It has been mentioned that a well done steak can still be juicy and flavorful, and this is true, if cooked properly. I could certainly tell the difference between different quality meats if well done, though my preference is for much rarer, myself.
OTOH, the ketchup… If someone’s putting ketchup on it, then that’s not someone who will know or care what quality meat went into the dish.
Do it how you like it, but that’s not how pot roast is supposed to be cooked or works. The whole point of pot roast is that you take a high-collagen cut like chuck and cook it slowly to about 200F. When it is made correctly (usually about 2-3 hours), it becomes literally tender enough that it breaks apart if you just pull it off with your fingers. The meat becomes hard and starts to tighten up as it approaches about 160-170 – then it stays there for a spell while the collagen converts into gelatin. After this process finishes, the individual meat strands are coated with gelatin, giving the meat an unctuous mouthfeel. You have to give it some time and be patient. It’s the same process that happens in pulled pork, brisket, or any type of barbecue. I like to pull it while it’s soft but not quite shreddable. But the meat texture proceeds as: uncooked/rare tender > tightening up and hard to chew > soft and moist > falling apart soft if you try to pick it up.
As a guest, I would not want the host to waste a top-shelf liquor or food if it’s not something I appreciate. I’m thinking of an example – I dunno, what’s expensive vodka? I don’t care about vodka, just give me the well stuff (but I’m unlikely to ask for vodka drinks.)
Filet mignon cooked well-done is certainly pointless. The purpose of cooking well-done (at least, if you know how to do it) is to make the meat tender. Filet mignon is already a very tender cut. It’s also, unfortunately, not a very flavorful cut. And at most places, it’s also an extremely thick cut (often a couple of inches), which makes cooking to any level of doneness beyond rare very difficult: By the time the center is to your desired level of doneness, whatever that is, the outside will be far beyond that level.
My SO likes her steak well done and I have sampled some of hers and can say there is a pretty big difference in the taste between a cheap cut and an expensive one. Prime rib is one that would have a noticeable difference as it is to me the king of steaks, and is a pleasant experience to be having one. Now if I did what you are suggesting, I don’t think my SO would say anything (though she might comment that it was tough) as she is not that well versed in steaks, but it would not be the same experience for her. So do I think you can get away with it, yes, do I think you are denying that guest the experience of a good cut of beef that you are giving your other guests yes.
I like to get filet mignon cut a bit thicker than usual, then sous vide 125 degrees F for 4 hours, then a quick torch sear. Serve with chimichurri sauce.
You can cook the steak slowly and evenly at a low temp and get it we’ll all the way through without overdoing your exterior. Also, I need a cite that cooking to well tenderizes meat. Except for high collagen cuts cooked long, it does not. People like well because they don’t like what they perceive to be uncooked meat.
I’d say that if someone orders a ribeye, then they should get a ribeye. But… if the restaurant has say… 5 ribeyes in the cooler, and one is markedly less marbled or whatever, then by all means give that to the well-done steak person. They’re less likely to notice, since the steak will essentially be tough anyway.
I’m not sure about home cooking; the cost difference ($9 today at HEB Central market) isn’t so much that I’d bother with buying a different steak and then keeping track of it through all the cooking and serving process. If you’re buying steaks for four, you’re talking something like $119 vs. $128, assuming 16 oz steaks. Not much when it comes down to it.
That’s categorically not true. Here’s what Harold McGee (“On Food and Cooking”) the godfather of culinary food science has to say:
Final Juiciness: Collagen Shrinks
As the meat’s temperature rises to 140°F/60°C, more of the proteins inside its cells coagulate and the cells become more segregated into a solid core of coagulated protein and a surrounding tube of liquid: so the meat gets progressively firmer and moister. Then between 140 and 150°F/60–65°C, the meat suddenly releases lots of juice, shrinks noticeably, and becomes chewier. These changes are caused by the denaturing of collagen in the cells’ connective-tissue sheaths, which shrink and exert new pressure on the fluid-filled cells inside them. The fluid flows copiously, the piece of meat loses a sixth or more of its volume, and its protein fibers become more densely packed and so harder to cut through. Meat served in this temperature range, the equivalent of medium-rare, is changing from juicy to dry.
and here’s a chart a page or two later with all the effects of heat on meat at different temps:
Right. You can actually eat undercooked chicken, it can be cooked rare, pink in the middle. And if it is sourced properly, it will be safe to do so.
But there are very few who would eat it, as we are pretty well conditioned to find raw chicken disgusting.
Some people feel the same way about beef as most of us feel about chicken, and no one says that you are ruining a chicken breast by cooking it thoroughly.
True, but if we had access to better chickens, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of that attitude changes. Pork doneness preferences, for example, have changed a lot and cooking a loin or tenderloin to well done, as used to be always done, is considered by many (like me) to be over cooking it.
I think it will take a while. I know very few people who will accept pork as anything other than well done, even though it’s ridiculously rare to find trichinosis in pork in the last 40+ years.
I’ve had chicken cooked mid-rare, and it certainly has a different taste and texture, one that I could probably learn to appreciate and prefer to “well done”, but it would take overcoming some pretty ingrained preferences to make it a regular thing.
So, I can certainly understand where someone is coming from if they don’t like “undercooked” steak, the same as most people would turn down undercooked chicken or pork.
