Pink burgers

skysky69

Just wondered if someone could advise, my dear OH has just cooked us all some lovely burgers from a top local butcher on the barbeque but they were still a bit pink. He said that was the best way for them to be cooked. They weren't rare still bloody, just still a bit pink inside and I am now worried after eating 3/4 of it that we are all going to get food poisoning!

rach

they will be fine! I agree with your OH. (beef and lamb can be eaten very rare and even pork is ok a tiny bit pink i think

msb5262

Yes, I agree. Beef is perfectly ok rare if it's from a reputable source...in fact I think you're safer eating good beef rare than eating dodgy beef cooked through!

skysky69

Thanks guys. I looked on the internet but it was really YOU MUST NOT EAT PINK BURGERS from the department of health which really worried me and they were saying that even when they weren't pink they could still have e-coli as the meat could have been brown before they even started - YUK!!!

Barneysmom

I agree with the Dept of Health website, I wouldn't eat them.

hotcookie101

If your burgers are from a reputable source made with fresh mince it is perfectly OK to eat them pink (med-rare)
the problem is if you have rubbish quality, contaminated mince-when its pink there is still uncooked bits which COULD have had e-coli etc on them. Because its minced-bits that are usually on the outside are on the inside IYSWIM? With a steak-you sear and kill any bugs on the outside, and there cant be any surface contam left.
Saying that-I make my burgers with fresh mince, and always cook med-rare, so pink in the middle. If I buy ready made burgers from tesco etc (RARE occurance-usually when they have the finest 100% beef ones on offer) I cook to medium-so they are brown the whole way though, but the ones cooked med-rare are MUCH juicier (although that could be because of the meat rather than the cooking I suppose!)
Sorry for going on, jist is-I wouldn't worry about your pink burgers, as long as you happy with their source

whatatwit

Whilst some meats should be eaten on the rare side, apart from Pork & Chicken, burgers should be thoroughly cooked.

The reasoning behind this is that when meat is butchered, E-coli and various other bugs can be passed onto the cut surface of the meat. A steak or joint tends to have the outside cooked thus killing any nasties.
When meat is minced, any bugs will be distributed throughout the meat and should be cooked thoroughly.

The obvious exception to this is Steak Tartare which should only be eaten in a trusted establishment and not some greasy spoon.

You should be fine, but I wouldn't feed rare burgers to children or the infirm.

Valli

***mouth watering***

now if they were chicken...:eek: having just read whatatwits post she is right about the handling - also they might have had raw egg used to bind.
I'd risk it personally...
and I can think of one or two people I might deviously serve them to
muhahahahahaha

prowla

If you go to the excellent GBK (Gourmet Burger Kitchen) chain, you will see that they default to medium rare.
(I personally don't like any pink in my burgers though.)

hermoine_2

My OH is an environmental health officer and he says you should not eat pink burgers. This is because the meat is mushed up and the contamination which would normally be on the outside of a piece of meat maybe caught up inside the burger. The contaminate could be something nasty or something unharmful but you will have no idea until you have eaten it. However, providing you are not very young, very old or immune deficient due to illness then the most common bugs will just give you an upset tum for a couple of days.

Good luck

H

skysky69

My 4.5 year old daughter ate half a burger too. I will be so cross if he has made us ill :mad: