# Is there any steak that is not best cooked medium rare? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 27, 2015, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-steak-that-is-not-best-cooked-medium-rare/723575 "2015-06-27T00:03:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2015, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-steak-that-is-not-best-cooked-medium-rare/723575/41 "2015-06-29T18:14:14Z")
Any type of braised beef, brisket, sliders, chili, beef ribs, beef borgueinon or however you spell it, tongue, the parts they make into all beef hotdogs. You can roast a round medium rare and that’s pretty good, but coat that bad boy with flour, sear it in peanut oil and then drop it in a slow cooker with carrots, onions, potatoes, fresh garlic etc for 8 hours or so, and that’s heaven. I like prime rib rare, not medium rare, I like flank and skirt steak medium, not medium rare. Hamburgers medium. Finally, I ate a 60 oz steak challenge in Texas when I was in college, and I won. I ordered that extra well done which shrunk it down quite a bit, and it was surprisingly good. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2015, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-steak-that-is-not-best-cooked-medium-rare/723575/42 "2015-06-29T18:15:15Z")
Everything else though? Medium rare. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2015, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-steak-that-is-not-best-cooked-medium-rare/723575/43 "2015-06-29T18:21:09Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > Texas A&M says meat gets tougher with cooking. > > [http://meat.tamu.edu/ansc-307-honors/meat-tenderness/#.VY7M6PlVhBc](http://meat.tamu.edu/ansc-307-honors/meat-tenderness/#.VY7M6PlVhBc) If you’re ever in College Station, go to the Rosenthal Meat Science Center on West Campus - they sell the beef from the campus herd that they use for all the various butchering, sausage making, etc… classes. Good prices and excellent meat. [http://agrilife.org/rosenthal/price-list/](http://agrilife.org/rosenthal/price-list/) ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2015, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-steak-that-is-not-best-cooked-medium-rare/723575/44 "2015-06-29T18:53:27Z")
> [@Missy2U](#): > > I do have a thin cut top round steak in the freezer that I’m at a loss as to what to do with, though - help, anyone? Well… it is going to cost you more than the steak did… but it is actually very handy for several other uses. Try one of these on it. [http://www.cutleryandmore.com/jaccard/meat-tenderizer-removable-cartridge-p18923](http://www.cutleryandmore.com/jaccard/meat-tenderizer-removable-cartridge-p18923) ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2015, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-steak-that-is-not-best-cooked-medium-rare/723575/45 "2015-06-29T20:29:23Z")
> [@Spud](#): > > Well… it is going to cost you more than the steak did… but it is actually very handy for several other uses. Try one of these on it. > > [http://www.cutleryandmore.com/jaccard/meat-tenderizer-removable-cartridge-p18923](http://www.cutleryandmore.com/jaccard/meat-tenderizer-removable-cartridge-p18923) Thank you! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2015, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-steak-that-is-not-best-cooked-medium-rare/723575/46 "2015-06-29T21:22:00Z")
> [@Missy2U](#): > > Thank you! 🙂 No problem. A neighbor of mine who is a chef recommended it to me. The nice thing about it versus a tenderizing hammer is it doesn’t flatten your meat. Not that this would be an issue with your thin cut steak, but it really works well on thicker cuts. It also helps with marinades. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2015, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-steak-that-is-not-best-cooked-medium-rare/723575/47 "2015-06-30T09:15:20Z")
Tenderness is a function of temperature, time, and tissue composition. Doneness/pinkness is a function of temperature. You can cook a steak to a medium rare interior in a few minutes or over several hours (using a water bath.) Tough connective tissue will break down slowly over time. Tenderloin will turn to mush. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2015, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-steak-that-is-not-best-cooked-medium-rare/723575/48 "2015-06-30T15:29:52Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > Tenderness is a function of temperature, time, and tissue composition. Doneness/pinkness is a function of temperature. You can cook a steak to a medium rare interior in a few minutes or over several hours (using a water bath.) Tough connective tissue will break down slowly over time. Tenderloin will turn to mush. The following is paraphrased from the section on “Cooking Fresh Meat: The Principles” in Chapter 3: Meat of “_On Food And Cooking_” by Harold McGee. As the temperature increases, at first, there are enzymes that weaken the protein fibers, proteins begin to coagulate, and juices are beginnign to be liberated, making the steak start going from a sort of resilient mushiness to what we’d think of as a cooked texture. As the temp continues to increase past about 130, its texture is no longer raw, and more proteins begin to coaguate and contract, giving us even more juice, and the steak becomes firmer. Past 140, and it starts shrinking and firming drastically, as well as emitting a lot of juices. As the temp increases, this process continues, making the steak more stiff, dry and compact. Then… as the temp passes 160, collagen starts transforming into liquid gelatin, which allows the fibers to be separated (they’re still shrunken and stiff though), making the meat seem tender, succulent and juicy again. This takes time though; which is why braises and barbecues take hours and hours to successfully cook, and why brisket that hasn’t been cooked long enough has more in common with a car tire than anything you’d want to eat. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2015, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-steak-that-is-not-best-cooked-medium-rare/723575/49 "2015-06-30T15:47:55Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Then… as the temp passes 160, collagen starts transforming into liquid gelatin, which allows the fibers to be separated (they’re still shrunken and stiff though), making the meat seem tender, succulent and juicy again. This takes time though; which is why braises and barbecues take hours and hours to successfully cook, and why brisket that hasn’t been cooked long enough has more in common with a car tire than anything you’d want to eat. Yep, and you can observe this quite easily in stews. Make a beef a stew and taste it throughout the cooking process. Assuming you’re using something like chuck or shank, you’ll note that the meat starts off squishy and soft when raw, then dries and tightens up, and then at some magical moment about 2 to 4 hours in, it begins to “let go” and soften up again, into a well-done, but tender, gelatin-coated mass of meat fibers. That’s one reason I never go by times for recipes, especially for braised meats and stews. The meat is done when it’s done. It might be two hours, it might be four depending on the meat, your cooking vessel, your temps, how accurate those are, etc. You just have to trust the meat to soften up at the end, and don’t give up if after three hours the meat still seems tough. If it’s the correct cut, it will eventually soften. That’s also why I recommend tasting every 20 minutes to half hour or so, so you can get a sense of what the meat does and how it feels at various stages of cooking and doneness. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2015, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-steak-that-is-not-best-cooked-medium-rare/723575/50 "2015-06-30T15:55:37Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I believe we’ve been through this many times before– Many many many times. It is hard to see why some rare steakites feel the periodic need to remind others that their preference roolz. As a medium-well person, I have no compulsion to shame the undercooked brigade over their love for oozing, clammy, bacteria-laden meat. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2015, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-steak-that-is-not-best-cooked-medium-rare/723575/51 "2015-06-30T16:02:46Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Many many many times. > > It is hard to see why some rare steakites feel the periodic need to remind others that their preference roolz. I don’t really see that happening in this thread. Like I said, eat it how you want, and I’ll cook it how you want. I don’t really care how you like your steak or burgers, and I completely understand why folks can get squicked out by rare meat. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2015, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-steak-that-is-not-best-cooked-medium-rare/723575/52 "2015-06-30T16:06:38Z")
We’re entering Schrodinger’s Steak territory here. The steak is both tender and tough at the same time until you eat it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-steak-that-is-not-best-cooked-medium-rare/723575.md?page=2)