STEAK (do not read if you are vegetarian or hate me.)

I AM A VEGETARIAN AND I HATE YOU!

I am a really a vegetarian but I don't really hate you at all. <3

I like medium, which means at most places (regardless of how expense) I order medium rare.

Steaks are cheating. They are too easy to cook, so that any idiot can learn how.

rare at a reputable steakhouse, medium everywhere else i.e they can fuck it up a little one way or another and it will still be good.

That does not make them any less delicious. xp

Rare. If I'm lucky it will come out truly rare, but at least they usually don't fuck up rare orders into the mid-well range.

exception: The Outback. Which can't even get prime rib done to the correct temp/color.

Guys I have not had a steak in 16 years. Maybe I should change this.

med. rare

yes you should wtf.

It might make you really really sick? xp to enbb

now I want a ribeye so bad, but we have so many leftovers in the fridge

x-post - yeah, it would probably destroy me tbh

Filet (@ classy joint): practically raw
Most Others: med. rare

I've only had tartare once, but it was fantastic!

Medium Well, I'm not a savage.

not a disgusting savage imo, medium well

i've started using "disgusting savage" way too frequently in my daily life.

"my cat is such a disgusting savage! he whines and whines to go out, even when it's raining. such a small brain!"

"that bartender is a most disgusting savage imo, it took like 10 minutes to get a drink."

medium rare... i like it near-bloody but there's a psychological thing of making the effort to cook it a bit

i always order medium rare (always = like twice a year) because i am scared to order rare. and yeah, what get bent said. also... i need to learn how to cook this stuff myself. i am so bad at meat.

just a wee bit of pink is how i likes it

last night for the first time I watched the movie The Fly starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis and there's this scene where he cuts a steak in half and teleports one half and does not teleport the other and then he makes Geena Davis do a taste-test on the steaks to see if the genetic reintegration distorted the taste. Geena said that yes, the teleported steak tasted synthetic. then he turned into a gigantic disgusting drippy Fly-Man who vomits acid onto Geena's mean boyfriend and is eventually killed with a shotgun

but anyways, voted MEDIUM!

rare you fucking pussies.

ya rare motherlovers RARE!!!

dare 2 B rare

imo

I don't like steak n

ctrl+f 'bleu'

idk choosing rare seems like a token "look at me i am in touch with my caveman roots" from decidedly non-caveman-like people

well-done

even medium well ppl are savages imo

no, it is the nicest way to eat steak, to commune with the very essence of meat xp o god well dammit i'm an ANIMAL

it really depends on the cut, you don't want to eat a t-bone or sirloin rare, where as eating a filet or rib-eye at anything more than med-rare is just a waste of all the fat/flavor that gets cooked out.

yeah, i'll definitely give ya that, steaks that taste like charcoal = ugh

anyway the actual answer to this poll is ARGENTINE

also depending on if it's been (dry) aged, corn/grain vs. grass-fed, etc... can make little differences in how a chef preps and sears. If it's a real nice cut, I ask the chef his recommendation first and tune accordingly.

hamburger

i need someone to take me out and pay for steaks so i can act like i know what i'm talking about

idk choosing rare seems like a token "look at me i am in touch with my caveman roots" from decidedly non-caveman-like people

― latebloomer, Sunday, September 13, 2009 2:08 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

latebloomer if you want to call me a decidedly non-caveman-like person do it to my face

you civilized bastard

yeah man i think you know damn well i live in a cave

Medium rare. Rare can sometimes be too chewy or slick. Medium rare changes the texture just enough without changing the flavor. Also, sirloins are wonderful when they're rare-medium rare.

i feel like if rare is too chewy or slick it is just not a good cut/piece of meat.

i have never had tartare. i want to try this some day.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_BiQe38efy_Y/SkDxarE9P7I/AAAAAAAAAZU/RDQ-afqc7IQ/s320/fred-barney.jpg

l-r:

slocki, strongo

i also think you know damn well i am taller than slocki

with all that protein, no wonder

shoulda gone with the geico guys imo

http://introspectreangel.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/geico-cavemen-restaurant.jpg

slocki, strongo in eager anticipation of their dinner

i will not be mocked for my love of blood

signed, guy eating mostly refined carbs these days due to poverty

rare, medium rare if i'm a little uncertain

Carpaccio is pretty awesome too

http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/mly/lowres/mlyn273l.jpg

oh yeah actually i think i would like to try carpaccio before tartare.

