# Ordering a well-done steak: Unsophisticated? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 23, 2005, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordering-a-well-done-steak-unsophisticated/327522 "2005-10-23T14:48:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordering-a-well-done-steak-unsophisticated/327522/81 "2005-10-24T01:06:56Z")
[Here’s Chef Tako’s view on the matter](http://8legged.com/DeepFriedLive/DFL01_07.html) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordering-a-well-done-steak-unsophisticated/327522/82 "2005-10-24T01:20:19Z")
> [@MacTech](#): > > [Here’s Chef Tako’s view on the matter](http://8legged.com/DeepFriedLive/DFL01_07.html) > 😉 That was funny. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordering-a-well-done-steak-unsophisticated/327522/83 "2005-10-24T01:24:28Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > If you don’t want to ruin a perfectly good hamburger by cooking it past medium, then get your butcher to grind the mince from a single steak. I don’t eat beef anymore (and with a wife who holds a doctorate in e. coli, can you blame me?), but I have to say that before I moved to the U.S., I never ever heard any waiter ask someone how they wanted their burger done – and to hear people reply “medium” and “medium-rare” to the question is almost as stupefying as watching them eat this red-to-pinkish hued mélange of stringy beef. It is gratifying to see them ducking out to the bathroom repeatedly two days later as the food poisoning kicks in. :wally ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordering-a-well-done-steak-unsophisticated/327522/84 "2005-10-24T01:26:20Z")
Perhaps an analogy would be in order. I pull a red rip tomato off the plant in my garden to serve with dinner. “I’m sorry,” says my friend, “I only like tomatoes cold. Can you put it in the fridge?” Is it my friend’s right to prefer cold tomatoes? Certainly. Does putting my garden fresh tomato in the fridge destroy some of what distinguishes it from grocery store tomatoes? Indisputably. Is Friend going to get hydroponic tomatoes next time? You betcha. ---
**Author:** ![Squee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@Squee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squee)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordering-a-well-done-steak-unsophisticated/327522/85 "2005-10-24T01:28:26Z")
Tell your [fictional] friend to eat a fat dick next time, problem solved. = ) ---
**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:** [October 24, 2005, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordering-a-well-done-steak-unsophisticated/327522/86 "2005-10-24T01:30:49Z")
> [@Barbarian](#): > > I don’t eat beef anymore (and with a wife who holds a doctorate in e. coli, can you blame me?), but I have to say that before I moved to the U.S., I never ever heard any waiter ask someone how they wanted their burger done – and to hear people reply “medium” and “medium-rare” to the question is almost as stupefying as watching them eat this red-to-pinkish hued mélange of stringy beef. > > It is gratifying to see them ducking out to the bathroom repeatedly two days later as the food poisoning kicks in. :wally See, while I like my steak medium-rare, hamburger is one of those things that I prefer at medium-well. If I want rare ground beef, I’ll have beefsteak tartare. But in a hamburger, I don’t know. The quality of the ground beef is usually so-so at best (unless you grind it yourself), and I personally don’t think medium-rare hamburgers have the right hamburger texture. I do still try them from time to time, but I can’t say I’m a fan. ---
**Author:** ![Orual](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orual](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orual)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordering-a-well-done-steak-unsophisticated/327522/87 "2005-10-24T01:33:07Z")
> [@Barbarian](#): > > before I moved to the U.S., I never ever heard any waiter ask someone how they wanted their burger done – and to hear people reply “medium” and “medium-rare” to the question is almost as stupefying as watching them eat this red-to-pinkish hued mélange of stringy beef. > > It is gratifying to see them ducking out to the bathroom repeatedly two days later as the food poisoning kicks in. :wally I usually order my burgers medium. I’ve never had food poisoning from one. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordering-a-well-done-steak-unsophisticated/327522/88 "2005-10-24T01:33:52Z")
> [@Squee](#): > > Tell your [fictional] friend to eat a fat dick next time, problem solved. = ) Medium rare? ---
**Author:** ![Squee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@Squee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squee)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordering-a-well-done-steak-unsophisticated/327522/89 "2005-10-24T01:35:04Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > Medium rare? Yeah, with extra boy butter. Enjoy. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordering-a-well-done-steak-unsophisticated/327522/90 "2005-10-24T01:36:45Z")
I eat rare hamburger all the time. I often even nibble on completely raw morsels. I’ve never once gotten sick from it. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordering-a-well-done-steak-unsophisticated/327522/91 "2005-10-24T01:37:16Z")
> [@Orual](#): > > I usually order my burgers medium. I’ve never had food poisoning from one. Me and my husband, too, and ditto on the never having had food poisoning. I am more frightened of the idea of a stranger following me to watch me go to the bathroom two days after seeing me in a restarant. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordering-a-well-done-steak-unsophisticated/327522/92 "2005-10-24T01:39:17Z")
I like my steaks well done and I even put catsup on them. I don’t care if the chef is unhappy about cooking it the way I want it, it’s my money and my dinner and he’s being paid to do it my way. If he substitutes a lesser quality cut because he doesn’t agree with my tastes, then he is defrauding me. ---
