What the steak snobs fail to realize is that well-done steak is tenderer than rare steak. They just don’t realize this, because they’ve eaten all of their steaks prepared by other steak snobs, who mistakenly think that cooking ruins steak, and so when they get an order for a well-done steak, they start with the worst cut of meat they have and sabotage it. But if you take a good piece of meat, and cook it through, you’ll get a tenderer end product than you would if you took the same piece of meat and stopped at rare.
Hitler also ate his steak medium well.
Never mind that Hitler was a vegetarian. I heard Rush Limbaugh say it, and that’s enough for me.
I just keep informing people that my ancestors discovered that putting the dead animal parts over fire makes them taste better, and we’ve been doing it that way ever since. Their ancestors may have preferred to chew on raw carcass, or perhaps never quite fully understood the whole “fire” thing, and we don’t have a problem with that as long as they use their hands when they eat. Preferably with a knife and fork held within beforementioned hands, but we’re willing to be flexible in such matters.
This sounds plausible to me.
As someone with a somewhat similar childhood background to Obama (lower-income educated white with Central US roots), I can say that we may have similar experiences. I also like my red meat to be a nice light brown color rather than shining pink, although I thought that was just a personal preference. I will eat it other ways, so long as it’s not raw (and really rare is raw, I’m sorry), but if I’m ordering it myself, I’ll usually err on the side of done. I’ve been punished for it by the griller before, but do it because I don’t really like raw meat.
Overcooking steak dries it out and destroys the flavor. It doesn’t matter if it’s tender if it’s also flavorless and dry.
Why do you and Obama hate America so much?
It’s clear that you know absolutely nothing about food or how to cook it.
Sure, but the point at which “overcooked” happens is somewhere after the point at which “cooked” happens. A well-done steak is still juicy and flavorful.
Does Bud Light *actually * qualify as a beer? 
I don’t know how you’d prove this but I think it’s measurably wrong. Taste is a matter of, well, taste, but the tenderness should be something you can objectively quantify and by that measure a properly cooked medium rare steak easily surpasses a well done steak every time.
I’m not a steak snob, eat your steak however you prefer. If I’m the one cooking it I’ll make it how you want and not bat an eye, and I’m not going to give you a lesser piece of meat because of it either. But I have never, ever had a well done steak that’s in any way comparable to medium rare in tenderness. It’s not even close. And I’m saying that as somebody that only ate well done steak until maybe 2 years ago.
If my technique is off, I’d be happy to hear how I can do it better. I’m more than happy to eat crow so long as it tastes like steak, but I really don’t think this is possible.
This is demonstrably incorrect. When I cook steaks, I’ll cook the same cut to different degrees of doneness for different diners preferences. I don’t toss them shittier pieces of meat, since I buy the same meat for everyone from the same supplier. I’ve tasted the range from medium-rare to well-done (but not burnt) and it’s clear to me that medium rare is the tenderest for a good steak. It’s fine if you have preferences for a higher degree of doneness, but there’s no way in hell you can tell me it’s more tender than a medium-rare steak, unless you’re using inferior steaks that taste rubbery (as I mentioned before) at lower degrees of doneness.
Now, I’m not saying well done has to taste dried out and leathery. It doesn’t. But it also doesn’t have that juicy, tender texture a medium-rare steak does. Nor do medium-well or even medium steaks. Both of those are generally grilled to a “cooked” texture–where the tissue tightens up and takes on a different “bite.” They may have some pink in the middle, but both of them have the cooked texture, not something I desire in a good steak.
I mean, really Chronos. Do you think there’s a cabal of steak snobs out there who just follow the fashion and have never actually tasted the same cut of meat prepared to varying degrees of doneness? That’s just insulting. As I said above, I don’t even like steak that much, but when I discovered how tasty and juicy a good cut of beef prepared to medium-rare can be, I got an appreciation and understanding for what steak lovers see in the meat.
Same with pork chops and pork loin. My mom cooks every last piece of pork to death, and no amount of sauce could cover up the dry, shitty end product (she is otherwise a very good cook, but I do not like her loin at all.) One day, I discovered that pork can be cooked so it’s a little pink inside, and what a revelation that was. Lean pork can actually taste good and juicy, as long as its not cooked well done.
Here is the Dope on light beer:
As for my steak, I prefer it in a mostly red state.
See, that is a little political steak joke…nevermind.
I’m afraid I can’t give any cooking tips, since I’ve never cooked steaks myself (at least, outside of the Philadelphia meaning of the word). But I’ve had medium-well steaks so juicy and tender that if they were any more so, you’d need a spoon instead of a fork. If rare meat were anywhere near that tender, you’d see cows falling apart under their own weight.
Makes me wonder if they were pumped full of tenderizers and/or heavily marinated (the osmotic effect of a high-salt solution marinade draws moisture into the meat and changes the texture a bit). Spoon tender is not a texture I desire in meat, and tenderizers have a way of breaking down the meat in a way I personally find unappealing.
It’s fine if you like it that way, but a good cut of unadulterated steak cooked medium rare is more tender than medium well. I will absolutely marinade lesser cuts of meat to make them juicier, especially stuff like skirt steak for fajitas, and will cook them well done. The Mexican butcher here has very average quality skirt and you have to pound it or run it through a mechanical tenderizer then marinade it and cook it well, otherwise you get a really rubbery, inedible piece of meat. However, I’ve had higher quality cuts of skirt that practically melt in your mouth at medium rare, but I have to pay over $12/pound for them. I just ain’t gonna do that for skirt steak, which, until the fajita craze, was a cheap cut of beef.
A rare steak does not taste like blood, IME.
Hey if nobody ate crappy leathery meat and used up the shit that would go in the garbage, the price of top quality rare meat would go up at most places.
You can eventually cook any piece of meat so that it falls apart under it’s own weight. Put a slab of gristle from a worn-out 20 year old mule that’s hauled coffee sacks up and down the Andes for it’s whole life into a crock pot for 24 hours and you will need a spoon instead of a fork. It’s just not going to taste right and the mouth feel will be totally off. The ideal is to melt the marbled fat without letting the proteins in the meat tighten up. That ideal is hit somewhere around medium rare and there’s nothing any chef, accomplished or novice, can do to change it. I wish I could, I’d love to be able to serve out well done steaks with the same taste and texture as medium rare, but it just can’t happen.
Maybe you’ve had braised steaks? Braising or slow cooking can yield the type of tenderness you’re talking about, but it can’t do that and make the meat taste like a steak should taste like. It’s going to be more like a roast. That isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s not what I or most people would think of as a proper steak, which is generally cooked quickly over a hot dry heat.
The debate over the tenderness of well-cooked vs. rare/medium-rare steak got my interest enough for me to pull out Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking.
He has a chart (page 152 of the 2004 edition) describing the exact temperature and meat qualities for each stage of rare to well done. The meat qualities of well done meat at 160ºF includes “stiff” indicating that well-done meat is tougher than rarer cuts. While detailing the effects of fiber coagulation on a previous page (150) it states that “Meat served at this stage, the equivalent of rare, is firm and juicy.”
In another paragraph, he explains that “…between 140 and 150ºF, the meat suddenly releases lots of juice, shrinks noticeably, and becomes chewier.” 140-150º is the range between medium and medium well.
As McGee explains, this effect is due to the loss of moisture due to the denaturing of protein and connective tissues allowing water to be squeeze out of the cell (pages 150-153).
So, I think it’s safe to say that well done meat is definitely tougher than rare. Personally, I also prefer medium-rare to medium, but well, tastes differ and it’s what makes the world go around.
Can we at least agree that hamburger meat should be cooked to no less than medium?