Question

Dear Rabbi,

I have a question for you that my religion teacher didn't know the answer to. According to the Bible, all kinds of blood are prohibited. But are you allowed to eat a steak that's cooked medium rare? I hope you understand my question.

Answer

For meat to be kosher, the animal is slaughtered by cutting the jugular artery and letting all the blood drain out. The meat is than rinsed and soaked in water for half an hour (Y.D. 69:1 in Rama). After the soaking, the meat is covered with salt and left for an hour to drain whatever blood may still remain. (Y.D. 69:4-6). The meat is then abundantly rinsed. After this process, the meat is supposedly drained of all it's blood, and the length of cooking no longer matters.
Meat from a ritually slaughtered animal, can also be made kosher by broiling it rather than through the soaking and salting process.. However, the custom is to wash the meat and salt it immediately before broiling.The broiling should be done on a grid which allows the blood to drip freely. In this case, the meat is considered kasher when there is a change of color and a crust is formed.