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How much of cooking is just a chase for tastier food? Up in Eastern Europe everyone is hardcore convinced overcooked meat is healthy because no bacteria plus wa

How much of cooking is just a chase for tastier food? Up in Eastern Europe everyone is hardcore convinced overcooked meat is healthy because no bacteria plus warm food good for stomach. Tons of people still wince at medium rare steak.

dudus 4y ago
Because in eastern Europe it's probably more dangerous to eat rare meat due to more lax regulations. There's a reason restaurants add an asterisk after meat dishes. There's risk involved in consuming rare foods. The risk is just very small in the US and Europe. Not so small in other countries.
- Jolter 4y ago
  I don’t think this is true at all. I’ve been to dozens of countries all over the world and in each one you will find dirty kitchens as well as clean ones. You should visit Eastern Europe some time. It’s not just a stereotype.
  - tsimionescu 4y ago
    Born and living my whole life in Romania, I can tell you that this fear is pretty true. Many people, especially from the older generations, don't trust medium or under steaks. I should say those that it's not so much a question of the cleanliness of the kitchen, but of the confidence in quality control of the meat. Parasites and tainted meat are a lot more common than in more wealthy countries.
    - Jolter 4y ago
      Ok so meat controls are bad in Romania. Romania is in Eastern Europe, but so are Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. I would have no qualms at all eating rare meat in either of those countries. I just think stereotyping “Eastern Europe” as some mid-20th century agrarian backwater is very counterproductive to good discussion.
      - gampleman 4y ago
        I would suggest some of those countries are more properly part of Central Europe, and at least in Czechia and Hungary steak tartare is a pretty traditional dish.
      - kwhitefoot 4y ago
        Prague is further west than Vienna.
        Jolter 4y ago
        It is! Still it’s part of Eastern Europe, by some definitions. See the Wikipedia page for Eastern Europe. All in all it’s a useless moniker these days for most purposes.
        hydrok9 4y ago
        Only in the context of the former USSR are those states considered "eastern". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Europe#/media/File:Grossgliederung_Europas-en.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Europe#/media/File:Gro...
        Jolter 4y ago
        There are two maps on the same Wikipedia page that put the three mentioned countries in Eastern Europe. It’s still a useless term.
      - hydrok9 4y ago
        Hungary and Czechia are typically considered central European though
  - dzhiurgis 4y ago
    Kitchens is one, but there's supply issues. My experience is that quality often is indeed lower (so is the price). I'm sure it plays with safety too. Also lot of people (rightfully) don't trust the supermarkets - my friends were shocked I just buy raw fish in supermarket - no need to find a personal fisherman!
- tpm 4y ago
  Actually the regulations here are extremely strict, so much that the restaurants are complaining all the time (stricter than in many Western countries if what they say is true). And having eaten raw meat (tartar steak) many times didn't cause any health problems.
KronisLV 4y ago
> Up in Eastern Europe everyone is hardcore convinced overcooked meat is healthy because no bacteria plus warm food good for stomach. Tons of people still wince at medium rare steak. I probably fit into this group, because in my mind it's better to be safe than sorry. While most of the food you'd get in stores is going to have good quality control and should be safe, "most" is still not "all". I recall a story from a number of years back in the news, where a person had found worms in some sushi that they got, for example. While that's an outlier, there are also many people that enjoy hunting and eating game meat, not cooking which fully would be just asking for trouble, because you could end up with trichinellosis, essentially with parasitic worms in your muscle tissue: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichinella https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichinella Of course, the meat that comes from farms is quite different, but regardless, you only need to get unlucky once to have plenty unpleasant experiences, from food poisoning to worse. So for the foreseeable future, "overcooked" meat it is for me, others can enjoy their raw or rare meats and fish as they please.
- dzhiurgis 4y ago
  Seeing how poorly my folks handle hygiene in kitchen, they are more likely to get infection by washing your chicken or straight up leaving uncovered leftovers for days... If I offered you irradiated steak or tartare, would you eat it?
  - KronisLV 4y ago
    > If I offered you irradiated steak or tartare, would you eat it? I'm not sure what radiation would practically do and whether eating something like that would be safe for me either way. As for the steak, if I was sure that it was quality meat, I might opt for medium well due to social pressure, otherwise leaning more on the side of well done, which some might view as a social affront. As for tartare, I wouldn't eat it either way, the same way how I don't eat raw salmon or other raw meat like that - while there are people over here that do enjoy that sort of thing, it's a matter of taste or perhaps an acquired taste.
    - dzhiurgis 4y ago
kortex 4y ago
> In parts of Eastern Europe, the World Health Organization reports, some swine herds have trichinosis infection rates above 50%, with correspondingly large numbers of human infections.[41] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichinosis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichinosis That may not be totally unfounded. More developed countries have tighter livestock regulations. Not saying Eastern European farms or kitchens are "dirty", but there is just less oversight which leads to more opportunities in the swiss-cheese model of disease prevention.

dudus 4y ago

Because in eastern Europe it's probably more dangerous to eat rare meat due to more lax regulations. There's a reason restaurants add an asterisk after meat dishes. There's risk involved in consuming rare foods. The risk is just very small in the US and Europe. Not so small in other countries.

