HOW DO YOU WANT IT COOKED? You may have heard the old yarn about a man who went to a restaurant for breakfast and was asked what he wanted. "Eggs," he said. "How do you like your eggs?" the waitress asked. "Oh, I like ‘em all right," he answered. She pressed on, "I mean, how do you like ‘em cooked?" He answered, "Oh I like ‘em that way best of all." In one of the churches I served as pastor our deacons and spouses, totaling forty or more, went to a popular steak house for an annual Christmas party. The waitress asked each person how they wanted their steak cooked. The expected answers were given, such as rare, medium, well, or leave a little pink. But one of the men gave an answer which intrigued me and stuck in my memory. Maybe he was only trying to be funny, but when the waitress questioned him he answered, "done." Ever since then I think about his answer when someone orders a steak. I want mine "done" also, and with no more than just a little pink left, but "done" must mean different things to different people. Some prefer theirs with a little pink or even very rare, like one who supposedly told a waitress, "Just run the steer by and I’ll cut off a slice." That’s a bit extreme, but I have seen people eating beef so rare that I chided, "I’ve seen beef hurt worse than that got well," or "It’s so rare it still has a pulse." It was a concern for public health that governmental agencies saw the wisdom of insuring that meat is adequately cooked, which required fast food restaurants and others to reach a minimum level of heat and time for the meats they served. I never was enticed by the craze nor was I foolhardy enough to swallow raw oysters. And considering how polluted some streams and oyster beds have become I feel it would be very unwise now for anyone to eat raw oysters. Still, either because of insanity, poor judgment, or intoxication some people have swallowed harmful things, including uncooked meats and even some living creatures, like a woman I saw on television apparently eating a live cockroach. Gross! Unless I was on the verge of starvation there are some things I wouldn’t eat even if they were cooked. Although I have enjoyed eating steamed oysters a few times in past years, I suspect that steamed oysters are only marginally cooked. Their good taste, it seems to me, is not because of the cooking but mainly because of the sauce in which they are dipped. I heard my father, who lived to be almost ninety-three say many times, "If we didn’t cook our food we would all be dead." That remark had to be more than something he had heard or some culinary secret he read about. Though I never heard him explain the origin of his saying I think I know how it came about and why it became so deeply ingrained in his mind. It grew out of an experience he had when he operated a general store in Kenly before World War I. Like many general stores of the time his carried a variety of hardware and farm supplies, clothing items, canned goods, patent medicines, candy, and occasional vegetables. Stores like his usually had a counter where salted meat was kept and sliced on demand. The same counter also contained cured country hams. After slices were cut from the ham the knife and the ham would remain on the exposed counter for subsequent customers. Well and good! Except for what often happened! Occasionally a customer or the merchant would take the knife and cut a sliver off the ham and eat it raw, a sliver which was cured but uncooked. I am certain that my father did this on occasion. As a consequence he ingested whatever it was that gave birth to a tapeworm, eggs often resident in the flesh of hogs. Fortunately, we don’t hear much about tapeworms today, but a tapeworm is an animal parasite that lives in the intestines of humans and animals. The tapeworm is segmented and the segments increase and grow, developing into a long creature which attaches itself to intestinal inner walls. While tapeworm infestation may go unheeded for a while, the parasite can cause serious problems, such as affecting one’s appetite and producing anemia, weakness, and nervous symptoms. Let me tell you more of this story, even if it seems a bit gross. Dr. J. C. Grady, one of Kenly’s physicians at the time, tried to free my father of the parasitic creature, but without success. Then one day he said he had found something he believed would do the trick. I do not know what the good doctor gave him, but from hearing that story a few times I believe it contained a one-two punch, one which benumbed the parasite, causing it to release its hold, and one which flushed it. That tenacious one-piece tapeworm measured twenty-four feet and nine inches in length, long aplenty, but still not a record. It was kept preserved, like a war trophy, in a fruit jar for years, always reminding that food should always be thoroughly cooked. So, though I like most foods, I choose not to eat uncooked meat. I like some stir-fried foods, but some I have seen seemed to have received only a superficial pass through some barely tepid liquid. Food can be overcooked, of course, both meat and vegetables, but for my preferences they must be cooked. Not only does cooking minimize the chance of ingesting a variety of potentially harmful substances, but in most cases, it enhances the taste. Now, while there is nothing particularly religious about this article, nor does it need to be, I will say that cooking our food "can cover a multitude of sins," by killing a legion of potentially harmful germs and impurities not otherwise removed. Bon Appetit!
The address of my website, HODGEPODGE PUBLICATIONS, is www.rayhodge.com. Books of mine available for ordering are posted there, as well as other information and access to free articles of mine, formerly published in The Smithfield Herald. A listing of books by Ray Hodge can be found and ordered from his website. They are also available at the Smithfield's Heritage Center, Quick Print Solutions, and The Kenly News.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY OF RAY K. HODGE Ray Hodge served on or chaired numerous committees in the North Carolina Baptist State Convention, including 2 ½ terms as President of the General Board. He has been a Biblical Recorder Director, a Trustee Meredith College, a Trustee of Wake Forest University, and a member and Chairman of the Board of Ministers of Campbell University. Ray wrote the Sunday School Lesson commentary for the Biblical Recorder for nineteen years and was a teacher for the Baptist State Convention Sunday School Department's televised Sunday School lessons, 1981-1993. Ray Hodge has traveled in Canada, Mexico, Central America, the Middle East, Europe, and all of the fifty United States. |