Random Fact # 3,591

Why can't humans eat raw meat without getting sick but other animals can?

Humans CAN eat raw meat.

It has to be properly handled and stored, but we can totally eat raw meat.

Some examples of dishes that contain raw meat at the end of preparation include:

• Carpaccio (Italy) - Extremely thin slices of raw sirloin beef
• Carne cruda all’albese (Italy) - Slices of raw veal marinated in lemon juice and served with Parmesan
• Kitfo (Ethiopia) - Raw minced beef flavoured with a chili powder and spiced clarified butter
• Mett (Germany) - Minced pork spread
• Gored Gored (Ethiopia/Eritrea) - Unflavoured raw cubes of beef with buttered flatbread
• Koi Soi (Thailand) - Finely chopped or ground lean beef is marinated with plenty of fish sauce, garlic, lime juice, chillies, and herbs
• Steak Tartare (France) - Raw minced or chopped beef formed into a patty and served with a raw egg yolk on top
• Yukhoe (South Korea) - Beef sliced into matchsticks and trimmed of any fat, then tenderised in a marinade of soy sauce, sugar and sesame oil and flavoured with garlic, spring onions and sesame seeds
• Raw Kibbeh/Quibe (Lebanon/Brazil) - Ground meat, minced onions, spices, and bulgur, often served with olive oil and flatbread
• Basashi (Japan) - Horse sashimi

Here are what they look like in the order mentioned above:

"But other animals don't need to be careful about how they store and handle the meat and don't get sick!"

False.

It's very common for predators to get parasites from eating raw flesh, they just don't have another option. It's so common, in fact, that it's a large part of why we tend to avoid eating carnivores; it's much harder to keep them healthy.

It's not that they can do something we can't, but rather that they're a bit better at it than we are.

And that's because of evolution... and stomach acid.

Because we've been cooking meat for a very very long time, our stomach hasn't needed to become quite as sturdy as, say, a vulture's (who primarily eats rotten meat).

The reason a vulture's stomach is able to handle rotten meat and ours can't mostly has to do with how acidic their stomach acid is. Very few parasites can survive that level of acidity, which means the vulture has a higher chance of remaining healthy.

Sometimes, in fandom, we just want to write id-tastic fic that rolls around in tropes that might be viewed as problematic. But we don’t want to address the problematic side of things in this particular fanwork; we just want to roll around and wallow.

It is considered courteous to give readers a heads-up via use of AO3 tags. I propose a tag that signals that a given fanwork is for rolling around, not giving a measured evaluation of anything. The MCU has carved out a space for this sort of fic with the “HYDRA Trash Party” tag, for which I commend them. Trash Party is a bit too specific to cover all of the ground I’m thinking of here, though; I propose “Dead Dove: Do Not Eat.”

For those of you not familiar with Arrested Development, Michael Bluth finds a paper bag in the freezer labeled “Dead Dove: Do Not Eat.” He opens the bag, finds a dead dove, and reacts as follows:

[gif of a white man saying “I don’t know what I expected” in a deadpan manner]

The “Dead Dove: Do Not Eat” tag would essentially be a “what it says on the tin” metatag, indicating “you see the tropes and concepts tagged here? they are going to appear in this fic. exactly as said. there will not necessarily be any subversion, authorial commentary condemning problematic aspects, or meditation on potential harm. this fic contains dead dove. if you proceed, you should expect to encounter it.”

(more at KnowYourMeme: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-dont-know-what-i-expected)

uses my insane musscle memory to open 4 wrong apps in a row

yeah im “transitioning” *dissolves into tiny pieces as i click to the next slide*

drink my concoction boy