sounds like it will be "well done" from here on out. and i like my steaks bloody.

If it's still squirming a little, that's what I have a knife and a fork for. I'm pretty particular about where I eat steak, though, if it isn't made at home. Applebee's wouldn't be a place I'd eat a steak from.

We're inundated with Applebees here since their headquarters is here. Sad to say, I've had their steaks several times. No more.

I don't go to Applebees much anymore but if I do, I'll stick with their blondie brownie with maple butter sauce.

I've had Ostrich burgers. very bloody those are. prefer Bison

Burgers I have medium rare. steak. preferrably the same but blackened.

is indistiguishable from very lean beef, which i guess is what it is. the most exotic red meat i have ever had is kangaroo, which was in small apetizers and good.

but a bloody burger sounds luscious. I'm going to have to get around to trying Bison.

eom

Maybe it will sink in, eventually.

By thinking a steak was safer than ordering ground beef in a restaurant. This mechanical tenderizing process was unknown to me.

Excellent article by the Kansas City Star.

I found it. Here's a good site of Armenian cooking. http://www.thearmeniankitchen.com/

there are many places around that actually serve steak not something contrived to be a steak.

I know I can ask at the meat counter at my local grocery store but I wonder how many servers in restaurants know this? I definitely will avoid ordering steak at national chains.

kept in the dark and an appalling lack of inspectors.

I feel very sorry for the lady. Tragic

The problem comes when you introduce surface contaminants into the interior.

slice beef into ribbons ,glue (pink slime) the pieces together to make a nice looking expensive cut of beef. when they do this they are basically wrapping possible contaminates in multi layers. never ever order chain beef unless you bring your own temp gauge!

never ever eat any meat in a tube and always buy meat from a store where you can see the butchers work. fortunately there are two stores in my town that does. since beef is way past my budget i stick to chicken and pork.

If you don't know where it came from, it just doesn't taste as good.

I don't eat red meat much anymore but when I want a steak, I cook it at home.

And I get my steak from companies like this one:
http://longlivestock.com/

The beef was from a local farm. And damn it was good.

The worst meal I ever had in my entire life I had at an Applebees. I ordered a salmon steak with broccoli. The salmon was still frozen inside; I couldn't get a fork threw my vegetables. I've never eaten at an Applebees since. It's been about 8 years.

But then I don't eat out anymore. I buy my meat from a farmer I trust, at least the meat I don't raise myself. This mass-produced beef is seriously dangerous, unless you can stomach feces with your beef.

"Another federal inspector at Tyson found “a piece of trimmed fat approximately 14 inches long with feces the length of it,” and another noted, “fecal contamination . . . was so great . . . couldn’t keep up.”

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/12/08/3954258/big-beef-beefs-raw-edges.html#storylink=cpy

Applebees was the store where the CEO said he would have to fire people because Obama got reelected.

They are independently owned. I won't eat at Applebees in NY, but the ones here in my area are not owned by the same guy.

Unless it's a renowned steakhouse, I never order something that's so damned easy to prepare for myself ... with better results. If I want beef, I'll order prime rib.

true but sad.

If you like medium rare beef, Sous Vide can give you a perfectly safe, perfectly cooked medium rare steak. Beef placed in a vacuum sealed or even ziplock bag, heated at 130 degrees for at least 2 hours is safely cooked, without being turned into into an inedible brick. Longer cooking times can give tougher cuts the tenderness of more expensive beef. All it needs after cooking is a quick sear to give it some browning

I have a Chuck Roast going at about 26 hours at 130 degrees. Should be nice and tender for supper and it will be still pink in the center.

That sounds good. I'll have to try that

I'm almost convinced to spend the bucks for a true Sous Vide heater, but I have had decent results using an electric fry pan with deep sides and a digital thermometer. I have to play with the pan's thermostat in the "warm" range, but after a few adjustments, it holds 131 plus or minus a degree for hours. The glass cover reduces evaporation nicely. Not a bad way to play with Sous Vide on the cheap.

until you mentioned it, but it sounds awesome. Thank you for mentioning it. I like my beef and lamb with a taste and texture slightly above raw, and that sounds like a good alternative to other methods I've heard of. I even watched the video they had of converting a cooler into a Sous Vide cooker.

An electric fry pan sounds like it could work. I already have a FoodSaver that can suck the air out of the bags.

How Ms Lamkin survived this at age 87 (3 yrs ago) truly is nothing less than miraculous.
As for Applebees, I don't think they're going to make it.

KansDem, that is one scary article. I didn't think I was ever going to get to the end of it. And the further I read, the worse it got. Long story short, I'm giving up beef. Basically, our food safety system is broke.

I'll be eating my steak Well Done from now on!

Just plants.

I read as much of the article as I could stand - it's in our paper this morning.

Reading about the way these animals are killed makes me ill. I'll never eat meat again. Not because I don't get hungry for it sometimes - just because we don't need to eat meat. And the eating of meat causes great pain and misery.

