Preventive Bourbon

[NOBourbon]

Many years ago I started the practice of sippin' some bourbon while eating my raw oysters. The presumption is that some nice strong bourbon in the stomach before, some sips during, and a nice splash after would help kill any of the bad stuff that MIGHT be on/in the oysters (like vibrio).

Well..... on a past trip to China I where I was being served some raw seafood I was told by the locals to drink Baijiu (Chinese white liquor about 50% ABV) before, during and after. Who am I to argue with ancient Chinese tradition.

Works for me. Anyone else use this method? I have heard that this is one of the reasons Japanese drink Saki with sushi/sashimi.

BTW, I also use preventive bourbon for mental health on certain days.... ;-)

[cowdery]

I have operated under the same logic myself but I'm not sure how sound it is. On the other hand, it couldn't hurt.

[Hawg73]

I'm not sure the alcohol would kill anything that your stomach acids wouldn't. But, I must agree it still sounds like a great strategy!

[ILLfarmboy]

I'm pretty sure I have read about the protective nature of consuming alcohol with a meal. I don't think it works like a vacination of sorts, but it will offer a scant bit of protection.

I remember a meal of fried turtle a few years back that may have went over better with some bourbon.

NOBourbon, was the seafood you were served in China, saltwater species or freshwater? As a general rule, saltwater varieties are safer to eat raw than freshwater.

When eating anything raw or questionable, I always avoid drinking to much (non-alcoholic beverages, anyhow). You don't want to raise the PH of your stomach by gulping water or ice tea, or so goes my reasoning....

[NOBourbon]

NOBourbon, was the seafood you were served in China, saltwater species or freshwater? As a general rule, saltwater varieties are safer to eat raw than freshwater.

On my last trips to China all of the seafood is farm raised. I've mostly been around the Pearl River Delta, which is so polluted that I'm not sure I'd eat anything out of it. That's not to say the farm raised stuff is better. Some it it is just plain nasty.

When eating anything raw or questionable, I always avoid drinking to much (non-alcoholic beverages, anyhow). You don't want to raise the PH of your stomach by gulping water or ice tea, or so goes my reasoning....

Excellent logic. And figures right into my post since I drink the bourbon neat (i.e. very little volume).

[ErichPryde]

I'm not sure the alcohol would kill anything that your stomach acids wouldn't. But, I must agree it still sounds like a great strategy!

Alcohol is a poison, and has no basic or acidic (pH) value. Your stomach is a strong acid, and although it definitely tears things apart via a chemical reaction, it very well may not be able to kill some bacteria that alcohol could.

Bacteria can't survive in 3 point beer. If you had a couple of shots of 40% bourbon, I'm not sure what the total percent of alcohol by volume would be in your stomach and how quickly the alcohol would get digested, but it would certainly be killing something.

[ILLfarmboy]

Bacteria can't survive in 3 point beer..

[RamblinWreck007]

Sounds like you enjoyed bourbon-flavored oysters. Personally, I would think that bourbon would overpower their delicate flavor.

[nblair]

Sounds like you enjoyed bourbon-flavored oysters. Personally, I would think that bourbon would overpower their delicate flavor.

[NOBourbon]

Sounds like you enjoyed bourbon-flavored oysters. Personally, I would think that bourbon would overpower their delicate flavor.

[jburlowski]

I remember a meal of fried turtle a few years back that may have went over better with some bourbon.

Or perhaps without the fried turtle...

[Josh]

By the time you reached your third dozen you, the oysters and bourbon would be one, in harmony, expressing the ultimate feng shui. :grin:

I could eat oysters till les vaches come home, but around here, that would cost you nearly as much as a bottle of ORVW 10/107.:bigeyes:

[ACDetroit]

By the time you reached your third dozen you, the oysters and bourbon would be one, in harmony, expressing the ultimate feng shui. :grin:

Or maybe you would experience ultimate haiku

extra aged bourbon

fresh oysters on the half shell

life's simple pleasures!

Just a thought.

Oh, the sushi bar by my work amazingly, has a great bourbon and scotch collection, must be the way to do things.

Tony

[Dramiel McHinson]

Preventative Bourbon? I think the only way to prove its effectiveness is to drink it all the time. If nothing takes root in your inward self then it's working. I use high proof bourbon to sip steadily when I have a sore throat first show up. Nine times out of ten the sore throat is gone the next day.

