THE STEAK THREAD, served a la Man
Discussion
Patch1875 said:
Is it wrong to like it well done!?
Up until few years ago I always ordered well done when one particularly sloppy establishment presented me with a half cooked steak. I thought I would give it ago as I was starving and couldn't face sending a plate of food away. My gluttony paid off as it was the best steak I had eaten up to that point. Always order medium now and it is so much nicer.Patch1875 said:
Is it wrong to like it well done!?
Then it's not a steak. You may as well have roast beef. The issue I find with most people asking for it well done is the only time they eat steak is in a crap pub and pink juice floods their plate. That means it's a crap steak and cooked wrong. If a steak is aged well, allowed to come to room temperature before cooking and cooked correctly (rare) it will be beautiful and won't splurge "blood" everywhere. A well-done s
te slab of beef is not and will never be a steak.BrewsterBear said:
Then it's not a steak. You may as well have roast beef.
The issue I find with most people asking for it well done is the only time they eat steak is in a crap pub and pink juice floods their plate. That means it's a crap steak and cooked wrong. If a steak is aged well, allowed to come to room temperature before cooking and cooked correctly (rare) it will be beautiful and won't splurge "blood" everywhere. A well-done ste slab of beef is not and will never be a steak.
The juice floods the plate with any steak (good or bad quality, well done or rare) if it isn't allowed to rest properly. The resting allows the juices to be reabsorbed into the meat before cutting. Also, not all steak should be cooked rare. A ribeye benefits from being cooked medium or medium rare, as it has a higher fat content and develops more flavour if it is cooked longer. Personally, the only steak I would have properly "rare" is fillet. The issue I find with most people asking for it well done is the only time they eat steak is in a crap pub and pink juice floods their plate. That means it's a crap steak and cooked wrong. If a steak is aged well, allowed to come to room temperature before cooking and cooked correctly (rare) it will be beautiful and won't splurge "blood" everywhere. A well-done s
te slab of beef is not and will never be a steak.Scantily said:
Patch1875 said:
Is it wrong to like it well done!?
Yes, very.If a person starts ANY sentence with a criticism of how another likes something, they are politely reminded it is none of their damn business.
wijit said:
Wrong answer. It is wrong to have it any way other than how you like it.
If a person starts ANY sentence with a criticism of how another likes something, they are politely reminded it is none of their damn business.
That's plainly ridiculous. If I said I like to enjoy a fine cuban cigar by simply throwing it on my fire you'd say I was doing it wrong. And you'd be right. I may have the right to throw a perfectly fine cigar on a fire as has someone to ruin a steak, but both are wrong, regardless.If a person starts ANY sentence with a criticism of how another likes something, they are politely reminded it is none of their damn business.
BrewsterBear said:
My favourite meal, cooked by my own fair hand.
king useless. That's not an insult by the way, I hate eating steaks at pubs because you will invariably be disappointed. If any chain such as beefeater or harvester or brewers Fayre could serve one of those bad boys each time I'd be ordering it. Sadly they cannot.
They ask you in all honesty "How would you like it cooked "
Do you know how you should accurately answer? So you will not be disappointed? You should say
"As it comes"
But instead you do this
and go for rare, no medium, no err, medium rare, ummm, rare but trending to medium. Great.
Medium rare is always a good choice because at least it will be a well done chewy mess rather than an overdone crispy beef wellington boot. But who knows?
Has anyone ever asked for a steak done bloody at a chain pub? It might come out raw. Or still frozen. Or well done and half frozen, but just at one end. That might be quite funky actually if done in a £1 extra bernaise sauce.
We need to print a picture of Bresterbears steak and and take it around to all these pub chains and say "Look, this is what we can do at home? So why are you so shiite?"
I do realise i have started to rant. My 30 inch screen is flecked with spittle.
PS The onion ring / potato tower of Babel looks fantastic.
Edited by Gandahar on Wednesday 30th December 18:10
Rick101 said:
Why are folk suddenly cutting their steak up into several pieces. Is it just for photo's or is this how you would eat them normally?
Is there any benefit to it? I usually just start at one end and work my way t'other.
