By law we must cook your steak Well done...

[Kiwi79]

Went out for lunch today and the burger looked good on the menu, asked for medium rare only to have the waitress come back after taking our order and tell us "by law we have to cook it well done". Never heard this before anywhere else, couldn't even do a medium apparently. My friend still went for it and what came out looked to me like charcoal.

Any truth in this, if not why would they fib?

[Lordbenny]

Doesn’t have to be well done but you can’t ask for a burger rare.

[meatballs]

GBK will do rare burgers, but there's no law.

Generally mince meat isn't safe to eat rare like steak though.

[grumbledoak]

You can have a steak as rare as you like. Not burgers though, and restaurants do get shut down over food safety. It makes the headlines every few years - a quick google gave me this one:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddr...

[Teddy Lop]

I expect the ingredients have to be of a certain standard for it not to be cooked through or it becomes an environmental health issue?

[SS2.]

It's not entirely straightforward - see here and here (PDF).

[ging84]

There is no specific law that says no rare burgers, but most burgers need to be cook thoroughly to be safe so would be illegal to serve them rare.
If you put a steak in so boiling water for a minute or so and mince it into a patty you could eat that patty raw if it was served immediately, so you very much can have a steak burger that is rare.

[Pica-Pica]

meatballs said:

GBK will do rare burgers, but there's no law.

Generally mince meat isn't safe to eat rare like steak though.

Correct. Mince has been exposed all round after mincing. So has steak, but of course the outside of a steak is seared, so the inside of a steak can be as rare as you like. (Provenance of the meat is assumed to be OK).

Steak tartare is usually prepared only in established reputable restaurants.

[speedking31]

7bone's standard offering was what I would call medium-rare

[mattyprice4004]

Why does the title say steak when this is about a burger?
Totally different rules and guidelines around cooking mince and steak, as pointed out

[anonymous-user]

Westminster have been doing this for years:

http://www.artisanfoodlaw.co.uk/blog/meat/westmins...

[p_k_n]

mattyprice4004 said:

Why does the title say steak when this is about a burger?

Clickbait

[mattyprice4004]

p_k_n said:

Clickbait

Very much so!

[dhutch]

mattyprice4004 said:

Very much so!

But why.

And also, who actually wants a undercooked burger? What next, rare sausages? Lamb shank that's cold and chewy?

Daniel

[InitialDave]

dhutch said:

But why.

Some people like attention.

Nothing wrong with a burger that's been cooked through. I make my own on a regular basis, and they're delicious.

[anonymous-user]

A burger a steak fffs

[otolith]

dhutch said:

But why.

And also, who actually wants a undercooked burger? What next, rare sausages? Lamb shank that's cold and chewy?

Same reason one might want rare steak or roast beef or carpaccio or tartare or bresaola - because it tastes good.

[markyb_lcy]

My understanding is that it’s a surface area thing. Burgers being made from minced or ground beef, more of the surface area of the meat has been exposed to “the outside”

With a steak, the insides have never been exposed to the outside and therefore the risk of picking up nasties is lower. Add to the fact that when you cook a steak, those outside bits are then subjected to extreme heat. Anything nasty is killed instantly.

[markyb_lcy]

Pica-Pica said:

Correct. Mince has been exposed all round after mincing. So has steak, but of course the outside of a steak is seared, so the inside of a steak can be as rare as you like. (Provenance of the meat is assumed to be OK).

Steak tartare is usually prepared only in established reputable restaurants.

So yea, basically what this chap said.

[Red Devil]

BlackWidow13 said:

Westminster have been doing this for years:

http://www.artisanfoodlaw.co.uk/blog/meat/westmins...

Maybe so but their rigid 'catch-all' approach failed in court.
http://www.artisanfoodlaw.co.uk/blog/meat/davy%E2%...
They chose to disregard the provenance of the supply chain and the processes used by the seller.
A 'tick-the-box' exercise often produces a less than sensible result.