Undercooked Meat: Why's it So Hard to Have it "Your Way?"

I remember when I was younger, one of the TV jingles that was so memorable to me was "Have it Your Way....At Burger King." I can still sing the tune in my head, and I can still remember the days when I really could have a burger cooked just my way. This song does not refer to the way the burger itself was cooked, yet it makes me remember days when we didn't panic about eating medium-rare burgers and when red in our meat meant it was juicier and more flavorful, not a death sentence.

I love hamburgers, but I can't stand to have them too well done. Well or well done, to me, make the burger taste like a piece of charcoal. I much prefer to have my burgers prepared medium rare, however, over the last ten years, this is virtually impossible to have done in a restaurant.

In January of 1993, the West Coast fast food chain, Jack in the Box had an E-Coli situation that infected more than 400 people in Washington State, Nevada, and Idaho. The E-Coli was supposedly linked to bacteria found in the beef that could have potentially been cooked out had the beef been cooked to a higher temperature. Fueled partially by this incident, it has become against the law to cook ground beef under a certain temperature in restaurants.

At the time of the Jack in the Box scandal, I was living in Florida, and because the chain of fast food restaurants did not operate in Florida or anywhere on the east coast that I am aware of, I had not known of the story. In 1993, I was 25 years old and had focuses that did not include watching the news regularly. Therefore, I had not heard of the incident.

I remember one night going in to Denny's and trying to order a cheeseburger medium rare. I was told by the waiter that they were not allowed to cook it that way and in fact, they could not cook burgers under medium well. I was stunned. I asked why, and he told me it was against the law. I had no understanding of how this could be, but I remember asking him if anyone would get arrested if I ate a medium rare burger. I was mad! And, when I asked questions and found out the reason, it only made me angrier that this stupid fast food place's carelessness ruined my burger eating pleasure.