got the bratwurst from the back of the grill
got the bratwurst from the back of the grill
283 comments
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yes, Germany has great healthcare, but he got sick from eating Mett, so s it really civilized?
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I understand this is a joke, but I’ll still add context:
Germans like to eat Mett, which is basically salted ground pork. Usually it’s served on a bread roll with a raw onion ring on top.
Since the meat is uncooked, there’s the danger of getting a parasitic infection (Trichinosis). Should you get one, doctors must report that to the local health inspector who will then launch an investigation into how and where you got it.
Between 2001 and 2011 (sorry, I couldn’t find more recent data), a total of 63 cases were reported in Germany. “Despite meticulous investigations, the source of these infections often remains unknown.” [1]
Since we’re talking about ground meat, there’s the issue of spoilage. The Lebensmittelhygiene-Verordnung (Food hygiene act) mandates that Mett must only be sold on the day it’s produced.
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Unless you trust the rancher, butcher, shop, and cook have all followed proper procedures the entire time and that no contaminants made their way through... you should treat all ground meat as if it could kill you. It should be fully cooked to ensure there is no chance of bacteria or parasitic infection from the meat. Doesn't matter if it;s the US, Germany, Pakistan, anywhere on the planet. Bacteria and parasites don't give a shit about where they're at (with very few extreme environment exceptions).
When you ground meats, you are putting every bit of that meat, inside and out, in contact with the outside world and anything that has touched the materials, tools, utensils, etc. that it is in contact with since they were last sanitized properly. With "solid" meat, contamination is limited to the outside surface, so cooking the outside and leaving the interior less cooked isn't nearly as much of an issue because most contaminants get killed off during the cooking process. Unless the animal had an illness affecting their meat, etc. that survives cooking to the lower interior temps, but those should be found during testing well before they make it to a market.
The time limits for sale on products like Mett are specifically about minimizing that danger period for bacteria being mixed into the ground meat and growing. There are ALWAYS going to be risks with uncooked and undercooked meat products, it's all about reducing those risks. There's a reason societies developed methods of preserving like salting, curing, and dehydrating to lengthen the safe period to eat after butchering.
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Same trust is necessary with the fish used in sushi. In the US I think we are extra afraid because of our history of terrible food production practices and alteration. We basically set food safety rules based on the fact that we have no real culture expecting high quality practices with food. It is all about squeezing every penny out of sales and doing just enough to avoid being sued so the company doesn't have to pay for overpriced private healthcare.
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Same trust is necessary with the fish used in sushi.
Actually it's not most of the time. Fish intended for use in Sushi is required to be frozen, which kills most pathogens. But even if that wasn't required, that's the common practice across the board anyway. There are only a few things that are specifically fished and kept alive versus immediately frozen, things like lobsters. Generally the boats freeze the fish on the ship after being caught before it ever even gets near land. It is then kept frozen through every step until it reaches the restaurant or store. Even at fish markets, the majority of fish being sold through there is frozen. As long as the restaurant just maintains a freezer and isn't thawing the fish well before serving, the chances of illness related to that are actually quite low. The fish is generally only thawed in store before being packaged and sold over the counter for you to use immediately at home. It's basically the same fish as the freezer aisle, just thawed and packaged so you can use it immediately.
The same standards are generally not used for things like chicken, pork and beef though, at least in the US. They'll be refrigerated, but not usually frozen until immediately before being prepared and served. There are exceptions of course, some stores and restaurants receive things like frozen half cows to do their own butchering in house, but most don't and instead receive their raw products through general suppliers like SYSCO. And for your home, you're at the whim of whatever your local store does. Just because there's a meat department, that doesn't mean they're getting half a frozen cow in and butchering those steaks and ribs into each specific cut in store. Many stores receive those already cut and packaged from the company's warehouse where that was done days previously, so they don't have to have to pay for a butcher or two in every location.