I've had wagyu beef "sashimi" but it wasn't marinated in anything so just tasted like how a supermarket's refrigerated meat section smells

Medium rare for general porterhouse or filet steak, but I've also had the pretty much sashimi beef slices japanese style that are either marinated or minimaly seared, and those are gooood.

Beef is good rare/raw as long as the quality is up there. Never tried wagyu though: not a fan of fatty meat.

it really depends on the cut, you don't want to eat a t-bone or sirloin rare, where as eating a filet or rib-eye at anything more than med-rare is just a waste of all the fat/flavor that gets cooked out.

― *⁂((✪⥎✪))⁂* (Steve Shasta), Sunday, September 13, 2009 7:10 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

but isnt sirloin leaner than rib-eye? therefore you would want to have it more rare

medium would be my choice but can deal with rare and frankly as long as it's more steak than charcoal i'll eat it.

http://www.brucesangels.com/p57telep.jpg

"And how would you like your sirloin, sir?"
"Bloody."

yeah imma be the first to admit well done. don't like my dinner bleeding at me.

V. Rare. Bleu. Wd love to give Tartare a go some time.

Don't like tartare feat. raw egg as much as carpaccio; whenever I go to Paris I treat myself to carpaccio in the cafe at Colette.

Has anyone here found it difficult to get rare steak, when requested, in the US? Some places will try to walk you back to medium rare. Onglet steak frites from the equivalent of a truck stop, in Europe, is amazing - and bleu orders are not a problem at all. My ideal steak is somehow very pink in the middle and seared enough on the outside to provide some crunch without crossing over to the land of medium anything.

I was about to say about carpaccio - I love carpaccio, but with steaks, I never have the guts to go less than medium-rare. I've managed to talk my dad down from well-done to medium-rare over the years by keeping suggesting he tries one done from what he would usually order. Yet I can't do the last steps down myself, possibly because I think I've just got to where I like it best now.

You could have added another answer instead of the disclaimer:

STILL ALIVE

My steaks here in Paris have been as close to alive as I can imagine, dripping with blood. They are FABULOUS. I voted rare naturally.

I take it that the "tartare" option is for chopped steak rather than a steak proper?

I AM VEGETARIAN MEDIUM RARE

Has anyone here found it difficult to get rare steak, when requested, in the US? Some places will try to walk you back to medium rare.

i've found it difficult to order MEDIUM RARE -- one place i went to said "our medium rare is very rare, we really suggest you order it medium." and i did, to my chagrin.

Don't care as long as it's smokey or doused in peppercorn sauce.

rare is also better for you

Depends on where getting it. If I'm getting the 75 day aged ribeye from David Burke's Primehouse, rare each and every time. If I'm at Western Sizzler, I'll probably go with medium.

Interesting music on part of Jeff's link there...
http://www.jameshotels.com/Chicago-Hotel.aspx?name=The-James-Chicago&page=Photo-Gallery

The Kobe Beef Sashimi on Himalayan Rock Salt with Mushroom Chips and Truffle Sauce sounds intriguing.

depends on the cut/preparation but medium rare generally - whatever that means

do some places have rules/regulations/laws about how rare you can get it? i'm not sure if they are just 'guidelines' that some people stick to more adherently than others, or if there is some kind of health code 'you may not serve under this temp' rule.

There aren't any federal guidelines, and I don't know of any state or local requirements. There are regulations regarding risk notices on menus, the typical "consuming raw or undercooked food may blah blah blah", but I've never seen a restaurant that doesn't post it get in trouble for it.

When it's on the menu I almost always go for tartare/kitfo/kibbeh nayyeh/yukhoe/carpaccio/other raw preparation, but it's not like you can just request any steak raw as the preparation is substantially different (with the exception of tere saga).