**Author:** ![Squee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@Squee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squee)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordering-a-well-done-steak-unsophisticated/327522/93 "2005-10-24T01:41:04Z")
This is the Straight Dope afterall… I thought all bacteria that made you sick came from OUTSIDE the meat…internally, it’s fine, afterall, the animal lives, or did. So searing the outside should fix that plight, eh? I love rare meat. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordering-a-well-done-steak-unsophisticated/327522/94 "2005-10-24T01:45:54Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Well done steaks are kind of beside the point. Eat them if you like, it’s your dollar, but IMO over cooking beats the hell out of fine meats. It’s like ordering some delicately seasoned dish and throwing ketchup all over it. It’s not “unsophisticated” as the people doing it aren’t stupid, its just a bit of a waste of of high quality meat. I agree. I admit it: I’m a steak snob. I like 'em **rare** , with no condiments. I vividly remember a conversation I had with a technician at my previous job. (She was from Kentucky, BTW. I’m not sure if that’s significant or not.) We were talking about restaurants dishes, and she mentioned _loved_ good steak. “Me too!” I replied. She then went on to say she liked them _well done and smothered in ketchup_. :eek: I said, “You _are_ joking, right?” She said, “No. That’s the way my family has always eaten them.” ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordering-a-well-done-steak-unsophisticated/327522/95 "2005-10-24T01:56:14Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > You people keep saying over and over again that “you can’t tell the difference between a good cut of meat and a lousy cut of meat of it’s well-done,” and I say, “_wrong_.” I mean, prove it. What kind of tests have you done, besides just being pompous food snobs? You know, I get the same way about people who like Casablanca, Audrey Hepburn, and Olive Higgins Prouty, and look down on me for liking You Got Served, Brittney Spears, and J.Lo. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordering-a-well-done-steak-unsophisticated/327522/96 "2005-10-24T01:57:38Z")
From reading this thread, I get the distinct impression that some participants haven’t had, say, a dry-aged filet mignon or porterhouse at an upscale establishment that specializes in steaks. All I can tell you is it’s a different beef planet. A piece of steak like that can literally take several weeks to prepare, and it’s worth every minute of it. It has been allowed to slowly, carefully decompose and dehydrate to such an extent that many of the proteins have broken down a bit, and the flavor of the beef has been concentrated. The meat is incredibly tender, rich, almost buttery. It’s heavenly. If you value a truly decadent carnivorous experience, you _owe_ it to yourself to march down to that restaurant with about 200 bucks in your pocket, for yourself and a companion (you can spend more, believe me). Order a bottle or two of really good red wine, go easy on the sides and bread so you don’t fill up, and get yourself a great big, juicy cut of their finest. Medium rare at the absolute most. Let it melt in your mouth, with a sip or two here and there of the wine between bites. Slowly so you can really taste it and feel it and smell it. Cooking something like that to well done is just a sin. It’s not so much gauche as it is criminal, an act of vandalism. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordering-a-well-done-steak-unsophisticated/327522/97 "2005-10-24T02:10:53Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > I eat rare hamburger all the time. I often even nibble on completely raw morsels. I’ve never once gotten sick from it. When I was a kid, I used to accelerate my bike down the biggest hill in the neighborhood, so I could blast off from the little bump of a hill at the bottome of the big hill. Between the two hills I emerged from a blind alley and shot across a four lane street. I never got hit by a car. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordering-a-well-done-steak-unsophisticated/327522/98 "2005-10-24T02:14:00Z")
> [@edwino](#): > > In _Kitchen Confidential_, Bourdain talks about deep frying steaks ordered well-done. :eek: . . . My favorite way to cook an expensive NY steak is in about half an inch of smoking bacon fat. No breading, just clean bare meat. Deep fried on one side, then the other, till it’s a perfecty baby-pink medium rare inside whith a smokey crispy crust outside. Probly take a year off my life every time I eat a steak like this, but I’d rather die young and fat than never experience such heaven again. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordering-a-well-done-steak-unsophisticated/327522/99 "2005-10-24T02:14:23Z")
It would be defrauding you if you ordered a filet mingon and the chef gave you top sirloin instead. It would be defrauding you if you ordered a premium grade and got something different. But when you order, you’re ordering a particular cut of a particular grade of beef. If a good chef gets his lot of twenty (say) prime Angus porterhouses, he’s going to see a few that are especially nice and a few that are less nice. He’s probably going to save the best ones for the people who order their steaks the most rare, where the quality of the steak is going to come through, and the worst ones for well-done. You’re getting what you ordered. Similarly, if someone just asked for “a glass of champagne” (and not a particular one), I’d want to give them better champagne than I would someone who ordered a mimosa. It isn’t looking down on the person ordering the mimosa, it’s just recognizing that all sparkling whites taste pretty much the same mixed with orange juice. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordering-a-well-done-steak-unsophisticated/327522/100 "2005-10-24T02:16:46Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > You know, I get the same way about people who like Casablanca, Audrey Hepburn, and Olive Higgins Prouty, and look down on me for liking You Got Served, Brittney Spears, and J.Lo. This is just so funny on so many levels. I think I may use it as a sigline. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordering-a-well-done-steak-unsophisticated/327522.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordering-a-well-done-steak-unsophisticated/327522.md?page=6)