Re: To neutralize harmful seafood bacteria w/o cooking?

[Guest guest]

> Nourishing Traditions says raw seafood is good.

>

> Question is, is there a way to neutralize the bad bacteria,

without cooking the seafood?

>

> I was thinking about soaking in G.S.E., but perhaps you have a

better idea?

>

> Thanks for your answers or comments.

>

> DMJ

If you let bite size pieces of raw seafood soak in fresh lime or

lemon juice the acid in the juice " cooks " the seafood without using

heat. I do not know if it destroys bad bacteria or how long the

seafood should soak. It may be helpful to add zest from the peel to

the soak as the essential citrus oils might have some antibacterial

properties.

While visiting Okinawa I heard of individuals roaming the beaches at

lowtide looking for dead sea urchins. Evidently the dead sea urchins

ferment and can be eaten uncooked with a spoon out of the shell.

Somehow I doubt I'll ever try this dish.

Darrell

[Guest guest]

Geez, I'm way behind on e-group stuff these days, pretty hectic days,

but I just scanned the past few days of messages and I thought this

was interesting... a perennial topic we still don't have good answers

for...

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> There is a warning on the package that this and all seafood " must

be thoroughly cooked " , as well as a brochure at the market with dire

warnings about a special, very harmful/toxic bacteria in e.g. raw,

uncooked clams.

>

> Nourishing Traditions says raw seafood is good.

>

> Question is, is there a way to neutralize the bad bacteria, without

cooking the seafood?

>

> I was thinking about soaking in G.S.E., but perhaps you have a

better idea?

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Well, raw seafood is unquestionably good, but most things are both

good and bad at the same time, and the balance of the two is heavily

dependent on extrinsic circumstances, like how the food was

produced. I think we have to take it case-by-case and always deal

with practical limitations. I eat raw oysters all the time, but I

always cook my eel and snails. Compared to raw, I don't think it

makes much difference to steam seafood a little to eliminate

dangers. From everything I'm aware of (surely not everything, but

well more than nothing), the nutritional change seems

insignificant. I eat raw octopus pretty often too, and sometimes

it's tastier that way, but sometimes it tastes better or is more

tender briefly steamed. Same for cuttlefish, which is incredible

steamed for like 30 seconds or a minute. But then something like

oysters tastes much better raw. Certainly there's no need to cook

any seafood (besides fish carcasses) to death like in marathon

soups/stews or power-frying, but I think the better idea in this case

is to just cook minimally in cases where there's uncertainty. That

talk about clams and such certainly makes me nervous, and I'm not

into taking risks with this stuff, so if I prefer to play it safe in

any " hot " cases.

Also, I probably don't need to point out that those dire warnings are

there for legal reasons and don't constitute reliable information.

Mike

SE Pennsylvania

The best way to predict the future is to invent it. --Alan Kay