For cooked steaks I like medium rare, as rare steaks often don't have enough of a surface crust for my taste.

do some places have rules/regulations/laws about how rare you can get it?

Washington state has laws about hamburger doneness, due the early 90s Jack-in-the-Box deaths, but not for whole muscle cuts.

they are kinda nuts here! they even put notices on menus about eggs at some places i've been!

medium or medium rare for steak (go rarer for higher-end shit), medium well for burgerz

i am a vegetarian and wish i had not clicked on this thread

because of this thread, we are having steak for dinner tonight.

http://images.topix.com/gallery/up-IU9FGP9NCPI4AMCG.jpg

^ also my dinner tonight. Thank you for being awesome and tasty, cows.

they look like they have accepted their fate

I fire up the pan really hot with some butter, throw it in for a minute each side. Probably rare.

jaq! <3

Generally medium rare, unless I am at a super fancy steak place in which case I will let the chef decide what is best for me.

I AM A VEGETARIAN AND I HATE YOU!

― \(^o\) (/o^)/ (ENBB), Sunday, September 13, 2009 5:56 AM (17 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I am a really a vegetarian but I don't really hate you at all. <3

― \(^o\) (/o^)/ (ENBB), Sunday, September 13, 2009 5:56 AM (17 hours ago) Bookmark

I AM VEGETARIAN MEDIUM RARE

― cozwn, Sunday, September 13, 2009 2:26 PM (9 hours ago) Bookmark

Rare rare rare but fuck anyone who says they want it "still mooing" and also fuck servers who try to coax you out of ordering a rare steak, wtf.

Baked potato sitting around soaking everything up...<3

"chop off its horns and wipe its arse" is my preferred "i like to eat rare steak and am a huge douche" phrase.

Baked potato sitting around soaking everything up...<3

― O time thy pyramids (Abbott), Sunday, September 13, 2009 6:07 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

how do you take your baked potato - gotta be rare for me

actually, baked potatoes are best when basically burnt, the complete opposite of steak

Baked potato is an art, dude.

i like my baked potato still mooing

does that make you feel like a man, s1ocks?

i like my baked potato with butter, salt, pepper, sour cream, cheddar cheese, bacon and meat juices.

BLOODY FUCKING MED. RARE

I am a disgusting savage.

Potato: salted butter, sour cream and tons of cracked black pepper. See also twice-baked potato: scoop out potato, add butter, tbsp of sour cream, big handful of cheddar cheese, salt, pepper and a dash of smoked paprika. Mash up and replace in potato skin shells, dust with more paprika, and bake until hot.

twice baked potatoes are one of the few things my dad can manage not to totally fuck up. as a result, they're a staple of any holiday meal spent at his place, from christmas to easter to the fourth of july.

I have never had a waiter try and talk me out of a rare steak... is this common in the US or something?

yes, yes it is.

"You know rare means a warm, red center right?"

Heh oh dear :)

I had the same thing in the UK only with coffee. I ordered an espresso at a mall because the place had, well you know, an *espresso machine*. And the lady peered at me and said "you know it comes in a tiny little cup, right?"

I've never had anyone suggest a different temperature - they say back what that means ("cool red"/"warm red"/etc.), but never say "are you for real?"

When I was a waiter, anyone who ordered a well-done steak was ridiculed by the staff as a disgusting savage.

lol so many places in England actively try to dissuade you from buyin an Espresso.

When I was a waiter, anyone who ordered a well-done steak was ridiculed by the staff as a disgusting savage.

It's the only sensible response.

Well done and heavily charred meat is apparently very bad for you anyway. The charring creates some kind of carcinogens. Supposedly.

considering most of what i consume is supposed to be carcinogenic that's neither here nor there

Heh good point :/

i have never had a waiter try to dissuade me from a rare order

me neither.

Medium rare for me, but I do love the charred end of a salt-crusted prime rib.

On a similar note, I was at a restaurant/bar once with my father and aunt (who looked every bit the middle-aged Kansas lady she was) and my father order a pitcher of Guiness, and the bartender suggested we try something lighter, to which he agreed. My aunt could have handled the Guiness, as she sucked down Miller Lites all day, but I wasn't paying so I didn't insist. This was at the King's Head in Santa Monica, I think.

