Grape LaneGood food, good drink, good cuisine and cooking.

Food Safety IssuesFiled Under: Everything Else

A few years back, I cooked a Christmas feast for a couple’s party.  As they were driving out of our drive way, I ran to the bathroom sick as could be.  My first thought was “I’ve undercooked the turkey and poisoned all of the guests.”  Fortunately, it was just me.  Still, if you do any cooking, you can’t help but worry about keeping your food safe for consumption.

I think part of my fear stems from the fact that I have suffered from food poisoning and it is NOT something I would wish on my worst enemy.  The details are not something I’ll share, but let’s just say it’s unpleasant.

Seafood is something that my family (even the younger ones) loves, but that I just refuse to cook.  We don’t live any where near the ocean or sea and I was always concerned about how “fresh” the frozen alternatives really would be.  Alton Brown did a special on his show, “Good Eats” about seafood, and it relieved me enough to buy some frozen shrimp.  I still haven’t cooked it though.

Chicken breasts are my favorite meat item to cook.  Even if you over cook them, you can still find ways to make them edible.  I’m slowly venturing out to other meats and new cuts, but I still worry about getting them to a safe temperature – especially when there is a grill involved.

Trial and error just won’t cut it when it comes to safety issues.  I will continue to look for probes and electronics that will help me keep my family safe.  And I’ll probably leave the seafood to the professionals.