Steak - medium rare. I had a roommate once who told me not to make dinner one night, as he made us a special Chanuka steak dinner. After I tried to cut it and failed, I nonchalantly asked him how long he had cooked it. “Oh,” he said, “a couple hours.” After I choked, I nicely told him that steak does not take that long to cook.
I did have another roommate once who loved his beef RARE. His method of cooking it was to light a match, blow out the match, and wave it over the meat. I learned to appreciate rare meat, but still prefer it cooked a little more.
When my grandfather was still alive, my mom’s family would get together for Father’s Day and make salt steak on the BBQ. It goes something like buy a huge, great cut of meat, cover it with moist sea salt, wrap it in cheesecloth and put it on a slow covered grill to cook until done.
At least, I think this was how it was done. I do remember the salt absolutely covering the steak and when it was done, you scraped it off and it was fabulous. Very tender and delicious.
Ok, raw beef-eaters. Hie theeselves at your next opportunity to an Ethiopian restaurant for an incredible sensation: marinated raw beef cubes.
Don’t have any near you? Well, make a trip to DC, where there are several good ones.
Ethiopian restaurants are wonderful - don’t let anyone’s jokes about Live Aid stop you. The cooking is spicy, but not quite fiery, and the main focus is on vegetables and lentils. But the meats are fantastic, and the beautifully seasoned, marinated beef (I think it “cooks” a bit chemically - like ceviche) is the pinnacle.
I’m new to this board, but this topic hit upon a HUGE pet peave of mine. It’s finding restaurants that serve hamburgers rare or medium rare. I love medium rare hamburgers, but trying to find a restaurant that serves them that way is next to impossible. Seems everyone’s so afraid of getting sued by someone coming down with e-coli, that they won’t be bothered with the customer’s wishes. The worst is places that will take your order for a hamburger medium rare and then bring you one that’s well done. When you complain, they say that they don’t serve medium rare burgers because of health concerns, etc. That’s fine, but at least have the guts to me that before I order the burger. I understand the risks of e-coli, but I’m an adult and can make my own decisions. I’ll even sign a liability waiver of they want, just give me my burger the way I want it.
Thank goodness, a voice of reason in this wilderness of rare steak eaters!
To me, rare steak is like chewing on a lump of snot. Well-done is the only way I like my steak. In fact, I frequently have to tell the waitress to take my steak back and cook it some more because it’s still got pink in the middle. (Apparently, modern steak chefs assume that when you say “well done” you really only mean “medium rare”.)
It’s only cooked enough when I can make a shoe or a baseball mitt out of it.
Not to fear, here’s a killer recipe for all of you raw meat eaters. You do need to like sushi to enjoy this.
[li]One small filet mignon[/li]
[li]One small cut of sashimi tuna[/li]
[li]Wasabi and soy sauce thick as mud[/li]
Slice the beef very thin and the tuna into sashimi pieces. Dip them into the wasabi “mud” and swoon with delight. If you like carpaccio, you’ll love this.
I live in Los Angeles. I love Fuddrucker’s but most of the ones in Southern California have shut down. There’s only a couple left and they aren’t really close to where I live. There are a couple restaraunts that I frequent that serve good burgers, but they are few and far between.
While I can’t argue with “orgasmic”, I personally like steak, burgers, pork chops and BBQ chicken well done.
A little burned on the edges even, if it’s grilled outside.
And I always buy the wrinkledest hotdog endlessly rotating at the movies.
Burgers, better be well-done. Not a trace of pink.
Steaks, a little on the medium side of medium well.
Lamb, I like about medium. If lamb is too well done, it gets tough.
Don’t even mention prime rib to me. My first prime rib experience was at a company Christmas party about five years ago. I got this piece of bloody, raw meat that made me nauseous to look at it. I tried eating a bite to be polite, but it was just too gross. One of my coworkers, who I guess doesn’t necessarily need his meat to be cooked, happily scarfed it. I ate the broccoli and potato, then headed to the bar and got drunk.
Sheesh, I had no idea I was part of such a small minority.
I will eat steak and hamburger only if it is cooked very well-done. Completely burnt inside and out. I would rather have the steak crunchy then eat it with any pink in it -and forget about any red or actual blood.
The ONLY time I will send food back at a restaurant is if the meat is not thouroughly cooked. I always specify that I want the steak or burger cooked “very well done” but that is still sometimes not enough. For this reason, I seldom order steak or burger at restaurants. If I am cooking on grill, I usually will cook a slab of meat for about 20 minutes per side. Seriously.
It appears that I am also the only native-Marylander who doesn’t like crabs but that’s another topic all together.
1st off the cooking-level you order steaks should be in an indirect proportion to the quality the steak. If I go to Morton’s, I order it blood-rare. If I’m dumb enough to order steak from Bennigan’s, medium will do just fine. (Sizzler and Denny’s? I’m not that brave.)
Hamburgers need to be at most medium if not medium rare, but I’m not going to order chuck at rare.
Prime rib MUST be rare. There is no other way. It has to be served with fresh horseradish.
BTW, all you steak people, if your big into grilling them, try this. Go out and buy some nice cuts, like Angus Choice T-bones. Rub them with olive oil and fresh garlics, S&P, but nothing else (NO other marinade). Let them warm up for about a half an hour before grilling them, and sear them for five minutes a side on a HOT grill. Yeooow!
My father is a meat man. He started out as a butcher and now works in the suit and tie/office buying/selling field for meat. I was not aware that you could actually get well-cooked meat until I was at least twelve or thirteen years old. In our house, steak was medium rare to rare and burgers were medium to medium well.
I do not order steak when I go out. I can get the best steak in the world at my dad’s house so I don’t bother ordering anything inferior. Mmmmm…T-bone steak prepared by Dad…
