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Those of you who deliberately don't eat meat probably won't want to read this.
The rest of you, help yourself!
There are alternatives when you don't have a regular donor.
One of them is a nice rare steak. It can be expensive, but it can also make
the difference between maintaining control and "vamping out" or losing
control in a potentially dangerous situation. You will notice I'm specifically
NOT claiming it a "suitable" replacement - merely, like fast food,
a way to tide you over in times when, for one reason or another, you're without
a donor.
I've seen postings from people who've complained about reactions from eating
raw meat, whether they feel yucky, get sick, or whatever. While eating it raw
IS an acquired taste in and of itself, you should know that raw meat can, and
often does, have various types of bacteria on it, and thus the possibility for
food poisoning [link] is always a risk if the outside isn't thoroughly cooked.
(If you are used to eating rare or raw meats you will have less of a problem
than if you are used to eating more thoroughly cooked cuts of meat.
In any case, a small amount of cooking will take care of the bacteria problem
AND allow you to get even more blood from it than if you tried it raw. I'm going
to assume most people can figure out how to eat a steak...here are instructions
if you want to, ah, bleed the steak instead.
The only caveat I have for my instructions here is that I cook with an electric
oven - if you have gas or some other oven-cooking method, your cooking times
WILL VARY from what I have listed here.
You will need:
A sharp knife, either no serrations or very small serrations - no bread
knives
cutting board that keeps the meat at an angle or has a drain trench around
the edge
cup of some kind (no aluminum, pewter or lead) - CLEAN ceramic coffee mug
works fine
optional: salt - sea salt or kosher types are recommended
And of course, the steak...
Find yourself a halfway decent cut of meat. The example I'm going to use
here is a flank steak, they're usually around an inch thick. If you have it,
spend the money for one labeled "organic" or "grain-fed"
rather than anything without either label - this reducdes the risk of mad
cow disease, since any farm using the "organic" lable is stringent
about their quality, and "grain fed" means there are no cast-off
meat parts added into the cattle feed.
Turn the oven on to "Bake" at 500 degrees. "Broil" means
the burner coils stay on, as opposed to shutting off when they reach temperature.
(You can use the "broil" setting, but you have to REALLY pay attention
- the "bake" setting allows for some "oops" factor for
people not used to doing this.)
Once it reaches temperature, put the meat in. You only need to cook this
to rare, but depending on the cut and thickness of the meat, the time it takes
will vary, especially if you keep opening the oven door to check. :)
You can use the following "squish test":
Rare
Let your hand dangle and shake it gently to relax it. Touch the side of your
hand between thumb and index finger. The muscle will feel like rare meat -
soft and wobbly, yielding to the slightest pressure. The meat will be cool
and red in the center.
Medium
Stretch out your hand and tense your fingers. Touch the muscle again and you
will feel the springy firmness that develops as meat cooks. Medium steaks
have the same resistance. The meat will be warm and light pink in the middle.
Well Done
Now ball your hand into a fist and touch the muscle. It should feel hard and
unyielding, with all springiness gone. When the surface of a steak feels the
same way, the meat is well done. The meat will be warm and brown all the way
through. If you've gotten to this point for a steak you intend to squeeze,
it's hopeless, there's no blood left in the meat. :(
I try to err on the "rare" side - use less cooking time - because
if it's not done enough, you can always warm it up some more...but you can't
take medium well and turn it back into rare.
Once it's done, pull it out and do a test slice about an inch in from the end.
Cut against the grain (on a flank steak you're usually cutting across the short
direction) AND at an angle. This gives you more surface area to bleed the meat
from. If the meat is cooked perfectly, you'll see a ring of brown around the
edges of the slice with a red-to-pink center - not quite as red as rare, but
not pink either. Also, the internal visible texture should match the outside
visible texture.
If the inside still has the clingy texture of raw meat, then it ought to be
cooked just a little longer in order to be able to squeeze the blood out.
If the test slice looks ok, start slicing the rest of the meat. As you slice,
you'll need to periodically pour off the blood that's collected - this is where
that cup comes in handy. :) Once you've got the meat all sliced up and the blood
poured off, if what you've collected so far isn't enough you can always squeeze
that pile of meat that you've just finished creating. Squeezing each slice individually
works better than grabbing a handful.
I've estimated that a pound of flank steak will net me an easy 1/4 cup up to
as much as 1/2 cup of blood when cooked and cut in this manner, and up to twice
that when squeezed as well. (In my opinion, squeezing the meat renders it pretty
much inedible outside of using it in recipes since I like my steaks rare, but
it all depends on what you plan to do with the meat afterward and whether you'll
eat it.)
If the beef blood is too bland (which will most likely be the case if you're
used to having donors) you can add a little kosher or sea salt (which I highly
recommend over plain or iodized table salt) to the blood to give it a little
more flavor. In the amount mentioned above, 2-3 twists of a sea salt grinder
and stirred around with a spoon should flavor it nicely.
No, it's not the same as having a regular donor give you blood, but it will
help keep you sane.
This article is presented as part of an ongoing effort to present other views outside of, as well as within, the online vampire community. As such, the views and attitudes contained in this article are entirely those of the author(s), and may not necessarily be shared by SphynxCatVP. The webmaster is not under obligation to update or otherwise keep current the contents of this article. Most importantly, only you can decide for yourself whether this article or any of the author(s) other views are useful or applicable to you - use your own reasoning and judgement.
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