My mother flipped out because she ordered her steak at Longhorn "rare" and it came looking like this photo (under rare):
I told my mother that if she wanted it how she likes it, she has to ask for medium. She insisted that she hated medium steak, and it must be rare, but that what she got was raw.
Sigh. I had no meat thermometer, so I could not be 100% certain who was correct, but it seems easily possible to me that what she got met most chef's description of rare and what she thinks of as rare is really medium.
I say this because growing up in her house I always knew I liked my burgers what she called rare, but what I now know is actually medium.
The way to avoid confusion is to order meat my temperature. I prefer steak at 125-130F and burgers at 130-145.
She is probably thinking of roast beef when she thinks rare which actually looks closer to medium than it does to rare.
Anyway, I may have to try ordering by temperature next time, seems like a foolproof way at a place that knows what it's doing.
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Russian wrote:Also, I consider well done steak to be a waste of perfectly good meat. It's shoe leather masquerading as food.
I used to think so, but since I learned more, I am going to somewhat disagree.
What most people call well-done is actually over 170 degrees and should be called "over-cooked."
True well done is 160 degrees is still plenty juicy.
I prefer pink inside, so I am not saying I would order it this way, but I don't consider 160 degree meat to be at the point of being ruined. Your "shoe leather" description seems to imply much more than 160 degrees. That is just overcooked.
On those temps, they almost look like the temperatures I pull them and then let them sit under foil to climb another 10-20%. I wonder if the first chart had the when you should pull it off, and the other was the absolute internal temp.
I don't even order steak anymore, because I cannot have it prepared to my satisfaction - blue rare.
I do mine at home, on a gas grill. 20 seconds on a dull red hot grill with the flames in contact with the meat. 20 seconds, flip, 20 seconds, flip, 20 seconds, flip, 20 seconds, remove and serve. The middle will still be cold. Just the way I like it.
I am tired of people telling me I'm a nut for eating steak this way. This is how I like it. Don't like it my way? Don't eat it then.
Russian-- I hear what your saying, I noticed that just about everyone that I met when I lived in NY (Jewish, Italian, etc) were generally not open to trying new foods or ways of preparing things. I tried many times to get peeps to try sushi and most would not! I however must disagree with you about your reverse snobbishness to the filet! While I applaud your adherence to steak prep and cooking guidelines the fact that you are not a fan of the filet tells me you have some screws loose! I LOVE FILET and I'm not worried about my weight either ( 6'3" 255) . I also love ribeye, tbone, porterhouse, etc. You have to ask yourself, if filet cost the same as every other cut would you eat more filet ? If not , I stand by my earlier statement about loose screws
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The chef will generally give you a terrible cut that he's glad to get rid of if you order a well done steak. I generally swing between midrare and medium and like the outside with a slight char.
I am currently working at a butchers to earn a little extra money between semesters. If you buy your meat from a reputable butcher, who maintains good hygiene, food handling, temperatures , and cleanliness, then you should have no problems cooking your stakes blue, let alone rare.
The shop i work at, every night we clean everything! Equipment, walls, floor, ceiling, doors, with 180* water, and cleaners/ sanitizers and lots of scrubbing. The standards are very very very, high. The goal is for a completely sterile environment, operating room clean or better.
personally I like aged strip done med rare. Best stakes i have had out of the house are at the Morton's in Las Vegas. Other Morton's are no where near as good, I dont know why?
My solution is to never order a steak at a restaurant. My home steaks are far better and cheaper. Most restaurant steaks don't even look like they came out of an animal.
Jmark wrote:The chef will generally give you a terrible cut that he's glad to get rid of if you order a well done steak. I generally swing between midrare and medium and like the outside with a slight char.
That would seem likely.
I am not much of a steak eater, but if I did, I would order it medium-rare. And I would order a burger medium.
By the way, as more evidence that 'well done' is not the same as 'over-cooked,' 5-Guys burgers - which are pretty good, are ONLY made well done and they are plenty juicy. 160 degrees is still juicy.
Schulze wrote:My solution is to never order a steak at a restaurant. My home steaks are far better and cheaper. Most restaurant steaks don't even look like they came out of an animal.
Ditto that here Schulze from now on.
Took my wife to a Connor's Steakhouse last night for our anniversary. Her fillet was cooked medium rare, but was room temperature on the outside. My prime rib was salmon pink throughout and also room temperature. My wife sent her's back to get it right the second time. I sent mine back twice; the last time to be "grilled", what returned was a skillet heated gray blob of rubbery fat and mush. Needless to say, I didn't eat it or pay for it!
I get great cuts of meat from Costco; and even better deals on their vaccum packed sides. You have to cut those yourself now; they used to do it in their butcher shop but realized they were undercutting their own products. But, I know I get the Texas sized 3" cut on the meat that way, anyway.
Now I'm hugry and craving a good 44 oz. porterhouse from Abner's in Tucson!
America is not at war. The U.S. Military is at war. America is at the mall.
On a related note. I recently purchased a meat grinder and am trying to find the right cut for good hamburgers, which I usually eat medium, but would probably cook less because I can now control the cleanliness of the grinding environment.
I like to put shallots or onions, a little dijon, Lowry's seasoning salt, garlic and pepper in my burgers. I'll add some Sirachi chili sauce if I want some heat.
Russian wrote:
Dude you just reminded me of something I heard in prison. There was this dumbass crack dealer who celled next to me and he was talking about how he'd pick up women at the club and have unprotected sex with them.
Other inmate: "You don't wrap that s--t up?"
Dumbass: "Nah, man. I like the smell of burnt meat."
The 'burnt meat' comment implied that he wasn't big on foreplay either.
I don't know whether to laugh or throw up. F--k it, I'll do both.
I like the taste of lesser cooked meats, just can't get over the texture/feel of it. Plus I love the crispy edges. Admittedly, I'm a weird fucker. I know.
I think why "pop" steakhouses seem to always cook a steak one step farther than I specify is that few of them understand that the rarer you want your steak, the hotter you need your grill to be.
They all need to get done on the outside, it's just a matter of how far into the cut you want the heat to penetrate. If you want a rare or medium rare steak, you need a very hot grill to get the surface done quickly before the middle gets too warm. I like medium rare steaks, but I find to get medium rare, I usually have to order a rare steak. But then you run the risk of actually getting a rare steak, which I tend to think are under-textured.
At least if I want a perfectly cooked (according to me) steak, I can always just cook my own...
Love the burnt meat taste.