It may be a sign that they just don’t like beef, and are getting it done it the least offensive way to them, and in that case, it makes sense to offer an alternative. But, there are those who like steak and they like it well done, and that’s respectable, even if not to my preference.
OTOH, as mentioned… the ketchup. If people are putting ketchup on it, I’d have a hard time not offering them a burger or hot dog as an alternative to a prime cut of meat. They probably will like it better, and it’ll save a few $$.
Just a reminder that there are reasons to avoid rare meats which have nothing to do with consistency and/or flavor.
Did “the godfather” ever get research published to establish these findings, as opposed to pulling them out of his nether regions?
Oh dear.
Does that devastating classification also apply to people who use steak sauce or horseradish with their meat?
One can imagine the cognoscenti making little moues of shuddering distaste at such culinary philistinism.
As always with these kinds of debates, you have to wonder why some rare steak devotees get so obsessed with the choices of others who prefer a longer cooking time. I certainly don’t care what level of doneness people want. It’s only when it gets totally ridiculous (i.e. the restaurant example I cited earlier, where they refused to serve a steak cooked any more than medium) that I give a rat’s ass*.
*rodent hindquarters should never be served tartare. You’re just asking for it.
It would never occur to me to buy a cheaper cut of meat or inferior liquor or lesser whatever because I know my guest will eat it in some way of which I wouldn’t. That is the height of rudeness and/or cheapskatery. It’s also deceitful, if I don’t plan to tell the guest, “Guess what, I purposely bought you a cheaper cut than the others because you won’t be able to tell the difference.”
I never understood these types of comments. Someone likes food prepared in a different way so you act disgusted or go out of your way to make it taste bad? Why?
Who cares how someone else likes their food?
I agree. If someone finds out that they’re being treated differently simply because they want their steak cooked more than you do, you’re not going to come off as some righteous chef protecting this person from themselves, you’re going to be the jerk in that situation.
IMO, if you’re inviting people over for a dinner like that and you plan to sabotage meals that won’t be cooked to your liking, maybe you need to let potential guests know that you’ll only be cooking the steaks to a certain degree of doneness.
I have two friends that like their burgers really, really well done. I usually just put all the burgers on the grill, pull all but two of them off and let them finishing cooking theirs to the doneness that they prefer. There’s no reason to be an asshole about it. It has no effect on my life in any way, shape or form and I really don’t care one way or the other.
On a somewhat related note:
I’m a picky eater. I know this. I hate it about myself. But being treated like this causes a lot of stress. I can’t tell you how many events I’ve missed over the years because they were at, for example, a seafood restaurant. You, quite literally, couldn’t pay me to eat seafood, it absolutely disgusts me. And I just have no interest it listening to everyone give me hard time for ordering a burger or whatever token non-seafood item they have on the menu.
I can assure you, the guests that want their steaks super well done have been hearing the snide comments and the stupid jokes before and are sick of it.
You could, instead, just cook their steak the way the request it without intentionally making it worse and keeping your comments to yourself.
I know, at least for me, it’s always really nice when I mention that I don’t like something or another and the host just works around it without a second thought (ie “Oh, you don’t like mushrooms on your pizza? I’ll get one without them” and leaves it at that).
ETA: Just for kicks, turn it around. Imagine you were at their house and said you wanted your steak medium rare, so they just warmed it up for 30 seconds on the grill and handed it to you. Or you asked for some salt so they dumped the whole shaker on your meal.
I remember when the beef supply was safe enough to eat tartare.
I had some at a friends in college. It was marinated in juices. It was ok. I wouldn’t eat it regularly.
I wouldn’t eat it now. There’s been too many listeria and other problems. The burger restaurants a few years ago with people getting sick.
Just look him up. He’s not some celebrity chef or anything.
My closest friend and her husband are both well-done beef eaters. Yet we regularly host each other for dinner, and we do serve each other beef.
I think it makes them both a little sick to watch me eat a barely-cooked slice of rib roast, which they kindly slice off for me before sliding the roast back into the oven to continue cooking to well done. I cringe quietly inward when I put their high quality steaks on my grill a full 10 minutes before mine to cook well past my preferred doneness, but hey. That’s friendship. 
I really have to quibble with a lot of comments here implying that doing a choice ribeye vs prime is some great act of cooking malfeasance. Choice is great. It’s just slightly less marbling. I usually buy choice unless I’m just making a steak for myself. And cooked well done dipped in ketchup I really doubt you would notice the difference.
If they use enough to cover up the taste of the steak, yes.
Hmmm, you must be reading a different debate than the one in this thread. The OP wasn’t obsessed with the choices of others, they were wondering if they, as the person paying for the meal, were wasting their money on providing an expensive steak to someone who doesn’t seem to appreciate it.
You certainly do care about people being able to talk about what level of doneness people want.
I wouldn’t either, but I would offer to make them something else, like a burger or a hot dog or even a salad, that they may prefer.
I don’t typically comment on what other people order. I’m sure there are all kinds of things I eat that other people find disgusting or pedestrian. If my guest asked for a well done steak they’re going to get the same cut, the same seasoning, and I’ll do my best to give them what they want. I’ve accidentally cooked well done steaks in the past, and they were certainly edible even if they weren’t as good as a medium steak.
And truthfully, odds are good that if I picked up ribeyers for everyone, I’m not going to have a ribeye that’s obviously or significantly worse than any of the others. But if I know Jack is coming for dinner, I’ll probably have something on the menu besides steak.