How do you like your steak? The Poll

[Don]

Following on from the thread. My Mrs reckons most people like steak Medium to Well Done. Since the very idea of ruined steak makes me shudder I wondered if this was actually true.

So stand and be counted Men and Women of the Food, Drink and Restaurants forum!

[Don]

otolith said:

In my experience, people who eat their steak well done tend not to particularly like steak. And who can blame them - if I have to eat it well done, I'll take lamb, pork or chicken over beef.

Me too. I do know a good few people, like my wife, who doesn't mind pink meat at all. She just can't stand what she calls "blood". This can be fixed a number of ways, though. Well hung meat isn't bloody to start with. Well rested meat will have the JUICES soaked back into the meat, instead of running out and causing consternation to those bothered by it. Finally one could do Heston Blumental's business of slow cooking the steak at 55C to set it all the way through, very, very gently and then just sear the outside (he uses a BLOWTORCH! How fun is that!). I'm going to try that in due course.

Me? I like my steak just "set" on the inside and seared a lovely brown on the outside. Don't care how it's achieved - I'll try anything. But that's the result I'm after. I find Blue too chewy, often, and would prefer to go completely raw (Carpaccio) in preference. So I voted "Rare".

otolith said:

Last time I bought duck breasts from a supermarket, I noticed that the cooking instructions urged cooking all the way through (I ignored them). I expect there are similar instructions on racks of lamb. Bloody food nannies.

Yes. The slightest possibility of one contracting any slight stomach upset would seem to have Elth'n'Safeteh twitching. With beef and lamb I'm happy to ignore them. With pork and chicken I'll be ensuring the centre of the meat gets above 85C for a minute or two...

You can't cook pork rare but, my word, it is still soooo much better when it is just, JUST, done. We had a rack of pork from Laverstoke Farm recently and I managed to catch it just right. Meltingly tender but cooked through.

[Don]

thegavster said:

Don said:

You can't cook pork rare but, my word, it is still soooo much better when it is just, JUST, done. We had a rack of pork from Laverstoke Farm recently and I managed to catch it just right. Meltingly tender but cooked through.

Now I could swear I have seen a Saturday kitchen where they reccomended serving the pork with the centre still slightly pink, assuming it was good, fresh meat.

I have always been taught that problem with pork was the tiny, tiny possibility that you could get a parasitical infection from it. Let's not go into any details on those little buggers shall we! So long as you get the centre of the meat up to 85C you can be guaranteed that even if you were unlucky and the pig was infected? The little devils would be dead. Modern farming, health standard and food hygeine make it unlikely that there would be any problem - but who wants to take the chance!

[Don]

escargot said:

BOR said:

and my suspicions are that people claim to eat raw steak more as a macho thing, or as some idea that they are rebelling against some conception of a "food nanny state", as opposed to it being a decision based on taste.

I'd agree with that. Much like the whole 'fkyeah if it's not vindaloo it's for pussys' type comment.

Nope. You eat salad, right? It's raw, right? It's nice too!

Carpaccio and Tartare aren't just hacking a bit off a cow and saying - there you go. The stuff is prepared to be good - without "cooking" - you get onions and capers and pepper and lemon juice and olive oil and other good stuff!

I'll bet there are loads of "raw" meats you eat without thinking? Serrano ham? Parma ham? Cured but uncooked. Lovely.

Sushi? Yes the fish is uncooked but properly fresh with the pickles, wasabi and rice? Yum. Supermarkets are selling little trays of the stuff these days so there's plenty of demand for it. I can't believe the girls I see buying the stuff are doing it to be "macho". It's because it tastes nice!

[Don]

Ahhh. You mean you reckon they'd vote "Blue" on here but order "Chef Wept" in the restaurant?

Darnit. It'll ruin the science!

Vote honestly, people! Your vote is anonymous!

[Don]

sleep envy said:

im said:

victorian domestic principles

I'd say if you're going to cremate it a stewing steak would be just as good then

Now some nice stewing/braising steak is a different matter again. Slow cooked in a casserole for hours, gently simmering until it falls apart at the touch of a spoon. Mmmmm. Richly flavoured too. And what's good is that unlike the quality cuts that you can cook fast it's cheap!

But it isn't "a steak" though.

[Don]

Plotloss said:

scotal said:

Plotloss said:

Good smoked salmon is very very very hard to come by.

any tips on how to work out if its good or not?

Once you've tasted the good stuff (rod caught, scottish, long smoking time, all done by hand) it becomes apparent that 99% of the alternatives are crap.

Proper smoked salmon is a wonderful treat. I like mine with just a drop or two of lemon juice...don't bother me with the brown bread.

Cheap supermarket farmed smoked salmon (FSS) is a pretty good ingredient IMO. If you have it with brown bread, mind, all you can taste is the bread. I use it in pasta recipes with sun-dried tomato or sliced and tossed in pesto etc. Or I might put it in a lunch sandwhich with cream cheese.