[Sca-cooks] re: oop raw meat

[mtraber251 at earthlink.net]

Well, it has been common to eat steak tartare in my family..my earliest memory of it is in teh Pen and Pencil club in Manhattan when i was 8 years old, and teh waiter insisting to me all the way up until i mixed everything together that he REALLY could take it back and the chef would turn it into a hamburger for me. 

I will still occasionally make it for myself by chopping up a thoroughly washed steak from the center of a larger cut of meat when i get an incredible urge for some...

If we raised our own moos i would probably eat it more often as i could control how the meat was handled between walking around the pasture and into the freezer=)

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So the question now becomes, how much of a tradition in the Western World, outside of the wealthy  eating Steak Tartare at The Four Seasons or some such, existed? Does anybody remember a parent or grandparent, possibly one who would sneer at fancy presentations with egg yolks and capers, grossing out the kids by eating raw meat on rye with maybe a few pickles?

I'm just wondering if perhaps this kind of thing was more widespread fifty years ago than we'd like to believe now, or have been told. Comments? Info?

Adamantius