Odd thing is my mom likes her steaks well done, but also loves her steak tartare. But if I cook a steak anything less than well, it’s back on the grill for her.
0-20, Alaska, didn’t eat steak.
20-51, all over the world, medium rare
51-70, Alaska and Oregon, gone more to medium, as a medium-rare steak in a restaurant is now what they used to call rare.
Favorite meal of all time was in Belgium: steak au poivre, medium rare, with a pile of frites on the side. Heaven on a plate.
New Jersey, medium-rare, no sauce except however the restaurant prepares it in the first place.
Northeast and I order them medium but I have been debating switching to medium rare because it feels like many restaurants cook medium more than I would like it to be.
I live in Omaha. We are known for great steaks. I favor a rare rib eye . No sauce, but I like mushrooms sauteed in butter with my steak.
Houston, TX. I like steaks medium. I will very rarely put some kind of sauce on one.
Have you ever had Pittsburg rare?
Chicago. I’ll take it blue-rare but usually just say rare unless I’m at a place I trust to understand what that means.
That’s why I buy a cow each fall and have it butchered, packaged and frozen.
Southern New Mexico. When I was younger, I ordered them medium-rare. Today, I order them medium-well. I don’t know if my preference has changed, or if the restaurants are cooking them rarer these days.
I live in PA and I prefer my steaks and roasts medium rare, unless I’m cooking a pot roast then it needs to be well done, cooked low and slow.
Southern CA (San Diego.) I grew up on a cattle ranch, and we cut our own steaks. I grew up on thick steaks. Love 'em! I also grew up on “well done” (or even burned a little) steaks, just 'cause papa liked 'em that way.
Just last night we cooked two small porterhouse steaks. Husband likes to marinate with that packet of montreal seasonings, mixed with oil and vinegar. We broiled in the oven, they were just a little overdone much to my distress, though deep pink around the bone. (I like medium-rare, I suppose, on the rare side if I had a choice.) But they were tender and tasted fine, and I just now ate a piece cold out of the refrigerator. Husband likes filet, ribeye, and porterhouse. I love a nice strip steak, in the summer I buy the family pack, 3 or 4 for about $30, and it feeds three of us for two meals. Live in Upstate NY and believe it or not, I never bought or cooked steak at home until the last few years. I prefer it cooked on charcoal, but now we have a plain old gas grill.
Southern California, and I want my steaks cooked medium rare. But this is more of an age thing, because in my younger days I wanted them cooked at least medium. Still do, if I’m eating at a cheaper place. The more high-end the restaurant, the rarer I want my meat. To the point of tartare sometimes.
Sauces at a medium-end place maybe. Or at a high-end joint like Delmonico, for that matter. Emeril makes a chimichurri sauce that will blow your mind!
I grew up in the Baltimore suburbs, and I like my steak to moo when I stick a fork in it. That’s what I usually say when I order it, because some places don’t seem to get the concept of rare.
I grew up in the SF Bay Area primarily, but had multi-year stints in NYC, Detroit suburbs, Boston/Somerville and shorter stints elsewhere. My absolute preference is towards the medium side of medium rare. But I’m fine with medium, dislike rare - which often results with more ordering medium as the safer option unless I’m sure of the cookery. Rib-eye is always my preference, though I’m okay with strip. Not a fan of filet.
I don’t generally do steak sauce anymore.
Alberta - medium…
My former bil used to have his steak blue, and pour the extra blood on his potato. Ugh.
Pretty much this, slightly different part of the Central Coast, and medium rare only for my steaks.
In the northeast, medium rare means a soft center, pink, but not purple. And that’s what I think is simplest to ask for.
I’ve learned that a proper streak, from a proper steakhouse, is best as rare as possible. So cooked by myself, I like a fillet Mignon is very pink. I also know that red juice isn’t blood, by myoglobin released by the muscle fibers, so I’m not grossed out by a rare steak. But if isn’t cooked enough that the bit next to the bone won’t cut free and let you chew, what’s the point of that? Almost all members of my family gak at any sight of pink. Mom’s job was to cook. Bless her heart, she couldn’t do it well, but woe betide you stop her from doing it thoroughly.
I would have said I like it medium rare, but a couple of people here have described that as pink in the middle. No, I definitely like the center to be red. But I also like more than a surface sear on the outside. These different layers lend flavor to eachother.
I dislike the salt-and-pepper only style. It tends to taste like a steak I could have gotten at Waffle House. I usually use a commercial spice blend at home, though I have made my own mixes. In addition to salt and black pepper, these generally include garlic and onion powder and other types of pepper.
I used to like steak sauce when I was a kid. Now it seems bizarre to use this sharp, overpowering sauce on top of a steak. I don’t use it even for cube steak or London broil. I like the flavor, but I can’t think of any good uses for it because it is so much stronger than the taste of meat.