Skip the "cannibal sandwiches," says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A Wisconsin tradition, a cannibal sandwich is an appetizer featuring raw, lean ground beef served on cocktail bread. But health officials said they’re not safe, noting that more than a dozen people became ill with infections like E. coli after consuming them last holiday season.
Health officials confirmed four cases tied to E. coli bacteria and 13 likely cases in people who ate the sandwiches at several gatherings late last year, the CDC said a report issued this week in its journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
The meat came from a Watertown market that later recalled more than 2,500 pounds of meat.
Cannibal sandwiches were tied to outbreaks in Wisconsin in 1972, 1978 and 1994. The appetizer, also called "tiger meat," "steak tartare" or simply "ground beef," is usually a simple dish of lean ground meat seasoned with salt and pepper on rye cocktail bread with sliced raw onion, said Milwaukee historian John Gurda, who served it at his 1977 wedding reception. Occasionally, a raw egg will be mixed with the meat.
Cannibal sandwiches have been a festive dish in German, Polish and other ethnic communities in the Milwaukee area since the 19th century, Gurda said. The 66-year-old said it was once common to see them at wedding receptions, meals following funerals and Christmas and New Year's Eve parties. The dish has become less common in recent years with greater awareness of the risks of uncooked meat and fewer people eating beef, but Gurda said he still runs into it.
"It's like a coarse pate and when you put the onions on, there's a crunch as well and that kind of cuts the softness," he said.
