(This is a poll, but it’s about food. I went back and forth about whether it belongs here or in IMHO, and finally settled on here – but if a Mod decides otherwise I’ll completely understand. )
DiosaBellissima has a BBQ tips thread going, wherein the following were posted:
Hamburgers should be brown! When did “cooked” start equalling “well done?”
I almost started this thread 3 weeks ago, after my best friend’s annual BBQ: I always have to remind him to cook my burgers (and steaks, when we have them) a little longer, and whenever he asks me to come tell him whether my stuff has cooked long enough I first ask, “Is it brown all the way through?”
My grandmother liked her steak rare. She would say “Just run it through a warm room!” And a guy I dated once also liked his beef very rare – he said, “Just startle it.” (Which, frankly, I found to be very funny.) Both my grandmother and that guy were perfectly nice people, but I just don’t get how they could eat uncooked meat! Blech! And people who like their meat a little pink aren’t much better!
So, how do you like your burgers/steaks? Brown? Pink? Red? Mooing?
The pinker the meat, the juicier and more flavorful it is. Depending on what the risk is for food bourne pathogens, meat being “done” has more to do with its internal temperture than what color it is.
The higher quality the meat and kitchen, the less risk of bacteria and the less need to have it “brown” all the way through.
A lot of fish is served similar to beef, and I know people that routinely order their salmon and tuna “Rare” to get more of a shashimi taste… Again - this has a lot to do w/ where it’s being prepared and the quality of the meat.
Alton Brown will tell you to cook pork to medium since the risk of Trichinosis these days is almost nonexistant.
Chicken of course is a different story and has only three states - raw, done, and overcooked.
I do my burgers for me with some pink, but I buy meat ground from a roast at a very good place and consider it an acceptable risk. I ask other people how they want theirs done.
Steak, on the other hand, ought to be medium rare. I don’t eat it if it’s too rare, though.
Mystery meat burgers ought to be done until brown. The official spec is what, 160 degrees inside?
Burgers that I make at home from meat that I’ve ground? Medium rare. Heck, let’s have steak tartare tonight!
For me, steak is overdone and inedible anywhere past medium-rare. My partner is in that “lop off the hooves and horns and walk it past the grill” camp of people that like their steak “blue” rare.
Simple. Any crap from the cutting-room is on the surface of the meat. If it’s a decent steak, any such crap is obliterated, and gimme the blood. If it’s mince, particularly as a burger, I’d like to see it all cooked through, because that surface could now be anywhere.
I’ll eat steak pretty much as rare as it comes, but I like burgers to be cooked through (although not frazzled or dry) - most of the pathogens on a whole cut of meat are on or near the outside surfaces, so when you cook a rare steak, you’re killing them; when you mince the steak, you’re distributing the bacteria through the whole thing (as well as exposing them to fresh nutrients, speeding their rate of reproduction) - if you cook ground meat to rare, you’re more likely to have a problem.
That said, lots of people seem to get away with it most of the time. I believe some of the commercial burger houses that offer rare burgers steam-pasteurise the (outer surfaces of the) whole cuts of meat, then grind them, reducing the risk a bit.
Dragged through a warm room slowly. Not quite mooing (it upsets the lettuce), but close.
I’ve never gotten sick from food, and the chances of it even with shit covered meat are so absurdly small, I refuse to let myself be bullied by the Food Police. I’m going to die someday, I’d rather eat yummy meat until then.
You can take my burger to medium, if I have a choice. Don’t let my steak get that done.
Why anyone would want to ruin a perfectly good piece of beef, whether whole or ground, by taking it to medium-well or well done is beyond me. Just slice and eat an old shoe, it’ll taste better.
My dad used to say that he liked his steak so rare that a good vet could bring it back to life. I don’t eat red meat at all- I had a disconcerting experience at a Ruby Tuesdays recently, though. I ordered a turkey burger, and the waitress asked me how I wanted it done. :eek:
)