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How Americans Order Their Steak (Rare 2.5%, Well Done 11.7%)

sikkinixx

Member
Only a quarter of the population actually orders a steak properly. No wonder the USA is all messed up.

Medium? Well done? Lol okay.
 

bigkrev

Member
Why some of you guys always feel the need to shame those that eat their steaks well done is beyond me, it's become a trend in steak topics. God forbid that people have tastes that differ from yours.

The best comparison would be someone buying Blu-rays and hooking up a blue ray player with an S-Video or Composite connection. Sure, you can do it, but why aren't you instead just buying cheaper DVDs? If you are going to spend money on Steak, only to have it cooked like a burger, why not just order a burger for less money?
 
While I'm usually pretty firmly in the "rare" boat, I find that it often depends on the cut of meat. I like my tenderloin blue-rare (tenderloin is also the best for raw preparations), but fattier cuts like ribeye benefit a bit more from heat to get the juices flowing, so medium rare is best there. Skirt steak is probably my absolute favorite cut for grilling, and while it tastes great rare, it's texture is definitely a bit better at medium rare or even medium.
 
640.jpg


"with ketchup, lots of ketchup"
Doesn't he also like them well done (and with ketchup)?
 

old

Member
Medium rare is objectively the best. The sweet spot with the most rendered fat and still juicy.
 

Ponn

Banned
The best comparison would be someone buying Blu-rays and hooking up a blue ray player with an S-Video or Composite connection. Sure, you can do it, but why aren't you instead just buying cheaper DVDs? If you are going to spend money on Steak, only to have it cooked like a burger, why not just order a burger for less money?

Because I eat burgers and I eat steaks and I know a well done steak doesn't taste like a burger. My well done steaks I grill are still tender and I can definitely tell the difference if I got a cheap sirloin or ribeye. Mine aren't dry either like people are making them out to be, there's still juice on my plate from it. People are being ridiculous.
 

Trace

Banned
America continues to prove that their tastebuds literally do not work. Well done steak, is there a bigger crime imaginable? I think not.

Rare and Medium Rare are the only ways to eat a steak.
 
The scale from blue => rare => med-rare is... more misleading than anything I guess. The edges are way too cooked, going from pure brown to red is not what it should look like.

image.php

No no no, this image is no good either. Why do these comparison images always make medium rare look so uneven? Medium rare shouldn't look well done partway through, then medium partway through, then blue rare in the center. It should look dark pink all the way through. Something in the ballpark of these:


mediumrare1.png


Medium-rare.jpg
 

Hazmat

Member
I like that the article mentions that different cuts are better at different levels of done-ness. Rare could make sense for a filet, but I feel like a rare ribeye would be gross.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
97.5% of Americans are wrong


I admit, I am a bit shocked at how high that statistic is. Okay, maybe not THAT shocked, but damn, that's high.

Medium rare is OK, but still inferior to rare, you peasants
 

Trace

Banned
Medium rare is my go to. Don't think I've ever tried rare, what's it like?



Oh come off it.

Most places suck at cooking a steak so medium rare ends up with medium most of the time, rare usually ends up at medium rare. Places that actually serve a rare steak are generally pretty quality, it's a good steak.

I eat my steaks well done.
Fight me GAF

Meet me out front, we'll settle this like savages.
 
Medium well over medium rare is a crime against humanity.

I can at least tolerate people who order medium, but anyone getting a steak medium well or well done should be facing criminal charges.
 

Tagyhag

Member
Medium-rare is the safest option. I like a rare steak myself but most places will undercook the steak unless you ask for it well-done and I'm not a blue-rare fan.
 

MisterR

Member
Most places suck at cooking a steak so medium rare ends up with medium most of the time, rare usually ends up at medium rare. Places that actually serve a rare steak are generally pretty quality, it's a good steak.



Meet me out front, we'll settle this like savages.

Yep, I order rare, because if you order medium rare you get medium or medium well in a lot of places.
 
No no no, this image is no good either. Why do these comparison images always make medium rare look so uneven? Medium rare shouldn't look well done partway through, then medium partway through, then blue rare in the center. It should look dark pink all the way through. Something in the ballpark of these:


mediumrare1.png


Medium-rare.jpg

Because they're showing how that's going to cook on a grill. You have to get into unusual cooking methods (like sous vide) to get that edge to edge pink.
 

D i Z

Member
I'll go as low as rare if I have faith in the prep, and as high as medium if I expect medium rare to be too much for some people to handle. Medium rare is the where it's at tho.
 

NimbusD

Member
is Longhorn Steakhouse a representative sampling of steak eaters tho?
Not at all, it's representative of longhorn steakhouse goers. Though I imagine there's not some crazy swing that would tilt it much.but there's definitely more upscale or lowscale places that would have much different charts.
 

Davey Cakes

Member
Over the years I've settled into having mine medium.

That said, one of the best steaks I've ever had was medium-well (cooked perfectly) with a shell of char on the outside. The restaurant called it the "Bourbon Street Sirloin."
 

kmag

Member
As some people have said depends on the cut and depends on the quality of the restaurant. If I'm not sure I'll probably go for medium as there's more of a chance of getting something in my acceptable range (medium rare to medium), but at quality restaurants or places I know know how to properly cook it's medium rare all the way. At home, I'll go more towards the rare side of things, but then I normally get my meat from a good local butcher and I know how the meat has been stored.

Honestly given how variable some places concept of medium are (almost always on the rarer side) then in ordering rare would probably result in it still mooing.

I find it's rare to get a medium steak overcooked, but if it happens it's going back.
 
Because they're showing how that's going to cook on a grill. You have to get into unusual cooking methods (like sous vide) to get that edge to edge pink.

I mean, maybe. I've had good steaks grilled on a home grill, and while they might not've been perfectly edge-to-edge like that first pic, they were sure as shit more even than that comparison pic. They weren't fucking blue-rare in the middle, and they still managed to be at least kinda pinkish pretty near the edge.
 
Anything cooked past medium-rare is a waste of steak.

If you had told me this chart was for how people like their hamburgers I would have believed you.
 
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