When proposing the question in our group chat, Gizmodo’s editor Cam replied with the following: rare or medium rare. That’s how you have your steak – not how Cam has his steak, but how everyone should have their steak, and any other answer was invalid.
But I know some people who, to quote my darling mother, like their meat dead. Burnt beyond the grave and into the next dimension, as it were. And sometimes it’s a practical consideration, too. One of our commercial editors – not Tegan – who’s currently pregnant can’t have any meat that isn’t well done, thanks to gestational diabetes.
And then there are different types of meat. Pork and lamb aren’t really meant to be had rare, and certainly not anything less than that. Kangaroo, on the other hand, turns to crap if it’s anything but rare. And then there’s different ways to treating the meat entirely, where it’s given several different treatments so that the meat itself is well done but the texture becomes an experience in its own.
How do you like your steak? And how do you like other meats and cuts?
Comments
43 responses to “The Big Question: How Do You Like Your Steak?”
Medium Rare.
Medium rare plz!
I didn’t sign up for a chewing exercise regime when ordering/making my delicious steak!
I don’t understand this. Are your teeth in such bad shape that you can’t chew on stuff that gives a tiny bit of resistance?
Nope, but if I want beef jerky i’ll just buy that! A nice tender steak should almost melt in your mouth, not be like chewing on leather.
I eat exclusively well done or medium well steak because I can’t and won’t eat raw meat. They’re nothing like jerky. Eating jerky is like eating a redskin candy you have to put actual effort into biting it. Eating well done meat is like eating something that is slightly harder than your average hotdog, you just need to bite normally.
Perhaps the difference comes in how thick you slice them? I don’t eat steak in big chunks, I use my knife to slice them up into pieces about half a centimeter thick, one centimeter at most. There’s barely any resistance when you bite into it.
I think at this stage it comes down to personal opinion so there’s really no rationalising it.
I sprinkle my comment with some humour and exagerate, of course well done steak is not like jerky (unless you reeeeaaally screw it up) but I do find it too tough and dry for my liking.
Humour and sarcasm aside (sorry default attitude):
I personally like a juice steak with a slightly “spongey” texture, e.g. medium rare, and don’t enjoy the experience if anything cooked more than that, UNLESS it’s slow cooked for 8 – 10 hours and practically falls apart… That shouldn’t stop others from enjoying that of course and is purely my personal opinion.
Probably going to get downvoted for this but i am not a huge steak fan, i suppose it’s from my childhood where all steak we had was cheap shit and there is nothing worse than biting in to a hunk and it’s 90% gristle.
When i do have steak i have it medium rare.
Down-voted to fulfill the prophecy
It is known.
Sous vide for 45 minutes at 60°C to get medium rare, then a quick sear in a pan (with butter and a drop of oil) and I’m in heaven.
Hooo boi, this guy knows what’s up!.
Man, I totally want to get a Sous Vide precision cooker just for this!
Doooooo itttttt. I’m so glad I decided to get one. You will be too.
THIS 😀
Sous vide FTW. Personally I go 54°C, I think 60°C is a bit closer to medium.
Burnt, with peanut butter…..
excuse me?
Medium-well
Just a bit of crunchy black carbon around the edges adds a wonderful taste!
Used to be rare but now medium (well-done just takes too long). You get better taste from a well-cooked steak. The secret is to cut smaller pieces to put in your mouth.
Sous-vide steak also gets my vote.
If it isn’t still mooing on my plate then it’s over-done ☺
In truth it depends on the cut and the quality, medium rare is perfectly acceptable for a lower quality rump steak but a high quality superbly tender eye fillet or hanger steak needs to be still twitching
I grew up eating well-done steak (when we had it at all, and it was usually a cheap cut like a minute steak). Then I met my husband who likes his medium rare at most. I learned how to cook and eat medium rare, mostly because I couldn’t wait for my steak to be cooked longer 🙂
Although to be honest, most of the time I buy beef it’s a really tough cut like shin that gets slow-cooked to tender perfection.
Rare or medium rare. Only other way would be slow cooked for a long time, or sous vide
Marry me? Lol
lol I’m flattered, but I prefer that kind of meat to be of a feminine persuasion! 😉
What! How could you?! You tenderise my heart to perfection and than leave it on the flames to turn to charcoal! Lol 😛 however dont think my partner would be very pleased if I married someone else, even if it was for someone who has an understanding of how things are meant to be cooked
ahhahaah yeah you’d definitely wanna have the blessing of your other half before embarking on a trip down that road 😉
I never really used to eat steak as a kid, cos my dad always bbq’d them, and no matter what, they’d always come out medium to well done (i blame my grandfather for that – he liked boot leather steak.) Wasn’t til I moved out on my own that I started to cook my own, that I began to like it. I’d been cooking since I was young, so I knew pretty well what to do, just never had the opportunity til then!
Medium rare to medium well. Never blue.
Rare to medium rare is life.
Amen sister!! Nothing makes me happier than a quality peice of perfectly cooked rare-medium rare steak.
A quality piece of beef always deserves to be rare or medium rare. Medium rare is my personal taste. Having said that, I want it a hot, medium rare…not lukewarm, ‘rested’ hot.
I’m sure many would disagree with me, but I think ‘resting’ meat is a myth. Cook it to how you like on a grill or in a pan and serve it straight away….hot.
Resting is everything. It allows the muscle fibres to relax and retain their water content. This makes for a flavour and texture profile change.
Okay, right that makes sense and I appreciate what you’re saying…but I find resting ‘cools’ the steak too much. Is it okay to rest steaks in a moderately heated oven then? If not, what is your preferred method?
Agree with Cam, rare and medium rare are the only valid options. And even between those two choices, medium rare should be taken 99% of the time. It’s just the Right Way To Do It (TM).
Depends on the cut really for me:
Scotch fillet – Medium Rare-Medium
Rump – Rare
Porterhouse / Sirlion – Blue
T-Bone – Medium Rare
I might be called a pleb, but anything under medium, regardless of the steak quality etc, is rubbish imo. Might as well just eat the cow while it’s still living.
Generally will order Well Done because I’ve found a lot of restaurants here refuse to actually cook the meat to that point and I end up getting one grade less than what you ask for. For example, if you order Medium rare, it tends to be rare, order medium and it tends to be medium rare. Medium is fine, so I tend to order Well done to make sure of it.
I prefer medium rare but i always order medium for the same reason (getting one level backwards) . On the odd time i get medium, i dont fuss cause medium is good too
tbh I think some chef at some point decided he/she didn’t want to waste the gas/electricity to properly cook the meat and therefore reap more profits from lower bills so they introduce rare as a thing
Here in Brazil it’s the exacly oposite!
I don’t honestly care – and I’m a foodie. Rare is juicy, medium rare to medium well has a varying degree of chew. Well done I usually thinly slice on the plate. All depending on the cut of course.
I like medium, because…
a) if the restaurant stuff it up (which they often do), if it’s a little under, it’s medium rare and that’s ok, and if it’s a little over, it’s medium well, and that’s sorta ok still.
b) I actually like to chew my meat before I swallow it. I like to chew it until it’s broken down into tiny mooshy pieces. And with rare meat, it never gets into a swallow-able state 😛
Medium rare, the way it was damn well intended :p
When I go to a restaurant I’ll normally order a medium because they invariably undercook it.
I like mine that every time I poke it with my fork it still moo’s.
Blue. Or rare I guess.
Anything more is a waste of a good piece of meat 😛
I like mine still living.
Steak = rare. But as for other beef cuts I’ve discovered brisket. Low and slow on my offset smoker for 12 hours and it melts in your mouth and has more flavour than any fillet steak.