Back in the day I would've voted medium.

it would be much easier if you could order steaks on a 1-10 doneness scale; no more tiptoeing the line between medium rare and medium rare medium

Yeah but the prob in a lot of places is they might get it right straigh off the grill, but then the staff slack and it sits under the heat lamp for collection for 5 mins and by the time you get it, the centre's more done. Hate it when that happens.

What would be easiest of all is if you could beam your ideal conception of doneness directly into the mind of the cook.

even easier would be to you beaming your ideal conception of doneness at the raw steak, emitting some sort of radioactive heat wave from your forehead which would cook the steak to your desired level

Are you imagining a sound effect for this? I am.

It's an extremely low throbbing bass tone.

Hahaha yes :D

We should all have inbuilt microwaves. *nods*.

Also be able to make our food hover in front of us while we cook it with frickin laser beams on our heads.

When I was a waiter, anyone who ordered a well-done steak was ridiculed by the staff as a disgusting savage.

When I was in high school a friend of mine wrangled me into a one-night job as a server at some dinner that was being given at his synagogue. When we got there I was given a yarmulke and told that many old people would request the well-done end pieces from the rib roast, but that such requests were likely to be so numerous that there was no fucking way they could all be honored. Therefore I was instructed to give them whatever cut I had been handed to serve them, apologize, and just meekly accept whatever abuse they gave me over it.

Later I asked my friend what that was all about and he explained that these people were holocaust survivors who hated to detect any blood in their meat, the disgusting savages.

that is a disgusting story and i think your friend was fucking with u

It also doesn't quite make sense, pardon perhaps my ignorance.

that's what i'm saying

Knowing my friend, there is almost zero chance he was fucking with me. His imagination didn't swing that way.

As for the story not making sense, I'm not sure why it doesn't. If you are thinking the holocaust was carried out exclusively by gassing and incineration in concentration camps, it wasn't. Hundreds of thousands of jews were just taken to the countryside, made to dig a mass grave, then machine gunned. Some survived. But even disregarding that, I expect the sight of bloody death was not uncommon in the camps, either.

^ suggest ban

Bleu

JtMATROHB, what on earth are you on about? Webmail me, if you prefer to answer that way.

When I was young, I preferred meat to be (a) well done, (b) in small pieces, and (c) covered with sauce. When ordering beef, I'd often order dishes that were heavily sauced/marinated/seasoned, which pretty obviously tended to be cuts that weren't all that great on their own. Rare, pink, or bloody roast cuts disturbed me, and I associated them with scary older rich cigar-chomping white people with fake teeth. (There were people like this in my area who, when asked how they'd like their steak, would answer "just knock off the cowboy," which always bothered me because cowboys do not ride cows.) At bottom, I wasn't really enjoying good meat -- I was enjoying bad meat suffused in other flavors I liked. I'm not sure I ever even really had a piece of good meat; I didn't come from a steak or roast type of family in terms of meals at home, and I didn't much order such things in restaurants.

Then, when I was maybe 21 or so, my girlfriend took me to a steakhouse and got me to eat a good cut of meat, medium-rare -- for basically the first time -- and I got the point. (Not just the point of medium-rare, but the point of eating a whole big unadorned chunk of meat.) If a steak is good, cooking it beyond that really just dries it out, toughens it, and sucks out the flavor. I say this as someone who grew up not believing this and then had it proved to me by Mouth Science. (Another good way to drive this in is to make good steak at home: season, brush with olive oil, sprinkle with rosemary, and toss in a good grill pan, and then just watch it, watch how juicy and delicious it looks around the medium-rare point, and then watch what happens as you leave it on further.)

Question:

Would it be kosher to eat a steak that is cooked medium-rare? I ask because it seems that there is still blood that comes out of the meat when cooked like this. Should steak be "well done"?

Answer:

The laws of kashrut require the extraction and drainage of all blood from beef or fowl within 72 hours of slaughtering. This is accomplished through a unique soaking and salting process—or, in some instances, through broiling.

