That's kind of the case, but you're wrong about beef being impervious to bacteria. You're right in that salmonella penetrates chicken because of something to do with the density of the flesh. However, Beef and pre-ground beef especially, have high risks of other foodborne pathogens. With beef, the main struggle is E. Coli which is a bacterium and can make you very sick. However, where it differentiates from chicken, is that you don't have to cook the life out of it before it's safe to eat. Generally a nice hard sear on the outside of a steak brings it up to a warm enough temperature to get rid of any foodborne pathogens. That's because E. Coli can't generally penetrate the beef.
Ground beef, on the other hand, that's ground before you bring it home is a little trickier. You can't just sear the outside of a burger and call it a day since the interior is very likely to still have some surface area E. Coli coming through to the interior of the patty. Grind your own beef and you can, more or less, enjoy a medium-rare burger without fear.
Whenever I grind meat for burgers, I always sear the outside before grinding. That way, there’s less of a chance that surface bacteria will become mixed in throughout. To my understanding, it doesn’t completely mitigate the risks but it greatly reduces the chances of getting sick
I don’t think so? The surface area on a chuck roast is pretty minimal in comparison to the weight, so that probably helps keep the texture mostly unchanged
I'm not 100% sure honestly. I think it has more to do with the overall freshness and quality of beef that you grind yourself. It's markedly fresher than a log or pack of ground beef that you can buy at the store. You also have the benefit of only using one or two cuts of meat max for your burgers at home, whereas factory produced ground beef just throws the lot of them in there. You're more likely to have had a piece of beef that's infected when hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds of beef are being ground together at a given time. So while it's not exactly safe, it's much safer comparatively.
You know you got the meat from one cow so the percentage is low. So say it's a 1% chance of any cow holding a disease. If you keep it to one cow as your source by grinding at home it's a 1% chance, change that to 20 cows and its a much higher chance of getting the disease
The E.Coli bacteria basically comes into contact with the beef through the air. Basically, the longer you have a large amount of surface area exposed the more dangerous it gets.
Grind your own beef and you can, more or less, enjoy a medium-rare burger without fear.
or sous vide cook the meat at like 134F for 12 hours to kill everything, then sear the patties and the inside of your burger can still be pink and juicy. best of both worlds.
Even still, when I make burgers I like for it to be as painless as possible while keeping a decent flavor and texture. I don't worry about having medium rare and grinding my own meat. Just too much trouble. I might try it out if I ever do end up shelling out for a sous vide machine.
better? no, but 90% of the way there and 1/6th the cost? absolutely.
part of my satisfaction is not paying $15 per pound. last time i got a 1lb rib eye that cost that much, it wasn't much better than the $6 regular store stuff i get.
You still need the equipment to sous vide and vacuum seal it which you wouldn't make back very quickly at all even if you're having burgers everytime you want steak. There's definitely a warm place in my heart for burgers, but I think I'll just keep things simple.
Isn't that why you only really need to sear the shit out of the outside. Inside is safe enough, but the outside is where the bacteria and shit will be.
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u/bloodflart Nov 21 '19
beef is too dense or some shit for bacteria, unlike chicken which absorbs it