Wow. Very interesting. Thanks for eradicating my ignorance! 
Actually rareish pork is damn good. People have been cooking the hell out of it for so long, that they assume it’s supposed to have that lack of flavor.
I think the idea behind “medium-well” is: as cooked as possible before it starts to dry out.
I was in a pub in Germany where everyone was eating raw ground pork mixed with onions and salt and pepper. I was thinking, 'Wow, they are crazy!", but I dove right in. Damn, was that ever good!
The way I was taught to cook a steak (as a restaurant cook) many, many moons ago, I would prefer Medium. Lots of pink, but not red. These days when I ask for Medium, I get something that looks way too much like medium rare. I order Medium Well and get my pink in the middle steak without it bleeding (or oozing cellular fluids) all over my plate.
The trends are leaning toward more rare beef these days and I think it’s partly because a too rare steak is easy to fix while a too done steak has to be recooked.
Modern pork is no more dangerous to eat rare than modern beef. Trichinosis is no longer a problem in pork farmed in first world countries.
Add in the problem that pork farmed in the US is much much leaner than it used to be, and you get the obvious solution, serve pork on the rarer side. Lean pork chops cooked well done are dry as a bone. Old-style fatty pork chops cooked well done are delicious.
Chicken is another story, because of the danger of salmonella poisoning.
Since the OP’s question has been answered, can I ask something tangential? … What’s with all the “water added” nowadays to ham (and pork, I guess). Why is water added? How is water added? With a syringe or something? And added to what, the cells? Is it done just to increase the weight (and therefore the price)?
ETA:
Also… In chicken breasts, what the hell is “rib meat”? I mean, if it’s the obvious — meat removed from the ribs — why does it need separate identification? Is there some alternative: chicken breast that has never contacted the chicken’s ribs?
I cooked steaks for several years in the restaurant biz.
One tool that was taught involved comparing the steak in question to the fleshy pad on your palm where your thumb connects to your hand. With your hand open and slack, the consistency of the fleshy pad resembles a “rare” steak. As you touch your thumb to each finger, starting with the index finger, the firmness of the pad at the base of the thumb successively tightens and ends with “well done” when you touch your pinky to your thumb.
It’s a basic, generalized technique that mainly serves beginning cooks, but it is a start.
Agreed. I try to cook my pork to a doneness that’s it’s still pink, but cooked, analogous to what is usually called “medium” at steakhouses. There’s no uncooked and rawish bits in there, but there is definite pink.
edit: Also, the lack of flavor has to do with American pork, which has been bred to be leaner and leaner.
I have almost always the opposite problem. I order medium rare and usually end up with something closer to medium or even medium well (especially with hamburgers.)
From what I understand, they basically brine the meat. Put a huge slab of prok, chicken, ham, or what have you in a solution of salt water. Osmosis causes all the cells in the meat to want to equilibrate their own salt to water ration with what’s on the outside, so they take in water. It results in moister meat.
I like my steaks well done. But when I order them that way, I generally get a lot of complaints and people trying to explain to me the sin I’m committing by ordering a well done steak. (“How can you destroy a perfectly good steak? What’s the point of even coming to a good steakhouse if you’re going to eat the meat that way?”) So sometimes I order them medium well to avoid the hassles and dirty looks. But deep down, I still prefer my steaks well done.
From the Ruth’s Chris Steak House website:
Pretty much.
Given the choice of medium rare or well done, I’d pick well done. “Medium” tends to err on the side of meat that I find too raw - “medium well” tends to err the opposite way.
And while I have no problem sending food that’s obviously and completely wrong, I prefer not to send it back over something like “I wanted it a little more done than this.”
Medium well is really only about representing a temperature gradient, where each stage is represented by a temperature range measured at the center of the steak. Once the center of your steak reaches 130 degrees (medium rare) or more your steak is just as done as it is when it is medium well, if you are referring to the death of the micro organisms living within it. The only reason people generally cook a steak until it is completely brown is because they are wigged out be the meat looking raw and bloody. This is tragic, because I guarantee you if you were fed a medium rare steak blindfolded, you’d swear it was the best steak you ever had.