The reddish liquid that remains inside the meat after this procedure is not halachically considered blood; it is the meat's "juice," and is 100% kosher.

Today, kosher meat is sold with the blood already removed. Therefore, if dining in a kosher restaurant, or if you bought your meat at a reliable kosher butcher, you can confidently eat your medium-rare steak.

Aimless: i am just giving u shit WRT that story (valid, but depressing). NHF.

Also I did not rly SB u.

anyone who votes WELL DONE is a weirdo. I mean,you might as well eat the soles of your shoes. Fuck that shit. So I vote Rare or Medium Rare. Probably the latter. Although I quite like tartare and gehakt (raw minced meat).
I also love having my steak prepped in the japanese way (with MOLASSES)

haha if minced meats were being considered I would suggest a write-in vote for tinish lublub

http://www.verkoeijen.nl/cms/images/stories/vlees/gehakt.jpg

This is very popular. Raw meat with LOTS AND LOTS of fat mixed in (I see Cutty running 200 km/hour tearing his eyes out)

Medium-rare cuz I'm a pussy and afraid of getting some mutant blood disease from uncooked meat. I always order medium though cuz who knows how they're gonna send it to ya half the time.

And I'm just totally finicky wrt blood in general.

med well

morbs nooooo

No option for 'BLUE', no cred.

Personally, I like it a tony more than that usually, so rare will suffice/.

Who's tony? Maybe *tiny.*

i like it-a tony

Well done. I like eating charcoal.

…and, er 'bleu'. I apologise to any gourmands..

-xpost-

that gehakt looks like how they sell ground beef here. scary.

i am a disgusting savage who orders medium, but i'm not a really a steak guy. i like complimentary textures, sauces, and spices, so an unadorned piece of meat (even if it's really good beef) doesn't really do it for me. if it helps, i'm always embarrassed when i order it medium instead of medium rare.

also, in switzerland i had tartare once and it was amazing. it had roasted garlic mixed in. i think it was marinated in something citrus-y, ceviche-style...is this common for tartare, or is it usually totally raw?

rare. extremely, extremely rare.

i think it was marinated in something citrus-y, ceviche-style...is this common for tartare, or is it usually totally raw?

I'd just like to point out that originally, this was supposed to be made with horse meat. Traditionally it's made with tartar sauce, capers and raw egg and the meat is totally rare.

raw, that is.

i also had horse steak on that trip! we cooked it over a fire by the river and it was delicious (surprisingly tender too).

Medium here; not much of a red meat guy. While I won't cop to being a disgusting savage I am willing to concede I have appalling taste in food.

Which kind of leads into what I was thinking re: difficulty of ordering rare steaks in America (not something I experience firsthand but it happens every time I eat out with my dad). I think it's not so much a misplaced concern about health (or fear of getting sued) as it is part of the shift in America's eating habits over the last 50 years or so, with processed and fast foods becoming staples. I was born in 1983, and I know I definitely have an aversion to meat that's too obviously a chunk of dead animal- blood, bones (even in fish; come to think of it especially in fish), connective tissue, those stringy veins you see in chicken sometimes...eurgh. I once went to a Fogo de Chao in Atlanta with family and got physically ill from the smell of so much bloody meat (though that may not be The Culture, Man so much as me being a delicate fainting nancy).

It's like some magical synthetic-food Star Trek future only with more heart disease and adult-onset diabetes.

oh sure, meat preparation and packaging have definitely taken us away from the old days of casually picking out gristle, using the organ meat, kids fighting over who got to suck the marrow out of the bone, etc.

I will say that I do often like the look of a thick steak that's been sliced before serving, for less of a hunk-of-meat appearance -- also I think the steakhouse tradition of serving full, massive cuts is kind of a problem, though I understand why it's done. I dunno, I had a dinner on vacation last week that was like a really great 6-8 ounce tenderloin and a stuffed poblano pepper, and that seemed like a better way to have steak, a reasonable amount alongside other things.

ick, when you are at a steakhouse you want them to serve it unsliced. luger's serves theirs sliced and...well...there are times when it seems like the first few pieces are from one hunk of meat and the ones you can initially see in presentation are from some other hunk of meat.

