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

[ging84]

Thesprucegoose said:

A burger a steak fffs

It's great, most steak restaurants I've been too change you less for the same amount of steak and it comes with free bread and its way easier to eat.
Anywhere else if you asked for them to prechew your meal they would probably ask you not to come back.

[kestral]

Kiwi79 said:

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?

It looks like they had some out of date burgers that they wanted to get rid of. Cook it well that will kill any bactaria.

If you knew what goes on in catering establishments!

I would have walked out.

[PAULJ5555]

dhutch said:

But why.

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

Daniel

There are a quite few people who eat sausages raw.

[Samcat]

otolith said:

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.

Try ordering a burger in France, a good vet could have got it going again!

[Kiwi79]

mattyprice4004 said:

p_k_n said:

Clickbait

Very much so!

OP here actually that was my error, so apologies, it should have said burger (will see if I can update). No incentive for clickbait I'm not racking in the ad revenue from views, I just wanted to find out if this was a common experience. Some interesting views on this thread from what has been said I can understand why restaurants tend do this for burgers, GBK and the like being an exception. Think my summer BBQ burgers will be more of the medium/done side from now on!

[markyb_lcy]

Plenty places in London will offer your burger medium or well-done. I prefer them medium if the meat is decent. Personally wouldn't have a burger any rarer than that however I do like a rare steak.

[anonymous-user]

Couple of years ago I thought I'd try the newly opened burger place in the city, named after an 18th Century poet.

I was told (not asked) that the burger would be served medium to well done, which I recall being the first time I've been told how a burger would come. Normally I expected them to be cooked without much regard to the finish; it's a burger when all said and done, hardly fine dining.

The burger arrived and after a couple of bites I noticed the inside was quite pink. Thinking this must be the restaurant's idea of medium, I carried on eating.

I wish I hadn't.

For the best part of a week and half afterwards I could barely stand and if I did it was to crawl to the bathroom where indescribable horrors took place. I daren't sleep as I couldn't trust my bowels to seize an opportunity to get busy. Considering I hadn't eaten anything for most of that time, I had no idea as to where my body was finding stuff to throw out. If it wasn't full-on salmonella poisoning it must have been pretty close to it.

After I recovered I contacted the chain to let them know on the off-chance somebody else had experienced the same.

I have no inclination to go back there.

[Red Devil]

DrSteveBrule said:

Couple of years ago I thought I'd try the newly opened burger place in the city, named after an 18th Century poet

At least you're still alive to post. It's not just cooking temperature you need to worry about. Google Owen Carey.

[dhutch]

Sounds rough. Pink mince isn't my idea of fun either.

[bad company]

Many countries have banned undercooked burgers. You can still get them rare in the USA though.

[dhutch]

Which given the USA has some of the worst food hygiene standards in the world, is mad. However they also have a huge amount of gun deaths, suicide in young males being one of the larger.

Daniel

[markyb_lcy]

Wonder if Mr Barnier will insist on well done burgers along with no chlorinated chicken.

[covboy]

Typical order for a rare steak in the States "Just knock offf its horns and wipe its a**e"

[V8fan]

dhutch said:

Which given the USA has some of the worst food hygiene standards in the world, is mad. However they also have a huge amount of gun deaths, suicide in young males being one of the larger.

Daniel

I've been to the USA several times and never been ill on the food. It's a rumour put about by anti-Brexiteers.

Guess what most of the pre-packed salad in Europe is washed in? Chlorinated water. It's good enough for European restaurants.

[bad company]

V8fan said:

I've been to the USA several times and never been ill on the food. It's a rumour put about by anti-Brexiteers.

Guess what most of the pre-packed salad in Europe is washed in? Chlorinated water. It's good enough for European restaurants.

Agree. We travel to the USA several times a year and never had a problem with food, other than the portions that is.

[A1VDY]

Teddy Lop said:

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?

This.
Steak is OK rare but not burgers, it's down to the crap quality of burger meat. They may be advertised as 100% beef but all that means is it doesn't have fillers like added rusk. Offal is often used and this cannot be cooked medium or rare as there's a high risk of food poisoning.

[markyb_lcy]

V8fan said:

I've been to the USA several times and never been ill on the food. It's a rumour put about by anti-Brexiteers.

Guess what most of the pre-packed salad in Europe is washed in? Chlorinated water. It's good enough for European restaurants.

Well the water out of our taps is technically chlorinated. Amounts of chlorine do matter though ... quite a lot.

I don’t think it’s fair to say the argument about chlorinated chicken is an anti brexit one. Michael Gove is openly against chlorinated chickens and was very much for brexit.

There is also the concept that it’s quite possible to be supportive of brexit but agree with the EU on something (just maybe).

Edit: just read back and I realise I misread and the argument you were referring to that was an anti brexit one is the general low standards of hygiene in the US food industry, of which chlorinated chickens is just one part. I guess my point is still relevant but less-so!

Edited by markyb_lcy on Tuesday 25th February 19:14

[fatboy b]

Lordbenny said:

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

You can in the states. Fuddruckers. Hmmmmmmm

Edited by fatboy b on Tuesday 25th February 19:12

[markyb_lcy]

A1VDY said:

This.
Steak is OK rare but not burgers, it's down to the crap quality of burger meat. They may be advertised as 100% beef but all that means is it doesn't have fillers like added rusk. Offal is often used and this cannot be cooked medium or rare as there's a high risk of food poisoning.

It’s not the meat quality, it’s the level of surface area of the meat that has been exposed to the atmosphere increasing risk of contamination.

Poor quality meat can still be absolutely safe and good quality meat can still be contaminated.

[A1VDY]

markyb_lcy said:

A1VDY said:

This.
Steak is OK rare but not burgers, it's down to the crap quality of burger meat. They may be advertised as 100% beef but all that means is it doesn't have fillers like added rusk. Offal is often used and this cannot be cooked medium or rare as there's a high risk of food poisoning.

It’s not the meat quality, it’s the level of surface area of the meat that has been exposed to the atmosphere increasing risk of contamination.

Poor quality meat can still be absolutely safe and good quality meat can still be contaminated.

Contamination pre cooking is one thing but some ingredients like offal (obviously from where this comes from) isn't safe to cook rare/medium. The bacteria level is that much higher.