Jolter 4y ago
I don’t think this is true at all. I’ve been to dozens of countries all over the world and in each one you will find dirty kitchens as well as clean ones. You should visit Eastern Europe some time. It’s not just a stereotype.
- tsimionescu 4y ago
  Born and living my whole life in Romania, I can tell you that this fear is pretty true. Many people, especially from the older generations, don't trust medium or under steaks. I should say those that it's not so much a question of the cleanliness of the kitchen, but of the confidence in quality control of the meat. Parasites and tainted meat are a lot more common than in more wealthy countries.
  - Jolter 4y ago
    Ok so meat controls are bad in Romania. Romania is in Eastern Europe, but so are Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. I would have no qualms at all eating rare meat in either of those countries. I just think stereotyping “Eastern Europe” as some mid-20th century agrarian backwater is very counterproductive to good discussion.
    - gampleman 4y ago
      I would suggest some of those countries are more properly part of Central Europe, and at least in Czechia and Hungary steak tartare is a pretty traditional dish.
    - kwhitefoot 4y ago
      Prague is further west than Vienna.
      - Jolter 4y ago
        It is! Still it’s part of Eastern Europe, by some definitions. See the Wikipedia page for Eastern Europe. All in all it’s a useless moniker these days for most purposes.
        hydrok9 4y ago
        Only in the context of the former USSR are those states considered "eastern". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Europe#/media/File:Grossgliederung_Europas-en.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Europe#/media/File:Gro...
        Jolter 4y ago
        There are two maps on the same Wikipedia page that put the three mentioned countries in Eastern Europe. It’s still a useless term.
    - hydrok9 4y ago
      Hungary and Czechia are typically considered central European though
- dzhiurgis 4y ago
  Kitchens is one, but there's supply issues. My experience is that quality often is indeed lower (so is the price). I'm sure it plays with safety too. Also lot of people (rightfully) don't trust the supermarkets - my friends were shocked I just buy raw fish in supermarket - no need to find a personal fisherman!
tpm 4y ago
Actually the regulations here are extremely strict, so much that the restaurants are complaining all the time (stricter than in many Western countries if what they say is true). And having eaten raw meat (tartar steak) many times didn't cause any health problems.

KronisLV 4y ago

> Up in Eastern Europe everyone is hardcore convinced overcooked meat is healthy because no bacteria plus warm food good for stomach. Tons of people still wince at medium rare steak. I probably fit into this group, because in my mind it's better to be safe than sorry. While most of the food you'd get in stores is going to have good quality control and should be safe, "most" is still not "all". I recall a story from a number of years back in the news, where a person had found worms in some sushi that they got, for example. While that's an outlier, there are also many people that enjoy hunting and eating game meat, not cooking which fully would be just asking for trouble, because you could end up with trichinellosis, essentially with parasitic worms in your muscle tissue: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichinella https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichinella Of course, the meat that comes from farms is quite different, but regardless, you only need to get unlucky once to have plenty unpleasant experiences, from food poisoning to worse. So for the foreseeable future, "overcooked" meat it is for me, others can enjoy their raw or rare meats and fish as they please.

dzhiurgis 4y ago
Seeing how poorly my folks handle hygiene in kitchen, they are more likely to get infection by washing your chicken or straight up leaving uncovered leftovers for days... If I offered you irradiated steak or tartare, would you eat it?
- KronisLV 4y ago
  > If I offered you irradiated steak or tartare, would you eat it? I'm not sure what radiation would practically do and whether eating something like that would be safe for me either way. As for the steak, if I was sure that it was quality meat, I might opt for medium well due to social pressure, otherwise leaning more on the side of well done, which some might view as a social affront. As for tartare, I wouldn't eat it either way, the same way how I don't eat raw salmon or other raw meat like that - while there are people over here that do enjoy that sort of thing, it's a matter of taste or perhaps an acquired taste.
  - dzhiurgis 4y ago

kortex 4y ago

> In parts of Eastern Europe, the World Health Organization reports, some swine herds have trichinosis infection rates above 50%, with correspondingly large numbers of human infections.[41] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichinosis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichinosis That may not be totally unfounded. More developed countries have tighter livestock regulations. Not saying Eastern European farms or kitchens are "dirty", but there is just less oversight which leads to more opportunities in the swiss-cheese model of disease prevention.