Pink burger

[Catastropheeee]

Please help settle an argument.

DH just cooked burgers and I noticed part-way through dinner that 5 year old DSs was pink on the inside.

I mentioned it was pink and DH said it would be fine. I disagreed and DH got all defensive saying they're always like that and we've eaten them pink before (not me, I have my steak well done!) and it would be fine.

I said I'd rather he didn't eat any more and got up to make something else for DS and DH said I was being ridiculous.

So MN jury, would you serve your kids pink-in-the-middle burgers, and AIBU for not wanting to??

He's 5. If he isn't ill overnight he'll be fine. I eat my burgers pink. My DH eats them practically alive.

However, always buy good quality burgers and remember that if you find your meat is undercooked you can just shove it in a frying pan and finish it off.

*Ilost
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I wasn't meaning I i criticise his cooking. It went like:
Me 'oh, DS burger is still pink' (was cut in half and I only noticed the middle of second half)
DH 'it's fine'
Me 'I'd rather he didn't eat a pink burger'
DH (clearly annoyed) 'ITS FINE! he's a eaten them like that before. Those frozen ones are always pink on the inside'
Me '?? Really? I wouldn't let him eat a pink burger, I've never noticed'
DH 'yes, it's fine, there's nothing wrong with it'
Me 'well, I'd still rather he didn't eat it like that'
DH 'you're being ridiculous'
Then slightly raised voices about how it's fine if DH wants to eat undercooked meat but I'd really rather DS didn't, and DH saying how ridiculous I was being.

DS meanwhile is inspecting it carefully and squeezing it saying there was red juice running out of it, and that was enough for me to take it away.

I like rare steak but wouldn't risk undercooked mince and definitely wouldn't serve it to my dc.

You were right to say something.

I doubt he would just sit back and let his son eat something that could make him sick just because you had cooked it.

Its really bad. People believe that because it’s beef then it can’t make you sick, however the grinding and then mashing together of beef mince means that lots of the beef touches the air and bacteria can grow in the meat. Not cooking it through can then lead to food poisoning.

Also gourmet restaurants are aware that they shouldn’t really serve pink burgers but it is a trend which cuts a high profit margin so they do t anyway.

Pink drippy burgers are gross and not correct IMHO. Undercooked mince probably wouldn't do harm though, assuming it was kept properly refrigerated before cooking.

As PP have said, I like my steak virtually blue, but I would never eat a burger that's pink inside, for the reasons given upthread. A rare steak is completely different in terms of the risk of food poisoning.

I can take a risk with many things food-related in the pursuit of it tasting good, but would send back a 'gourmet' pink burger every time.

Thanks for all the replies.

For those who eat pink burgers at home, did you read that BBC link someone posted near the beginning of the thread? I'm curious about whether that would change your mind about serving your kids pink burgers?

I just don't feel it's reasonable to take the chance with small children. I've had food poisoning twice and it was horrific.

Steak tartare is mined steak raw, so it's prob ok if it's fresh reasonable quality meat. Generally speaking lamb and beef are ok. Obvs anything can have some bacteria on, even a sandwich. Just a quick blast in microwave if you are not sure, but we can usually deal with a bit of dirt, may be good for us.

Pork and chicken contain food poisoning bugs and you always have to be really careful to use fresh, cook them thru, freeze quickly, reheat properly and wash your hands, boards, knives etc with hot soapy water and not use for anything which is not going to be cooked. Dispose of packaging carefully too

Tootrue
Thanks for that link.

I choose to have steak medium rare.

A burger which is a tiny bit pink in the middle is fine and will not harm your dc.

I had the worst food poisoning of my life from a slightly pink burger. YADNBU

I'm genuinely not sure but it would depend on the burger I guess. Dope Burger in Hull, that incidentally have the best burgers in the entire world, had to get an extra licence from Hull City Council I believe before they were permitted to serve rare burgers. Probably to show to confirm to various hygiene policies.

I wouldn't serve a rare mass produced burger to a child though.

Yanbu to not wish to risk your child getting food poisoning from eating raw mince. Yabu suggesting chucking it to make another meal. That seems wasteful (especially of meat). It would take no time to chuck it back in pan/grill for a couple of minutes or to nuke in the microwave for a minute!

The FSA changed the advice on burgers a few years ago. The restaurant I worked for used to offer "medium well" burgers cooked to 73 degrees rather than the standard 75 degrees. We stopped following the new guidelines. It's nothing to do with preferring to not eat "overcooked" meat, it's to do with avoiding ecoli and other awful bugs.

i would check for blood running out of the burger

You're right Iam
I should've cooked it more. The sight of blood running into the roll just made my stomach turn and I put it straight in the food bin without thinking

I don’t think it’s a biggie that yiu chucked it in bin given it was oozing blood

The scary 'food poisoning bug' that can develop on minced beef is e. coli.

Shit bacteria.

There's no way of knowing if it's there or not and the only way of killing it is to cook mince properly.

Surprised about the number of people who don’t understand the difference between steak and burgers in this context.

It was lipstick
DH was trying to say it was ketchup but it was blatantly obvious what it was! (For the record, he has since said sorry and he that he didn't realise it was quite so undercooked)

No, I wouldn’t eat them

In that situation of an undercooked burger oozing blood one isn’t thinking how can I best be frugal here

He was wrong to serve something so undercooked; nobody wants a bloody burger.

The sight of blood running into the roll just made my stomach turn

That suggests you might be very sensitive to meat that isn't well done, though.

My biggest issue with this is that I don't think I'd want DP to say "I'd rather he was eating that" about something I'd cooked our children. I'd be happy to talk about how much we cook their burgers, but phrasing it like that would make me feel that he thought he knew better than me, and that he had more control over what our child was going to eat.