I just don't want to be a part of that. Morally its just wong.

Well said.

But I never any beef it is well done.

And I'll have veggies, fruit, and grains for dinner please.

...that unless specifically requested, the meat products will be cooked well done. It further states that less than well done it is risky, and if you order it less than well done it is at your own personal risk.

This situation is why that warning is there.

If you look at instructions for microwave meals, you will find that they must be cooked to a specific internal temperature for a minimum amount of time. You are instructed to use a food thermometer to check the temperature.

Once again, this is to "educate the public" and, more specifically, forestall lawsuits.

I really don't see what this has to do with mechanical processes of foods. Food contamination is just as much a problem regardless of the processing technique. I don't know, but it might even be that "hand processing" food is even more problematic.

the mechanical tenderizing pushes any surface pathogens inside the raw steak. If this isn't done, then making sure that the outside is well cooked would be sufficient, since the inside is uncontaminated. But once you force pathogens into the interior of the steak then the only way to eliminate them is by cooking it all the way through.

I've always ordered medium rare. This article gives me pause. The should probably outlaw mechanical tenderizing unless they irradiate the meat.

...don't know about the mechanical tenderizing, however. I don't think there is such a thing as "uncontaminated" meat. But I've never looked into it.

But the irradiation is a great idea, and you get a +1 from me for suggesting it!

Worth thinking about. I believe they are a statistically relevant 1% of imports, but its still only 1%.

Fortunately, I don't eat meat. Now if only the vegetable growers here and abroad would be more responsible in their growing practices I would be scott free!

The risk of mass contamination seems obvious.

I had an interview with the EPA a while back (didn't get the job, so back to school for me), but they had a great chart in the room that showed how much water different foods took to get to market. Beef was way high. I think 20,000 gallons/pound?
Anyway, the ranchers are the major drivers in the campaign to exterminate the wolves out west. I won't eat it anymore. When I smell it I tell myself and others around that it smells like dead wolves. (If you want more details see the Defenders of Wildlife website).
I'm trying to convince Defenders that someone needs to start a "wild-life safe" label for beef like the "dolphin-safe" label for tuna. If you are a member, send them a line.
If it doesn't come about soon, I'll have to start a "how to hunt a wolf-hunter" websites, offering expeditions to interfere with hunts, destroy traps, remove poisoned carcasses, protect pups from being gassed in their dens.
YOUR TAX DOLLARS are still killing wolves. If you write your congressperson, ask them to DEFUND the Federal Wildlife Services, which is a euphemism for a group of professional killers paid for with OUR MONEY.
Out west, the ranchers in the Klamath valley want a bunch of water from the Klamath river to water stock and grow food which is destroying the salmon runs. Well I don't know about anyone else here, but it sounds as if it is time for them to pack up their operation and move somewhere else. Here in Missouri, we pave over acres of great grazing land every year for more urban sprawl and roads we don't need. It is time to set aside farmland for farms, setbacks from streams to have more salmon, and put houses where they don't damage the others, with efficient mass transit.
So I try to be sure not a penny of mine goes to the yellow-bellied, lilly-livered cowards that pretend to be "cowboys" out west.

I thought I'd add this gross out chicken story to your gross out beef thread:

Glad I rarely eat out except for the occasional seafood or pizza.

SNOPES DOES IT AGAIN!

really good write-up---

http://www.snopes.com/food/prepare/msm.asp

The only thing I could find that changed its truthiness was the last paragraph in Snopes' writeup, stating that some fast food chains and grocery stores had announced in February 2012 that they would stop using and buying MSM.

Since the article I posted was from 2010, it was basically true at the time it was created. It probably should have said "most" and not "all" fast food chains.

Thanks for the link. Good information.

TYY

like the eyes and stuff

...Too long. Didn't read. My bad.

Still yucky, though. They grind tissue and bone into a paste... Ew. I'm seriously rethinking what's for dinner after this thread. I've been buying Tyson frozen chicken tenders but I started thinking they tasted funky. It's so hard to find locally grown chicken. Even in the farming community that I live in. I could grow my own but I don't think I could kill and clean the meat.

I'm currently on a frozen 'wild caught salmon' bender. That and occasional frozen shrimp. I'm not far from going back to vegetarian. Maybe even vegan.

TYY

I stopped eating beef in most restaurants when we became aware of Mad Cow Disease.

medium rare because the OUTSIDE surface had been cooked. Had no idea that my steaks had been stabbed/punctured like this, contaminating the inside. Now I'm starting to figure out why my steaks at home are never quite as tender as what you get in a restaurant--I'm buying supermarket cuts that haven't been "tenderized" or "predigested". Yuck.

Besides fast food and most chain restaurants suck anyways

Because any kind of food or beverage can be contaminated with dangerous bacteria or other toxic substances.

Nothing is completely immune from that.

They have a rubbery feel when you press them with a fork or first put a piece in your mouth, yet they are tender when you chew them. I always thought they had an almost artificial quality, if that makes any sense.