As part of keeping my pack light, one of my stainless steel water bottles doubles as my cooking device at camp. I boil water in it over a simple alcohol burner and can make basics like oatmeal or packaged soup.

I'd like to do something more advanced. I hoped to bring a bag of cubed beef and stew it. Can I throw raw beef in with veggies and water and let it boil for a long time? Some people have said it all gets cooked, so putting in raw beef is no problem. Others have insisted that you must cook meat before putting it in stew or else it contaminates everything. Since I really only have a means of boiling water it would be much easier if I could do this all in one go.

What do you think? Can I boil the raw meat or must it be precooked?