The absolute best way to cook a steak, evah:
Prep: Preheat oven to 500 degrees (not broil).
- Place a seasoned cast iron pan on the stove on high heat for at least 5 minutes.
- Prepare your steak (preferably a 1" thick ribeye with decent marbling) with a good amount of kosher or sea salt and fresh ground pepper (do not be conservative with either)
- Place a few drops of peanut oil (not olive, corn, canola, or butter as they don’t react well to the high temperature) on the meat and rub it in on both sides.
- place the steak on the pan and let sit for 30 seconds (do not touch it for the full thirty seconds!) then flip it over and let it sit for another 30 seconds.
5.Flip the steak and immediately take the pan off the stove (that is baking at 500 degrees) for two minutes. Then flip the steak again for another two minutes. This will result (depending on the size of the steak) in a steak that is between 130 and 140 degrees (medium rare) in the center. - Take the steak out and place it on a plate (DO NOT TOUCH THE STEAK FOR 4 MINUTES–you need to allow the steak time to relax from all of the heat applied to it, the steak is tense and if you cut into it now, the juices will be forced out of the steak and all over your plate. By letting the steak sit for about four minutes, you give the meat time to relax and allow the juices to redistribute throughout the meat. The result is the juiciest steak you ever cooked.
For those of you who are scared of medium rare or think it is gross, I assure you it is all in your mind. Trust me, as someone that was just as grossed out (at one time) as you likely are and scared I was going to get all kinds of sick from eating it, a medium rare steak is done. It is fully cooked, and tastes the best that it is ever going to taste. As I said, if someone fed it to you blindfolded, you’d be in love.
/end hijack
That’s creepy imagry.
There better not be, if I order it medium well.
Medium well is when you take it up after the last faint vestiges of pink disappear from the interior. Let’s call it tan.
Well done means it’s cooked like pot roast, deep brown and falling apart in strings when you touch it with your fork. (Or behavior like a piece of shoe leather if you’ve got a vindictive chef who doesn’t actually like to COOK meat and deliberately does it badly if you ask that he do)
This is how it was when I was a kid. Back then I ordered my steaks medium RARE. Now I order them medium WELL to get the same degree of cooked-ness.
Rare Then: Still a bit pink-red in the interior. Now: Still red throughout, barely warm in the interior, damn close to raw.
Medium Rare Then: No red but some remaining pink in the interior. Now: See rare. Perhaps fully heated in the middle if you order it this way.
Medium Then: No more pink. Light pale brown in the middle. Darker brown elsewhere. Now: Pink interior with red in the center.
Medium Well Then: Deep brown throughout. Well-seared on the outside, with some of the outside dried and approaching crunchy. Now: Hardly any remaining pink. light pale tan-brown except towards the outside which should be darker.
Well Then: Seared, dried, and crunchy on the outside, dry midway to the interior, deep brown and more moist in the center. Some outside bits may be fully carbonized and flake off as ash. Now: Chewy, cooked too fast too hot and dry throughout. Hardly any remaining pink in the interior. A lower-quality piece of meat may be substituted in retaliation for having ordered it this way. Still not fully seared on the outside.
So I think you’re missing the part where many people are saying that they like their steaks cooked the way they like them cooked. I am not “wigged out” by medium rare; I don’t like the taste or texture. Therefore, it is not better medium rare. Medium rare is how you like it.
No, not at all. Not even close. No piece of beef cooked with dry heat in less than 8 hours (like brisket) will ever “fall apart in strings”, nor will it resemble pot roast in any way. I’m not sure where you witnessed this phenomenon, but I’d like to find the joint that can accomplish it.
Refined corn oil has a smoke point of 450 degrees, just like refined peanut oil. Refined Canola oil is almost 470. They all do an excellent job when heated to high temperatures. You’re right about butter & olive oil, though (unless you use clarified butter).
But that’s understandable. Why would a chef want to waste a beautiful cut of meat if it’s just going to be cooked to resemble shoe leather?
According to my bartender/food-server buddy, the board of health won’t let you serve rare chicken in D.C.