[neilep (OP)]

How come when meat is hung it doesn't go all rancid ?..as a firm believer in empirical study I took a burger from the freezer and hung it up....result ?...smelly rancid burger after just a few days !...

So how does a piece of meat that's been hanging for weeks not go off ?

Bon Apetite !

<font color="blue">Men are the same as women.... just inside out !! </font id="blue">

[DoctorBeaver]

Neil - it's only game that should be hung & it DOES go off. The meat should be hung until it is just about to turn. That's what gives it such a "high" flavour & hence the expression "high game".
Burgers probably go off quicker coz they're full of crap to start with! []

[neilep (OP)]

I won't send you the burger via snailmail then !![]

But Eth, I've purchased some nice cuts of beef which have been left to mature for longer than the average required hanging parameter !......hmmm....very nice...with roast potatoes, Yorshire Puddings....yum yum !!

Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

[DoctorBeaver]

OK, I'll re-phrase what I put. It's only game that should be hung for a significant amount of time.
Beef is a very robust meat that takes longer to go off than, say, chicken or pork. If you hang a pig (what was its crime? heh) for more than a couple of days & then eat it, you're asking for trouble.
I think I'm right in saying that there are fewer germs in beef that can harm humans than there are in other meats. That's why you can eat raw beef without too much risk. Eat raw pork & lamb & you'd better hope your life assurance is up to date.

We learn from history that we do not learn from history.
(Georg Hegel)

[neilep (OP)]

Thanks Eth, I'm sure lamb is also safe to eat nice and pink too, though Poultry and Pork..oh yes, has to be cooked through...just like shellfish but thanks for clarifying the situation.

Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

[ukmicky]

yeah pigs basically have more germs running around their bodies than any other meat, there's some right nasty buggers in your average porky pig.
Pork meat also has a large percentage of fat in it compared to other meats,it also takes longer to cook, and takes longer to digest giving the little bugger a bit longer to do there work.

Michael                                      

[neilep (OP)]

But there's nothing like a nice bacon butty though is there ? yummy !!



Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

[Andrew K Fletcher]

Neil, your burger was probably already rancid and probably terminated its life back in 1993 When meat is frozen and thawed it decays much faster than fresh meat. From the slaughter house, through the processor to the packaging and then stored in a freezer is an obvious delay, so like for like is not compared in your experiment.

I think pork is specifically more important to be well cooked because pork is very close to human flash and therefore can carry diseases that can easily be transmitted. I doubt that pork carries more diseases than other meats, its just that the diseases it can carry can indeed affect our health.

Shell fish also carries hidden neurotoxins when exposed to algal and phytoplankton blooms, these cannot be removed during the cooking process, and they are often lethal to humans and animals. See red tides.

Fish can also be affected in the same process when exposed to these blooms. But shell fish by their nature of filtering sea water build up significantly more of these deadly toxins. Bon appetite



"The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is most likely to be correct."
K.I.S. "Keep it simple!"

[DoctorBeaver]

<--------- gives up sushi! [:0]

[neilep (OP)]

I love Sushi!!...don't give it up....you may as well give up ' food ' altogether....the thing about shellfish is that they are bottom dwellers...they just love to eat all the crap that is laying around on the sea floor....cook it right and you're alright....and of course shellfih in sushi is always cooked....one would exprct you would have to eat a vast quantity to be affected by all the nasty badness that Andrew reports eh ?.....mind you...Andrew does say that "they are often lethal to humans and animals. See red tides."...hmmm...just be careful to avoid the Red Tides.

Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

[Andrew K Fletcher]

FISH KILL
August 28, 2000
Water samples from Bald Eagle Creek next to the Rehoboth Beach Yacht and Country Club  were overnighted to Dr. Tomas at the University of North Carolina that day. On Friday September 29, 2000, after a month of thorough analysis, Dr. Tomas announced that he had discovered a toxic micro-organism associated with the Red Tide called 'Chatanella verruculosa' and it was a known fish killer and most probably the cause of the 5 million dead fish in our inland bay during the summer
http://www.atlanticbreezes.com/aquatic/

Does not kill shellfish hence they can build up substantial amounts of toxins.

Dr   does not matter whether the fish are cooked or raw as the toxin is heat resistant.

"The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is most likely to be correct."
K.I.S. "Keep it simple!"

[neilep (OP)]

<--------- gives up sushi![:0]

Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

[Andrew K Fletcher]

Certainly makes your rancid burger look more appetizing Neil   hehe

quote:Originally posted by neilep

<--------- gives up sushi![:0]

Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

"The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is most likely to be correct."
K.I.S. "Keep it simple!"

[DoctorBeaver]

So why don't oyster catchers get poisoned? []

[Andrew K Fletcher]

They do!

"The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is most likely to be correct."
K.I.S. "Keep it simple!"

[neilep (OP)]

<--------- gives up Oysters  [:0]!

Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

[DoctorBeaver]

<----------- gives up [B)]

[Andrew K Fletcher]

I think the fish in the UK is strictly controlled using random tests. However, in severalfresh water lakes in the UK, farm run off from over fertilized land enriched the inland waters causing a blue green algai bloom. Dogs that went swimming in the lakes that had licked thier coats died soon after.

Simila dog deaths were recorded along the Devon Coast in one year during a hot summer. I suspect that this may have been the result of them eating dead fish washed up.

When fishing one evening, I saw the whole sea change colour. At first I thought it was phytoplankton, but having a closer look, it was billions of tiny jellyfish, so dense it changed the colour of the water.

Sorry for straying away from your burger experiment Neil and Doc, just realised I'm waffling on again

"The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is most likely to be correct."
K.I.S. "Keep it simple!"

[daveshorts]

Shockingly going back to the original question:

You hang meat somewhere that is quite cold, which will slow the bacteria down.

Fresh meat is quite solid and chewey so the bacteria can't just get into it, they have to work in from the outside, which takes time, especially if the skin is still on.

If your burger had been frozen as andrew says it will break down the cell structure making it easier for the bacteria to get in.

Your buger had been handled as a pulp so a few bacteria would have got on all the surfaces of the mince, this gives them a head start getting to the middle. This is why you can get away with eating steak bleu (All the bacteria will be on the outside), but it would be a less good idea doing the same with mince.

[neilep (OP)]

<--------- gives up Dogs in Devon [:0]
 <--------- gives up frozen burgers [:0]

Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!