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Trusting them to keep it refrigerated and sanitary is the same thing as keeping it frozen and sanitary, just with different time frames. You are still trusting it wasn't thawed and refrozen in transit and kept at the right temps before serving in addition to sanitary practices.
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Germans like to eat Mett, which is basically salted ground pork. Usually it’s served on a bread roll with a raw onion ring on top.
See you soon, mein freund. Auch zwei bier bitte.
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Germans like to eat Mett, which is basically salted ground pork. Usually it’s served on a bread roll with a raw onion ring on top.
Gonna be honest, that sounds pretty rad right about now.
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The only kinda meat I avoided when I was there was the shop that I would pass that said "PIZZA!" but then had a picture of a giant waffle cone filled with a mountain of raw hamburger. I could never bring myself to go into that place because that is not what pizza should look like.
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That does not sound like anything that I ever encountered in Germany. waffle cone?
I mean many pizza places are run by turkish immigrants who sell pizza and turkish food in the same place, like Döner and Yufka. So maybe that is what you saw?
And what the hell is raw hamburger? you mean minced meat?
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It was just a picture on the outside of a place in Bremerhaven when I was there around 2004. I am thinking it was just a goofy ad to get you to be like "wtf? I got a check that out," because it was a comically large pile of ground beef (or at least some kind of red meat) and just bizarre to see juxtaposed with text declaring "pizza!"
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For the record, Americans refer to all ground beef as hamburger, cooked or raw. Hence the once-popular boxed dinner called "Hamburger Helper", which allows you to prepare something stroganoff-adjacent with the contents of the box and a pound (unit of weight) of hamburger (ground beef).
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Yes, English (Simplified) really sounds like it’s how 5-year olds talk.
Hamburger in lasagne?
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Meh, I'm no patriot, but I think American English is largely fine. Minced meat sounds gross, and for some reason when you drop the 'd' it means fruit. So yes;
Hamburger in lasagna
Hamburger in meatloaf
Hamburger in Shepherd's Pie (no one's ever heard of cottage pie)
Not hamburger in tacos, once cooked and seasoned we call that taco meat (you may have a point).
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Is it possible that you saw a kebab shop that also sold pizzas?
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Reject food poisoning, go vegan 💚
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Food poisoning is entirely possible to get from improperly cleaned vegetables, and they are frequently sources of e coli outbreaks in the US.
Unfortunately going vegan only protects you from animal product provided foodborne illness.
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I have been sick three times from ecoli outbreaks, triggering mass recalls of vegetable produce but never from animal products lol
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Reject e-coli, fertilize vegan 💚
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MFW I am in a "make vegans look stupid" competition and my opponent is an actual vegan...
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Ah yes, because meat is the only place things like that come from... wait...
The CDC currently lists 4 recent E. Coli outbreaks. Three of them are vegetable related. One is raw dairy related, which specifically does NOT use food safe practices like pasteurization to kill bacteria for safety. The product is specifically sold as a raw product with the lack of food safety being some sort of idiotic selling point.
And if we look at things like Salmonella, oh buddy. There's a current outbreak related to cucumbers spanning 15 US states. In just the last couple years there were Salmonella outbreaks from Cantaloupes, Diced Onions, Fresh Basil, Flour, Peanut Butter, and Alfalfa sprouts in addition to the meat and other general animal issues. There were outbreaks related to turtles and geckos, and those aren't even related to eating meat products.
Eating Vegan doesn't magically make bacteria ignore you. And acting like it does just puts yourself and others at risk. I think one thing nearly everyone can agree on is that people that put others at risk, are objective worse individuals than those who don't.
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There was an order to stop selling a particular company's ruccola temporarily in my country a few years ago. There are merits to veganism but this isn't one of them.
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You're getting downvotes because meat isn't the ONLY way to get food poisoning. But let's be honest, you're living on easy mode when it comes to food poisoning if you don't eat animal products.
Not a vegan, just think people are too easily triggered.
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Never
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Why
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283 comments