Four Raw Beef Recipes From Around The World | Small Footprint Family™ (2024)

Almost all cultures that eat traditional whole food diets have recipes for raw meat, and trying these dishes can really give you a unique and exciting taste of the culture itself.

Everyone should try well-prepared raw beef once, even if you think you won’t like it, as it can be a real treat. Here are four traditional raw beef recipes from different parts of the world.

The Benefits of Raw Animal Foods

Fresh, local, organic foods in their raw or fermented state are nutrient-dense and packed with enzymes and beneficial bacteria that help us absorb vitamins and maintain a healthy digestive system. You might be surprised that this is especially true of raw, pasture-raised meats, eggs and dairy, as well as wild caught seafood.

Heating animal foods denatures their fat and protein, destroys their enzymes and reduces their vitamin content. For example, people who are lactose-intolerant to pasteurized dairy often have no problem with raw milk, which has its lactase enzyme intact to break down the lactose naturally.

Properly prepared raw meat is very easy to digest. Raw meat also has significantly more vitamins than cooked meat and contains enzymes for digestion. Raw beef, when from a pasture-raised, grass-fed cow, is packed with Vitamins A, D and B-12 as well as iron, selenium, zinc and magnesium, which most Americans have deficiencies in.

Grass-fed beef also is very high in Omega-3 fatty acids and is the highest food source of cancer-fighting Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA).

But, when you grill meat, sear it, or cook it to temperatures above medium rare, you not only destroy nutrients, but you can also create oxidized fats and chemical byproducts that can be highly toxic to the body. Some of these byproducts, like the char on blackened meat and fish, are carcinogenic.

Long ago, charred meat was probably one of the few toxins we ever unknowingly introduced into our lives. But today, given how polluted our living environments have become, how stressed out our modern lives are, and how depleted most of our food is to begin with, adding to your body’s toxic burden by eating a lot of foods that have been ultra-pasteurized, irradiated, microwaved or cooked too long at high temperatures is just not a very good idea.

Eating at least a third of your food in a raw or lacto-fermented state can greatly improve your nutrition, and therefore your health! Here are some raw or lacto-fermented foods you might include more in your diet:

• vegetable salads
• sushi or sashimi
• raw milk or raw milk cheese
• yogurt or kefir
• salami, carpaccio or pastrami
• sauerkraut and other fermented vegetables
• beef or tuna tartare
• ceviche
• raw egg smoothies
• green smoothies
• raw egg and raw milk ice cream
• frozen raw liver “pills”

Selecting Raw Animal Foods

Raw meat or seafood “cooked” in acid (citrus, vinegar, etc.) and seasoned with local spices is an ancient and traditional way of preparing meat that goes by many names, and is enjoyed by many people worldwide.

However, the quality of the ingredients is paramount to the success of the dish, and, considering the horrid infections that occasionally strike those who eat industrially-raised, feedlot meats, selecting your meat properly is very important.

To eat any raw food safely (plant or animal), always make sure it is fresh, organic, and preferably raised on a local, small farm you can visit or vet in some way.

Any animal products you intend to eat raw must not only be organic, but also pasture-raised and grass-fed. Anything else just isn’t as likely to be safe or healthy.

While industrially-produced, grain-fed animal products from the grocery store are typically not clean enough to eat rare, much less raw, you can often find eggs, meat, seafood and dairy that are fresh, toxin-free and pasture-raised from local farmers (or wild-caught by local fishermen).

Other good places to find clean meat are natural food stores, good butcher shops, Eatwild.com, or through reputable online retailers like U.S. Wellness Meats and Vital Choice Seafood.

Traditional Raw Beef Recipes

Choose your beef from healthy, 100% pasture-raised cattle that are not treated with hormones or antibiotics. If the beef has also been flash-frozen immediately after butchering, you can feel extra comfortable eating it raw. (U.S. Wellness Meats does this.)

To eat fresh raw beef safely, you want to find a thick, whole piece of grass-fed beef filet or sirloin. Filet or sirloin are the most tender cuts, and you want the cut to be thick because the bacteria that can cause food poisoning can’t penetrate a whole piece of meat—they stay on the surface.

When you get the meat home, quickly sear it on all sides—you’re just killing whatever is on the surface, not cooking the meat. Then remove it from the flames, trim away the seared sections, and you’re ready to proceed.

Updated September 5, 2022