In college while taking a biology class (a very long time ago) I learned that alcohol puts a virus in a kind of suspended animation but doesn't kill it. If the virus comes in contact with the right environment it will reactivate. I guess if you drink enough bourbon the virus will have to sleep it off while you run to the doctor to get some Tamiflu.

[WsmataU]

Since I don't care for oysters....I'll play contrarian:lol:. I think that sipping bourbon would not be a sufficient amount of alcohol to kill bacteria unless you were really drinking heavily. Our bodies absorb alcohol very quickly, and although your logic (alcohol killing bacteria) is correct, I think the volume necessary would ruin any pleasure. Of course a really bad hangover is still better than food poisoning!:slappin:

[Rotgut]

Nice, healthy doses of sake and some kind of wine with a meal at a Korean restaurant in China a couple years ago didn't prevent me from getting sick. I was using the same logic, that maybe it would sterilize things somewhat.

There was no raw meat involved (although in retrospect, I think we probably ate some dog. I'll eat just about anything - but eating dog borders on cannibalistic for me). Anyway, there were probably some raw veggies that might've not been washed much (or at all?). That's my best guess at least. I was warned not to eat any raw vegetable from street vendors for this reason, but I tended to let my guard down at restaurants.

Mike

[ErichPryde]

Nice, healthy doses of sake and some kind of wine with a meal at a Korean restaurant in China a couple years ago didn't prevent me from getting sick. I was using the same logic, that maybe it would sterilize things somewhat.

There was no raw meat involved (although in retrospect, I think we probably ate some dog. I'll eat just about anything - but eating dog borders on cannibalistic for me). Anyway, there were probably some raw veggies that might've not been washed much (or at all?). That's my best guess at least. I was warned not to eat any raw vegetable from street vendors for this reason, but I tended to let my guard down at restaurants.

Mike

If your being sick was caused by unwashed vegetables that had pesticide on them, the bourbon wouldn't have done anything anyway. Although you may very well be right, the amount of protection drinking bourbon or other spirits gives you is probably small.

[pepcycle]

Its Deja Vu all over again with oysters.

Unless you bring the average temperature inside your stomach to boiling for 8-10 minutes, your not going to kill the bacteria in oysters.

Ixnay on otsauce hay as well.

Sorry.

http://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/HealthEducators/ucm085385.htm

[ILLfarmboy]

If your being sick was caused by unwashed vegetables that had pesticide on them, the bourbon wouldn't have done anything anyway. Although you may very well be right, the amount of protection drinking bourbon or other spirits gives you is probably small.

[loose proton]

keep in mind there are different types of food poisonings. There is some minor anecdotal evidence that larger amounts of alcohol has had some preventative effect for certain types of food poisonings that result from live beasties (e coli, salmanella, shigella) see: http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/HealthIssues/1110384069.html

BUT, most food poisonings are not from still living beasties. Most food poisonings are from toxins produced by once living beasties or from other toxins (pesticides, etc.). Bacteria live in food and produce by-products. The food is cooked and bacteria die, but the toxic by-products remain.

For food safety, the best use of strong alcohol (50%-70%) is anti-septic, rinse hands before cooking and eating. They make cheap stuff for that, please don't use Stagg.

[ErichPryde]

keep in mind there are different types of food poisonings. There is some minor anecdotal evidence that larger amounts of alcohol has had some preventative effect for certain types of food poisonings that result from live beasties (e coli, salmanella, shigella) see: http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/HealthIssues/1110384069.html

BUT, most food poisonings are not from still living beasties. Most food poisonings are from toxins produced by once living beasties or from other toxins (pesticides, etc.). Bacteria live in food and produce by-products. The food is cooked and bacteria die, but the toxic by-products remain.

For food safety, the best use of strong alcohol (50%-70%) is anti-septic, rinse hands before cooking and eating. They make cheap stuff for that, please don't use Stagg.

[Stu]

In Scotland they pour malt whisky into the oyster shell and you sip it as you suck the oyster out. I've never had them with bourbon, but I bet it will taste as good. Never been to the Mainland (except Hong Kong while it was still under British control), but I've eaten at the grimeiest of noodle stands all over Taiwan, Thailand, Korea, Hong Kong, the Philippines, etc. A flight surgeon told me that if the food is boiling and they take the bowl and chopsticks out of boiling water, its safe. So I always picked noodle stands with boiling cauldrons. Side note: what I've always found funny are the people who won't drink the water but have ice in their drinks.

[ILLfarmboy]

....I remember something I read about salmonella in raw eggs....