On the other hand, it seems to be actual news when beef is infected with E. coli or salmonella, so I infer that beef is usually free of such problems. (Why beef doesn’t have a unique or universal infection of its own, I have no idea. Maybe cows just have better immune systems than pigs or chickens.)
There are also traditional cuisines of raw beef (such as steak tartar) and many forms of fish (such as sashimi). This still doesn’t explain why, but it suggest to me (especially since there are so many types of sashimi) that the real question is why raw pork and chicken (is it all poultry?) are always dangerous, rather than why raw beef and fish are not.
Why beef doesn’t have a unique or universal infection of its own, I have no idea. Maybe cows just have better immune systems than pigs or chickens
This is the part I’m curious about. Or rather, why beef seems to be sufficiently immune to all infections—not just unique or universal ones—so as to be safe for raw consumption (something I hadn’t known until now).
The best guess I can venture is that it has something to do with the raising and butchering process. Notice that it’s also safe to eat a lot of seafood raw (which is often called sushi); it seems unlikely to me that all sorts of random sea-critter would also have any special cow immune system features.
Yes. Conventional wisdom is that undercooked beef is pretty safe. Weird that chicken and pig cultivation would be so much more filthy than cow and farmed-fish. (for fish, we could suppose that fish diseases and parasites aren’t so harmful to us as those found in our mammal kin)
Well, pork has trichinosis. (Notice the treatment section is silent about what to do if you are diagnosed more than 3 days after infection.)
And chicken is basically universally contaminated with salmonella or campylobacter.
On the other hand, it seems to be actual news when beef is infected with E. coli or salmonella, so I infer that beef is usually free of such problems. (Why beef doesn’t have a unique or universal infection of its own, I have no idea. Maybe cows just have better immune systems than pigs or chickens.)
There are also traditional cuisines of raw beef (such as steak tartar) and many forms of fish (such as sashimi). This still doesn’t explain why, but it suggest to me (especially since there are so many types of sashimi) that the real question is why raw pork and chicken (is it all poultry?) are always dangerous, rather than why raw beef and fish are not.
ETA: Gwern has just suggested the same idea.
This is the part I’m curious about. Or rather, why beef seems to be sufficiently immune to all infections—not just unique or universal ones—so as to be safe for raw consumption (something I hadn’t known until now).
The best guess I can venture is that it has something to do with the raising and butchering process. Notice that it’s also safe to eat a lot of seafood raw (which is often called sushi); it seems unlikely to me that all sorts of random sea-critter would also have any special cow immune system features.
Yes. Conventional wisdom is that undercooked beef is pretty safe. Weird that chicken and pig cultivation would be so much more filthy than cow and farmed-fish. (for fish, we could suppose that fish diseases and parasites aren’t so harmful to us as those found in our mammal kin)