Traveling around the country I noticed in some places if I ordered a rare steak the waiter would do a double take and confirm that I actually meant what I said. Other places would brag about how little they cooked a rare steak. So it made me think that it tended to be a regional thing.
So where do you live, and/or grew up at, how do you like your steak and do you get an odd reaction when you order it that way? Also do you put any sort of sauce on your steak?
Silicon Valley-ish of California, and I grew up in southern California. I like my steak medium rare.
My parents came from the midwest, and when I was a kid, our steaks (which we didn’t have often, and they were always chuck steaks) were always well-done. My father would have gagged to see a bit of pink anywhere in his steak.
Chicago-ish, strip steak, grilled medium. Sometimes I’ll get a yawn from the waitstaff. Really good steak requires no sauce, of course, but really good steak is really expensive. I use A-1 sauce probably 50-60 or so percent of the time.
Grew up in Ohio. Medium rare. Salt and pepper only. If they put butter on it, I won’t howl.
Colorado. Medium-rare. Still a lot of well done eaters here, especially the further away you get east of Denver.
Ill have it with sauce if the chef makes it as part of the dish, but no way to A1 or (gag) catsup.
Western PA. I like my steaks rare, but I only order steak if the restaurant is known for their good meat. No A1, but I will order chimichurri sauce if it’s available.
(With a sous vide set-up at home, I can have a perfect rare steak easily.)
I’ve lived in St. Louis, the Detroit area, Chicago, and now northwest Indiana (which is still sort of Chicago).
Have always liked my steak barely cooked. Not just rare but what is sometimes called “blue”. (Why, I don’t know - they’re very red). I can’t recall the last time a waiter batted an eye over it, although it has happened that the cook sent something medium-well to the table instead of rare (not at the most high-end restaurants - I’ll eat steak at dives as well as fancy places). Which does not make me happy.
I have never put sauce on steak. Unless grilled mushrooms count as “sauce”.
I am well aware, though, that many in the Midwest will only eat burned meat and find my preferences revolting.
Medium rare for most cuts, but if it’s a filet mignon, I take it rare.
Maryland. Grew up just across the river in northern Virginia.
No stinkin’ sauce, thankyewverymuch.
Rump steak I’ll take medium-rare. Sirloin and fillet I’ll take on the blue side of rare, though a bacon-wrapped fillet has to be medium-rare because otherwise the bacon doesn’t cook.
And ketchup does not belong anywhere near a steak.
Chicago, and medium rare. I want the middle to be warm, not cold, and pink, but not red.
When I was younger, I ordered them rare. I’ve never had a waiter bat an eye at my ordering a medium rare steak, probably because just about everyone else at the table is ordering hers the same way.
Midwest US, and medium rare. A 1 is my go-to sauce, but ONLY for lesser cuts of meat, or good steaks which have been overcooked. Decent steaks require only proper cooking, salt, and perhaps some pepper.
I’m pretty picky I guess. I prefer a marbelly steak so Ribeye is my Preferred choice. And I much prefer the mouth feel of the fat warmed to cold, so medium rare is best. A leaner steak, like Filet I’ll want true rare, but Filet is hugely overrated IMO, so I’ll never get it on purpose. Only when I am at a fancy shmancy pre-menued dinner do I ever have it.
And actually I never order steak at all, I know how to cook it exactly how I like it, so I don’t see much reason to pay 4 times as much for someone else to cook it. When I’m at a steak place I’ll get Prime rib, which I can’t make at home for one without a massive investment.
ETA> Forgot part two: Grew up in Colorado, now in Michigan. Only butter sometimes on steak, and a tiny bit of Horseradish for Prime rib.
Northern California. Rare.
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0-17 in Cleveland; 17-21 in New England; 21-present in New York City, Manhattan/Brooklyn.
Medium rare, no sauces. Bone-in rib steak preferred, and I’d like to cook it myself, thanks.
California Central Coast (SLO town) , and depends on my mood , which cut, and where I am (which restaurant) but rib eye, medium/medium rare, tri tip, medium. Sauce? not so much, although some bbq joints around here have some good varieties of sauces to try.
Central Indiana, and medium, please.
Chicago. Medium rare (same as my hamburgers), no “steak sauce,” but I’ll take it au poivre or with bearnaise or whatnot if it’s that kind of steak dish. And by medium rare I mean err on the side of rare, if you’re not sure. Soft, warm, pink center, somewhere around 130-135F when done. I pull it when it’s about 125 off the grill or pan and let the carryover take it to 130. But once that center starts getting that “cooked” texture I’m not happy if I’m paying for it or if I’m cooking for myself and somehow screwed up because I wasn’t paying attention. Anywhere else, hey, free steak!
I find people around here all over the map in their preferences. It probably all averages out to medium.
Ohio. Rare.
Our daughter likes them extra rare. I think this doneness is called “blue.”
Half my life in Ohio, the other half in New York. Medium Rare, no sauce. And I never heard of anyone putting ketchup on steak.
When I started eating sushi and sashimi my mother expressed shock, surprise, and a bit of squick.
My dad said “you know how she likes her steaks, why are you surprised she’d like her fish raw, too?”
The exception to all this is hamburgers, even those made from things like ground sirloin. Those I eat well done because I believe the health risks to rare/raw ground beef as currently produced by industry are significant enough that I won’t eat them rare anymore.