicious. -Morton the Mousse
OP: ...eating raw eggs from the us doesn't bother me. I've been doing it for forever and I haven't gotten sick yet (cross your fingers!). I also do this with quail eggs, and I wonder if they are handled differently than chicken eggs? -bitsubeats
>Since organic doesn't mean "not slaughtered in a slaughterhouse" I would only try it if it were a chicken killed and butchered right in front of me in sanitary conditions. -LaurenTX2CA
>To me the concept sounds gross and I think the texture would be the worse part. -camp1980
>I think the point that being hammered down is don't eat commercially processed raw chicken or pork in the US, even if it's so-called organic.
The few places that serve chicken sashimi in the US are very careful with their purveyors and I understand that they inspect the chicken farms themselves to make sure it meets the sanitary conditions necessary to safely serve it.
In Japan, where it's on many menus, there are many independent chicken growers that take great pride in having developed their own breed of chickens raised to enhance the flavor of the meat, and take special care to make it available to be served as sashimi. There are many parts of Japan that are known for their chickens, though chicken sashimi is more or less associated with parts of Kyushu, where you can buy chicken for sashimi at the supermarket. -E Eto
>Ha! Bitsubeats, Colombians don't anything raw. They like their steaks thin and charred at the core of the sun for 20 minutes.
Raw beef--of course: Carpaccio. Slightly freeze beef to slice very thinly; pound out even thinner; dress with lemon or lime juice, olive oil, capers, salt, rough ground black pepper, thinly sliced green or spring onion. I take this to parties were there are more Europeans and Africans than Colombians. -Sam Fujisaka
>My primary objection to eating other raw meats is the texture- don't get me wrong, i like all sorts of squishy, slimy, firm, chewy, and crunchy things, but crispy pork fat is really, really good. I find undercooked pork unpleasantly spongy- even from heritage Berkshire and Duroc hogs. Chicken, too- I would certainly try chicken sashimi, but perfer the firmness that cooking gives to the flesh. Other meats, especially beef,bison, lamb, and venison, I enjoy from raw through medium rare- chopped or sliced.
To add- I would not try chicken sashimi in the US because I just don't believe any mass produced chickens here are wholesome enough to eat raw. -lunchbox
>I admit that I am scared, but I have to tell you that the smell and texture are probably more of a turn off. What could possibly smell worse than raw poultry? Even washed, it has a definite odor that I find off-putting.
The smell of raw pork is a turn-off to me too. Funny, but I don't find that I feel that way about the smell of beef or sashimi. Now, I eat sushi all the time, but I grimace a bit about steak tartare because I don't know where the beef comes from, nor how it was processed. Yet, I can eat rare steak because I know the outside is seared. -RGC1982
>I have no problem with the concept of raw chicken or its good execution. I've had it at a yakitori place in NYC and thought it was just so so. My friend had it in a small town in Japan that's known for special chickens raised for this purpose and thought it was delicious. Mine was served with a garlicky soy sauce. -cimui
>I've had chicken sashimi in Tokyo at a place that specialized in it. We were told that the chickens are raised in very clean environments specially for that purpose. In other words, very UNlike how chickens are raised in the U.S. While it tasted fine, it was not all that exciting. More or less how one would expect it to taste, I'd say; kind of bland without the sauce. Texture sort of similar to a piece of hamachi sashimi. It was sort of a novelty thing (we were taken there as guests of some Japanese relatives of my husband's). I would much prefer sashimi made of seafood. -2m8ohed
>i have eaten raw chicken on two occasions at one of my favorite places in Tokyo. i will admit that i was hesitant the first time, but my brother and i want to eat everything possible at least once, so we tried it. it was served sashimi style with soy and wasabi. i was expecting slimy and rubbery and gross, but it was cool and fresh, with a nice texture and nothing like my expectations. we both remarked that it was similar to eating a nice piece of raw fish. my younger brother and father both ate it while visiting too, and while my dad liked it, he was a little squeamish and probably wouldn't order it again. my little brother loved it though (but he prefers most things under cooked). I have also eaten raw pork in Japan and i didn't enjoy it because it was a fatty piece of meat and i prefer the the nice caramelization of pork fat. also, the pork was really, well, porky and tasted a little too much like the farm for my taste. -taryn
>There is no trich worm in Aisa/Europe, making the consumption of raw pork less harmful. There still are a very few reported cases of U.S. trich due to wild game, but the processing is such as to make sickness from pork very rare. -mythomane
>Raw pork in the US is no more dangerous than raw beef (neither is 100 percent safe, but then, what is?). It's just long-taught habit that prevents us from eating rare, let alone raw, pork. I'm not sure raw pork would taste as good as properly cooked pork, though, since the most delicious part of pork is the fat, which is better when it's been cooked and caramelized. -Ruth Lafler
>We also eat raw horse here as well, tastes like rare roast beef! -lost squirrel
>there are a few restaurants in toronto that serve horse though most of the time it's in steak form. some of them do a tartare.