I also love having my steak prepped in the japanese way (with MOLASSES)

― Nathalie (stevienixed), Wednesday, September 16, 2009 12:19 PM (Yesterday)

Nat do you mean worchestire sauce? i have had "steak"* quite a few times in Japan and never encountered this.

*steak in Japan usually means a petite cut or a hamburg steak as beef prices are astronomical.

i dunno, steve, it's from one of my japanese cookbooks. you basically slap some molasses on the steak and grill it that way. then you cut it in strips and put it on rice.

horse meat is totally YUMMY

http://www.rafina.be/trade/image/thumb/gerookt_paardenvlees.jpg

i bet it's this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburg_steak#Salisbury_steak_around_the_world

oh, schef, I mean slicing at home! if I'm at a steakhouse, I am there for steakhouse style, I guess. but I do tend to cook steak (or steak sandwiches) at home a decent amount, because there's a butcher down the street and it's an awfully quick/easy way to make something really good.

xpost Nope, it specifically demands a steak. You have to cut into strips. I do think the sauce is similar to the one you linked to though. Does that make any sense? (Sorry, massive headache.)

http://www.canada.com/topics/lifestyle/food/story.html?id=eb67134d-6a63-492e-9167-f86f43582e45

something like this

y'all like some raw/rare meat? here's some pics from my trips to steakhouses in Matsusaka (Hyogo) and Ishigaki-jima (Okinawa):

sashimi http://farm1.static.flickr.com/201/514474077_92862bb31a.jpg
nigiri (raw, seared) http://farm1.static.flickr.com/251/514474607_429f3c545c.jpg
shoulder, center, tongue
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/251/514474607_429f3c545c.jpg
more sashimi http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2430/3572185507_e3e4c7164a.jpg
kalbi http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3341/3572191549_5394d124f6.jpg
tongue, center, filet, roast http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3612/3572187307_100f25d748.jpg
sirloin http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3415/3572190487_c35c97ea1f.jpg

prefer filet and ribeye midrare, love it bloody but still want some char on it

love it bloody but still want some char on it

Exactly.

i've eaten at o'charleys once in my life, while waiting for my sister's flight to land a couple months ago. i ordered a burger and the server asked 'you want that medwell hun?' and i asked for it medrare...the moment that last r rolled off my lips i knew it was a mistake, when they brought my burger it was beyond well done. it was the doneness that we at my restaurant refer to as 'hockey puck'.

something very new to me that i'm lovin right now is pickling beef in rice wine vinegar

I definitely like burgers a lot thinner and drier than steaks; I'm going to eat them with loads of extras and condiments and it's not great meat, so I don't need meatjuice running around

Why do I giggle at meatjuice. Right, cause I'm a bit pervy. Sorry.

mmm steak

rare, sometimes medrare for me. with colmans mustard.

black and blue!

i am a disgusting savage who orders medium, but i'm not a really a steak guy. i like complimentary textures, sauces, and spices, so an unadorned piece of meat (even if it's really good beef) doesn't really do it for me. if it helps, i'm always embarrassed when i order it medium instead of medium rare.

― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Thursday, September 17, 2009 1:17 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

but the contrast between the charred exterior and the juicy rare interior is like the best complementary texture/taste thing goin' on!!

from wiki:

Blue rare or very rare - (110°F core temp) Cooked very quickly; the outside is seared, but the inside is usually cool and barely cooked. The steak will be red on the inside and barely warmed. Sometimes asked for as 'blood rare'. In the United States this is also sometimes referred to as 'Black and Blue' or 'Pittsburgh Rare'.

can only do this with really good meat tho

so how 'bout meat: angus? kobe? i aint never had no kobe beef yet on account a it's expensive.

we need to do this poll w/r/t hamburgers

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Surprised tartare didn't get more votes.

"WE LIKE OUR HAM-BUUURR-GERS RAWWWWWW"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ITLNzPoEqs