It's an american thing like the new right hand drive Mustang V8's being brought in over here.Is there any benefit to it? I usually just start at one end and work my way t'other.
As an example.
And as a warning, if you like steaks well done look away now.
No peeping
http://newyork.seriouseats.com/steakcraft/
I've suddenly started salivating.
Being american the right hand should be used for a tv controller, not cutting through steaks which might cause wrist injuries, so the chef does it for you.
I love my steaks more than pink inside but I can appreciate that some people don't, it turns them off. I think the best way to cook a well done steak and keep it still moist is the Alain Ducasse method.
An example is here
http://thepauperedchef.com/2009/04/the-butter-stea...
Now he complained that he got it less pink than he liked, but I think this is a good method, slow/cool basting constantly with butter after you have seared the outsides, is the only way to go. It's almost like resting but still getting just enough heat through it, the butter stopping drying.
It's probably the sign of a very accomplished chef to serve a succulent well done steak.
An example is here
http://thepauperedchef.com/2009/04/the-butter-stea...
Now he complained that he got it less pink than he liked, but I think this is a good method, slow/cool basting constantly with butter after you have seared the outsides, is the only way to go. It's almost like resting but still getting just enough heat through it, the butter stopping drying.
It's probably the sign of a very accomplished chef to serve a succulent well done steak.
Edited by Gandahar on Tuesday 23 February 20:07
BrewsterBear said:
wijit said:
Wrong answer. It is wrong to have it any way other than how you like it.
If a person starts ANY sentence with a criticism of how another likes something, they are politely reminded it is none of their damn business.
That's plainly ridiculous. If I said I like to enjoy a fine cuban cigar by simply throwing it on my fire you'd say I was doing it wrong. And you'd be right. I may have the right to throw a perfectly fine cigar on a fire as has someone to ruin a steak, but both are wrong, regardless.If a person starts ANY sentence with a criticism of how another likes something, they are politely reminded it is none of their damn business.
Ok so I gave the Alain Ducasse method as mentioned above a bash the other day and it ended up not very well, but also it did 
I used a really cheap steak cut. Beef short rib from Waitrose, it's about £4.50 per kg when on offer, about £6 otherwise so very cheap. Also my dog gets a nice bone, so everyones a winner in this cooking experiment. Now normally this is BBQ'd so slow cooking would be good I felt. Sear the outside and Alain Ducasse butter cooking for the rest. I hoped for a grey well done succulent steak.
Here's the cheap raw ingredients
Not bad, quite a bit of marbling. Now some searing to add flavour
Now a small amount of butter
and baste at really low heat for 10 minutes
This is where I went wrong, it was still pink inside. I am so used to bloody, rare, black and blue that it ended up medium rare. Not well done. However if you like medium rare this was perfect. That looks pretty good for a cheap cut of meat, really tender.
I thought I would turn it into a Phili cheese steak
Not bad at all. But next time I need to cook it longer. Can a well done steak still be succulent, I think so.
But it ended up well because I found that the short rib cheap cut of meat is lovely as a steak done this way without paying a fortune
I used a really cheap steak cut. Beef short rib from Waitrose, it's about £4.50 per kg when on offer, about £6 otherwise so very cheap. Also my dog gets a nice bone, so everyones a winner in this cooking experiment. Now normally this is BBQ'd so slow cooking would be good I felt. Sear the outside and Alain Ducasse butter cooking for the rest. I hoped for a grey well done succulent steak.
Here's the cheap raw ingredients
Not bad, quite a bit of marbling. Now some searing to add flavour
Now a small amount of butter
and baste at really low heat for 10 minutes
This is where I went wrong, it was still pink inside. I am so used to bloody, rare, black and blue that it ended up medium rare. Not well done. However if you like medium rare this was perfect. That looks pretty good for a cheap cut of meat, really tender.
I thought I would turn it into a Phili cheese steak
Not bad at all. But next time I need to cook it longer. Can a well done steak still be succulent, I think so.
But it ended up well because I found that the short rib cheap cut of meat is lovely as a steak done this way without paying a fortune
Edited by Gandahar on Tuesday 23 February 20:19
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