why is red meat able to be served medium rare, eggs can be medium (soft boiled), but chicken can’t be medium rare

Question

Why is red meat able to be served medium rare, eggs (which also come from chickens), can be undercooked, but chicken can’t be?

In: Other

Answer 1

Chickens have less dense muscle fiber than cows. With beef, bacterial contamination typically stays on the surface and is killed when you sear it. With chicken it’s more likely to penetrate so you need to cook it all the way through.

With eggs it varies from country to country. Some countries vaccinate their chickens against salmonella. In the US we do not, so it’s not recommended to eat undercooked eggs. That said the risk is pretty low. Only something like one in 10,000 eggs actually has salmonella inside.