Untrue - post 32 and 36 both have cites that are scientifc papers that mention that mention a preference among Africa-Americans for well done meats. Please read entire thread before sticking your foot in your mouth - m’kay? thanks!
It was pretty clear to me that the OP was talking about a preference for well done steak. There is, of course, nothing COMPELLING black people to eat well done steak, certainly such a person is free to order rare steak at any time, it’s just that (apparently) large numbers of people from that group consistently choose well done.
That isn’t racism, prejudice, or whatever social ill you’re trying to make it to be.
When I was in the U.S. earlier this year I ordered a"Blue" steak, (Very rare) which in the U.K. usually means that you get a top class steak with quality meat.
The one I got was shit, so this is one Whitey who will be ordering his steaks well done on future occassions, seems to me that they’ve got the right idea.
You shouldn’t expect the quality of your cut to change based on how you order the doneness. If I know it’s a really excellent place for steak, I’ll order it rare. If I just know it’s very good, medium rare. Anything else I don`t risk ordering a steak there.
I’ve been eating medium rare all my life and so has my mother. It has been my experience that people who prefer their steaks medium well or more, do so out of some heebie jeebies about food poisoning. It is also my experience that these people, in general, aren’t particularly fond of steak.
You can eat your steak the way you like, but I think you will like it better if it is cooked less. I can’t remember the last time a badass character mentioned the way they liked their steak, can you?
I hear a lot of guys bragging about how rare the like their steak. Same for how strong their coffee, how hot their chilis, how cold their beer, and so on.
I assume you mean IRL. I also assume I understand your comment correctly.
And, I’ve also noticed a preference for well done meat among the many black people I’ve eaten in my 65 years. I’ve even chided a few about “ruining” perfectly good steak.
Know why black men universally have bigger penis’ than white men? You guessed it.
Ray told me so, but refused a comparison.
Peace,
mangeorge, who prefers well seared, thick, and rare. Pan sauce sometimes.
Two+ years of observational data may be valid, at least for the particular area in question. What are the general demographics of the area? What’s the demographic target of the restaurant? Including the black customers, what would you say is the medium income level and social class of the restaurant patrons?
I’m white, and I grew up dirt poor, and always ate my steaks well done, so I guess I contribute another data point toward the folks that say it has to do with being poor versus non-poor. For us, a “fancy” night out (once a month or so) was a trip to Ponderosa to have steak, which we all ordered well done. Honestly, I couldn’t understand what the “big deal” was over steak, other than that’s what so-called rich people ate. Then when I was at the ripe age of 28 I accidentally ordered beef carpaccio instead of fried beef jerky (“cecina”), and realized what red meat was supposed to taste like, and started ordering my steaks as raw as I could. I found out what the “big deal” was over steaks.
I’m tempted to chalk this up to income level, too, because when I was in high school (no longer poor, upgraded to working class, maybe lower middle class), Red Lobster is where all the girls wanted to go for “fancy” dining and romantic dates. However I tend to think it was an even bigger deal for blacks than for us; the blacks (in general) would go to Red Lobster dressed in their Sunday best, whereas we (whites) would settle for jeans and a clean T-shirt. I’m lucky enough to have transcended into full middle class, and now regard Red Lobster as kind of a lower-middle class of restaurants (which are my favorite kind). You know, the kind you can go to in shorts or sweat pants. Yet, I still see black patrons overwhelmingly dolled-up at Red Lobster versus other restaurants of the same class (e.g., Olive Garden, BW3’s, Chili’s).
I’ll throw my hat in the ring on the “because they’re generally poor, and it’s a cultural thing” side.
I’ll add that my experience with black people taught me that they don’t like raw food period. I’ve never met a black person who liked sushi, and didn’t make a face like O_O; when I ask them to try some. It’s like they have something against undercooking food
Sorta. In my experience waiting tables, I would say ‘rednecks’. I have no idea if any particular redneck was poor or not. They have have been loaded or they may have been eating out with the winnings from a lucky scratch card. But, “you can take the family outta the trailer park…etc”
I agree with those who suggest there might be a socio-economic thing going on here. I’m in Appalachia (very very white Appalachia) and I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone go for rare steak. About half of my family (including me) goes for medium rare, while the other half goes for well done. Most of my acquaintances go for medium-well to well done.
My husband was from Kentucky and he loathed steak and would refuse to try it.
I think this all stems from little exposure to good cuts of meat and little knowledge of how to cook them if you get them. Hamburger is way more common than steak, and all of us know our mantras about how you have to cook hamburger all the way with no pink showing.
Then, once you get in your head what meat should look at taste like, something else seems gross, tastes funny, looks weird, etc. Meat is a very… evocative food for many people. It has to be right or else it’s gross.
This could be, and its strange behavior, but it certainly occurs. I say eat what you like, but I have noticed that the people that really like their steak, tend to eat it less than medium. People that like their steak medium well, seem to not really have a passion for steak and would just as happily order chicken.
I for one am appalled at the notion of eating black people. And to think you’ve been doing it for 65 years.
40 years ago I was a grill cook in a steakhouse type restaurant. I cooked plenty of rare/medium rare steaks, including a fair amount of black and blue (almost burnt on the outside, raw in the middle.) This was in a southern town of perhaps 150,000 people, not exactly on the vanguard of cuisine.
I can’t help but wonder if being poor factors into that sort of thing. Poor people often can only afford inferior cuts of meat, and don’t always have the best transportation and/or storage facilities. Something like sushi requires careful handling, inspection, storage, and a willingness to throw out anything the least bit suspect. Poor folks are less likely to be able to afford all that.
I also suppose that in slavery times the slaves got pretty crap quality a lot of the time, often what the folks in the big house deemed unfit for themselves to consume. I always though that’s how chitterlings came to be a “soul food” - the masters didn’t want to eat hog guts, but the slaves were hungry and not so choosy. They figured out how to make it edible, even tasty.
It may be that in the past cooking the hell out of meat reduced the chances of food-borne illness. Given that sanitation wasn’t always the best, and clean water may or may not have been plentiful, boiling/cooking the hell out of vegetables might make sense for the same reason. Between lesser quality domestic animals and perhaps supplementing with game animals which really should be thoroughly cooked due to risk of parasites you’re setting up for a cultural preference for very done meat (and vegetables). Another reason for poor people to cook food for longer periods is bad dental care - if the adults in your community usually have few or no teeth left by 30 or so then cooking stuff to mush starts to make a lot of sense.
That would link it to poverty, of course, not skin color. Except, of course, that a higher percentage of dark skinned people in the US are poor than pale skinned. Even so, there’s a lot of cultural overlap between poor and black and poor and white, especially in the south.
So, people who are poor, or who come out of a poor background, are less likely to be exposed to a luxury food like sushi or steak tartare. Their reaction might be "what? You’re too poor to cook your food?" rather than “mmmm - delicacy!” My in-laws, many of whom are poor, put HUGE emphasis on serving HOT food. And meat is ALWAYS well-done (growing up, most of the meat my mother-in-law’s family ate was, apparently, small game. Yes, THAT should be well done, but she knows no other way to eat meat of any sort, even that safe to eat rare). My mother felt she was wealthy because she could afford to eat beef every day - she never got over the notion that fish and chicken were “what poor people eat”, believed to her dying day they were nutritionally inferior, and couldn’t fathom why her children were as eager to eat them (and beans!) as “real meat”. Cultural influences and childhood influences have enormous effect on what people eat and how they eat it.
