Did I just eat a raw sausage?
June 15, 2011 4:17 PM   Subscribe

People who often eat meat filter: Did I just eat a raw sausage?

I realize this sounds dumb, but I'm totally out of it today, mainly from lack of eating.

So I got home and grilled an italian sausage (not something I usually do), scarfed it down, and realized I hadn't been paying attention at all while cooking. I would guess it was on the grill for about 10 minutes? High heat with the lid on. It tasted great, not mushy or anything. It was kind of red on the inside but it was a hot sausage so I attributed the color to the spices.

If it were raw, it would taste...raw, right? Cold? Here's hoping I don't get pork flu.
posted by earlofrochester to Food & Drink (10 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Yeah, it'd be cold if it truly wasn't cooked. I have this happen all the time, especially with Italian sausages and I end up hesitating and then it's a gnawy dry gray unhappiness. A little pink is fine.
posted by Lyn Never at 4:20 PM on June 15, 2011 [1 favorite]


10 minutes with steaming effect=cooked.

I wouldn't worry. If you didn't find it cold or unpleasant in texture, the odds of safety are on your side.
posted by guster4lovers at 4:20 PM on June 15, 2011 [2 favorites]


You should be fine. Even if the sausage was undercooked, pork is extremely safe nowadays and many people/restaurants are serving rarer pork. Gone are the days when it had to be cooked to a white leather in order to avoid Trichinella. That's because pigs are no longer "slopped" (fed whatever rotting leftovers hanging around) and instead fed a dry kibble manufactured by pet food companies.
posted by WhitenoisE at 4:21 PM on June 15, 2011 [10 favorites]


Response by poster: Phew! Thanks everyone.
posted by earlofrochester at 4:25 PM on June 15, 2011


They actually sell some sort of Polish raw pork tartar-like dish at Grand Central Terminal. I tried some when I was there for a food tour -- it was quite nice.
posted by novalis_dt at 5:15 PM on June 15, 2011


This must be the evening for it—I was just wondering the same thing about a cheese sausage I just cooked for ~5 minutes on the Foreman grill. But I think mine was fine; it was hot enough that the cheese inside spattered out when I bit into it. If yours was hot like that, you're probably fine.
posted by limeonaire at 5:47 PM on June 15, 2011


Sausage texture is really mushy if truly raw. So if it was firm, it was either properly cooked, or maybe pre-cooked. Many supermarket sausages are preboiled. Anyway, lots of cultures eat raw pork mince and don't die.
posted by lollusc at 6:13 PM on June 15, 2011


Depending on what kind of sausage it was, it might have already been cooked. The "Cheddarwurst" style sausages are already cooked. But yeah, the texture would have really unpleasant if it was raw.

Anyway, lots of cultures eat raw pork mince and don't die.

Bet some of 'em got worms though...
posted by gjc at 6:16 PM on June 15, 2011


Even if it's undercooked, your chances of getting trichinosis are very low. In fact, the FDA just revised their cooking recommendations for pork, saying that you can leave it pink (145 degrees).
posted by Addlepated at 6:16 PM on June 15, 2011


If it wasn't mushy, it wasn't raw. Fear not.
posted by desuetude at 11:33 PM on June 15, 2011


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