Why can't owners keep their noses out?

[ShawtyCat]

Yellow Pages? Right! Im starting to miss the butcher shops of Brooklyn. And the Asian markets.

As for parcooking the burgers....maybe it might actually work. I just don't think the taste will be the same.

[chiffonade]

We occasionally did burger specials at our little takeout place - and the thing that was considered "fast food" had one of the longest cook times on the menu!

We would season the beef, weigh and flatten the burgers as much as possible (to decrease cook time somewhat) - but they were always cooked "to order." Hubby made beautiful rolls for them. They would be served with a slaw and fries. Although they were very good they weren't very fast and ultimately came off the menu. Our customers had become accustomed to a quick turnaround time from order to departure.

The problem with ground beef is that the surface which is where the germs reside, gets mixed up with the internal meat. When you prepare a steak rare (yeah!), you destroy the bacteria on the surface of the meat and it doesn't matter that the internal meat is undercooked. However, when you grind it, you're mixing in that surface meat and if you serve a burger rare, you don't destroy the bacteria which has now wound its way to the center of the burger.

Using the best quality, freshest beef and handling it properly will cut down on problems. Even posted signs, though, may not be able to stave off lawsuits. People find a way around everything. If a burglar hurts him/herself in the process of robbing you, he or she can still sue you. If rare meat doesn't make you sick that little statistic should.

[holydiver]

A big problem with the rare burgers is especially in grocery stores when the meat gets ground it sometimes has ground pork or chicken in it either from the grinder not properly being cleaned or deliberate filling in with other junk.

[chiffonade]

Originally posted by holydiver
A big problem with the rare burgers is especially in grocery stores when the meat gets ground it sometimes has ground pork or chicken in it either from the grinder not properly being cleaned or deliberate filling in with other junk.

How naive of me to forget that! Thanks for the reminder.

[marmalady]

I'm just tired of hassling with this guy; it's so obvious that he's not 'owned' the food side of the restaurant like he has the ice cream side. All he wants to do is make ice cream. I'll just go in, do what he wants, and hope the health dept. shuts him down! (To maybe teach him a lesson - not out of vindictiveness)

On the lighter side, re the health dept., yesterday I was in the 'prep/ice cream factory/dishwasher room, and he came charging downstairs white as a ghost, saying 'the health inspector is here - clean up what you can. Now, there were dirty dishes sitting on the ice cream prep table, the dishwasher floor drain was overflowing and there was water on the floor, and the back door was open. I shut the back door, went into the walk-in, and made sure the foodstuffs in the walk in that me and my crew are responsible for were in tiptop shape, everything in its place, labelled and positioned. Took me about 2 minutes; we have it together!

Then went upstairs, and said to the GM - do you know who's here? She looked puzzled, and said, no, who? When I told her the health inspector, she started laughing, and said, 'yeah, he was just here - to get an ice cream!'. I told her the owner was scurrying around the basement, we had a good laugh, and about 5 minutes later, she went down and told him.

So there are some bright sides!