i've found horse to actually be quite sweet in comparison to beef with subtle but more interesting flavours. -pinstripeprincess
>This is just a question of common sense, or calculating a risk. Raw chicken can, of course, harbour e.coli, which cooking kills. Raw pork can harbour trichinosis, but I understand this is far less common today than previously. -ekammin
>...another place where they eat raw pork is Germany -- called Mett, it's raw ground pork, spread on bread. I tried it once, under extreme peer pressure, and it definitely was not to my liking. -Kitchen Imp
>Good quality Mett (especially Schinkenmett, from fresh ham) is amazing! I first had it on accident -- low lighting, someone handed me a plate of appetizers, I thought it was a funny presentation of tartare de boeuf -- but at first bite, all became clear. Yummy, yummy pure pork flavor. No way I would trust the US meat supply with raw pork, but from a good source in Germany, no problem. -tmso
>...ok i'm rambling but this food scare business is far reaching. i picked up a bottle of balsamic vinegar the other day from a local whole foods, without looking at it closely. yesterday i picked it up and there was a warning label i hadn't noticed before telling me that this product contained lead. -augustiner
>If I recall correctly, fish that is sushi quality has been frozen for a number of weeks at extremely cold temperatures thus killing any harmful organisms. Maybe they do this with chicken too? -Barbecue Joe
>First, no, the freezing-for-weeks thing about sushi is not true. I'll leave it to someone else to go into that in more detail.
Second, I always wondered why you could eat rare-ish duck breast (which I love) but not rare chicken. Thanks for illuminating that issue in this discussion.
Third, I had "wild" boar (presumably farmed) loin in a Seattle restaurant, which I was encouraged to order cooked to the same degree as a similar cut of beef. I got it medium-rare and not only was it gorgeous, but I lived to tell about it, at least so far. -Barry Foy
Third, I had "wild" boar (presumably farmed) loin in a Seattle restaurant, which I was encouraged to order cooked to the same degree as a similar cut of beef. I got it medium-rare and not only was it gorgeous, but I lived to tell about it, at least so far. -Barry Foy
>While it is possible that raw pork or chicken are served in some restaurants in Japan, it is extremely uncommon. The Japanese do not traditionally eat either of these raw but it seems this is a bit of a specialty in the Kyushu area (most parts of Japan have regional specialties that aren't necessarily common in other areas). When I did a bit of research, I discovered the chicken is "specially handled" to render it immune to salmonella or other types of food poisoning bacteria. My guess is it is handled in much the same way as proscuitto is. Apparently, horse meat is also served in this way (again, mainly in Kyushu).
One thing to keep in mind is that "raw ham" ("nama hamu") is the Japanese name for proscuitto so there could be some confusion about what it is. Proscuitto isn't exactly the same as "raw pork".
It's important not to give an incomplete picture of the way these sorts of things work or you advance the notion that other cultures are blithely consuming dangerous dishes out of an ignorance of the risk or a disregard of it. That's simply not the case, at least for Japan. -Orchid64
It's important not to give an incomplete picture of the way these sorts of things work or you advance the notion that other cultures are blithely consuming dangerous dishes out of an ignorance of the risk or a disregard of it. That's simply not the case, at least for Japan. -Orchid64
>I've seen chicken served raw in some hole in the wall Japanese places and ONE southern italian place. The Japanese raw chicken was so-so. Inoffensive but really didn't have much flavor. The Italian raw chicken was INCREDIBLE though. It was marinated in olive oil, lemon and fresh ramps and covered in black pepper and salt by our server when he presented it. It was a special so I guess they don't serve it that often (maybe when they are able to get the highest quality chickens). Apparently it's native to a few small villages on the southeast coast of Italy that are known for their fresh poultry. It was truly delicious I have to say. And they served the drumstick and wing at the italian place whereas the Japanese place served thinly sliced pieces of breast. At the italian joint the skin was served immediately after and was deep fried and sprinkled with salt, powdered sugar and lightly steamed fennel slices. Amazing! -mulewizard
>We still get significant finding reports of trichinosis in CT every year, so it still exists in pork in the US.
The Funny thing about chicken is that it isn't Salmonella and E. coli HO157 to be worried about primarily, its Campylobacter, with anywhere from 25 to 100%(depending on the various surveys of the raw meat at different times) of Grocery store chicken carrying it. It is an organism that is part of the chicken and I haven't heard of it being specific to the US ( not too different than E. coli (not HO157) being part of us). The thing about campy is that it will make you miserable for several days and although it is not associated with significant mortality - there are about 124 deaths a year in the us associated with it. Freezing does help reduce the number of organisms. -Paula T>This is such an interesting topic that is sooo over exaggerated. I am guessing most of the posts here are from fellow Americans grown to believe the myths and wifes tales of the past couple of centuries. I grew up hating pork chops for the sole reason that my mom and every one else I new cooked the hell out of the meat and it lossed all its flavor and tenderness.
People have been eating raw chicken and pork as long as there has been chickens. The problem #1 comes from yes our processing methods and #2 that we are not used to it. As you eat more and more raw product your body naturally build an immunity to it. In my opinion there is nothing better than a thick bone in pork chop stuffed with buffalo mozzarella wrapped in prosciutto and seared to MR.Chicken carpaccio is out of this world and yes is a little weird to us Americans, but I will only do this with a chicken that I know is fresh preferably killed and cleaned in front of me. This is extremely popular in Tokyo.
It always drive me nuts when I am cooking pork and I ask how they would like it prepared and they look at me as if I has two heads. Believe it or not there is more salmonella in the egg shell than there is in the yolk or white.I think ducks are a fatty meat that might not be a penetrable to bacteria and such, and I heard somewhere that ducks lay eggs once a year compared to a chickens once a day. Dont know if that has something to do with it.
This conversation makes me want to call my local farmer for some fresh live chickens maybe grab a goat while Im at it.I would like to know how Yakitori gets away with it in New York? I know the health department has to have something to say about that. -Steven Troilo
Eating Raw Chicken & Pork: chowhound.chow.com/topics/411241
