How "Well-Done" Became a Dirty Word

6-21-2010 @10:30AM Laurie said... I work at a national steakhouse. We do cook less than most places. However, it is our policy that we tell each customer what to expect when they order their steaks. If someone says "medium rare" I explain that it's going to be warm and red through out. Medium will be pink with red in the middle. Med well is pink all the way through and well is no pink at all. This is the way our steaks are cooked. But, without fail, someone will argue, say they want med rare and then tell me they want it pink. That's mid well, not mid rare. If someone does not know how they want it, I ask them how they want it to look in the middle and I go from there. Oh and by the way, rare is cool and red through out. Pink is cooked, red is not. Listen to your servers, they know of what they speak!
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6-21-2010 @10:40AM Angiebaby said... How did this writer come up with the arbitrary date of 1982? This "steak protocol" has been the norm for a lot longer than that, and the protocol changes depending on the restaurant. If you went to Bonanza or Western Sizzlin' and ordered a steak well-done, that was fine, because that's how they cooked them all anyway. But if you went to say, Jim's Place East, and ordered a steak well-done, you'd best have a cap of smelling salts to pop under the poor server's nose! As for you snobby nosed servers getting woozy when someone orders a steak well-done? You just need to remember you get tipped whether they eat the steak au tartar, or they can use the leftovers to resole their shoes! And a cook who chars a piece of meat and cooks it until there are no more juices of ANY color and calls it "well-done" doesn't know what they're doing. And have we done away with medium-well? I think that is pretty much the standard order for well-done. Somehow the cook/chef gives you a reprieve from abuse by bad steak so long as you can work the word "medium" into your order. Remember, they can always take it back and cook it a little more, but they can't resuscitate it after it's been cooked to death.

Unfortunately for me, the old "steak protocol" is now the "fish protocol". Want a tuna steak? I'm not even sure if restaurants ALLOW patrons to order it well-done. But let me tell you what. I don't want my tuna fish cold, gelatinous, red and jiggly in the middle. I want the damn thing cooked, but tender and flavorful, neither cooked down until it looks like a sardine steak, nor ready to jump back into the fish tank, either. And if the server or cook/chef doesn't like it? Too bad. They don't have to eat it... I do!

Blood! Shoe leather! Dirty word! Food safety! Actually, it's not a matter of any of the afore mentioned issues. It's that you simply like what you like.
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6-21-2010 @10:54AM atp2007 said... e-coli and bacterial contaminations are usually on the surface only when it comes to a piece of meat like a steak and not deeped inside especially if the steak is freshly cut from a large piece of meat with so little of it was exposed to the air. A good searing should kill off any surface bacterial. If your piece of steak is contaminated all through it I doubt any cooking other than carbonizing it will be of use to protect you.

What bothers me is the new trend of asking how you want burgers cooked. I thought we had all agreed that ground meat, because it has pieces of surface meat and who knows what else mixed through it, is espeically dangerous and needs thorough cooking to kill the bacteria that may be present all thru the burger meat. I would never eat a burger which is rare, even if I was assured that it was freshly ground from a slice of beef off a larger slice because once ground what was once exposed surface may now be in the center of the burger and not well heated. Not to mention what contaminates were in the grinder if not recently or properly cleaned. With the frequency of recalled mass produced frozen burgers and ground meat because of contamination from God knows what parts were used, why take the chance of eating a not fully cooked piece of burger? Yet I get these condescending looks from some servers when I say "well done of course" for a burger.
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6-21-2010 @10:49AM SkyBlue said... My experience has been the opposite. My steaks are usually overcooked. I always order rare, but I will get medium rare or medium. While those are edible, I want rare. Rarely get it though.
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6-21-2010 @11:25AM pd39 said... It's easier to heat up an under cooked steak that cook a whole new steak that has been over cooked. It also costs the restaruant for every steak that must be tossed out because it is over cooked (no, once food has been placed in front of a customer it cannot be served to "somebody who likes it that way." Would you want to eat food that had been refused by somebody else - after they've salt and peppered it to THEIR taste, and maybe sneezed on it a few times, or coughed or man-handled it?)

If you have a problem with sending food back for further cooking, stay at home. You probably don't tip enough in the first place, and we're trying to make a living here!
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6-21-2010 @11:00AM Sue said... I owned a restaurant/bar in the 70's and our specialty was a 2# Porterhouse steak. It took 45 minutes to cook that bad boy well-done, but if that's how the client wanted it, that's what they got - with a caution of the length of time to prepare. Usually about 20-25 minutes later they were griping about the time it took to get their meal! So we gave them the option of waiting longer or having it come out less done than origianlly ordered. It was 50-50 who stuck with the original order.
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6-21-2010 @11:20AM Kel said... That would explain why I am sending more meat back to be "cooked" I have this terrible aversion of rare and medimum rare steaks. My father loved his rare and thought everybody did, so that is how we were forced to eat them. I don't mind a hin of pink, but can't bear the mess of rare.
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6-21-2010 @11:29AM Josh said... Food safety, huh? Bacteria is only on the OUTSIDE of the steak. So once you sear the outside, the bacteria is dead, and the inside can be as rare as you want and it's perfectly safe. Only ground meat needs to be cooked through. Sounds like a little more research is in order.
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6-21-2010 @11:25AM kathy said... most resturants cook your steak the way they want to, i like mine medium, most of the time it arrives rare, to send it back is a joke, they just throw it the micowave and it is ruined.
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6-21-2010 @11:28AM Bryan Merritt said... Steak can be cooked jucy and flaverful and well done if you know what you are doing. You just cook it longer with less heat grill it fry it it dosent matter just use less heat for a LONGER TIME. I feel that raw or rare meat is dangerious. There is lots of stuff in raw meat that can make you sick or even kill you. Steak cooked over a real wood fire with the smell and flavor of hickorey or misquite smoke is devine slow cooked over open flame it can be jucy and well done and healthy too!! Serve with saute onions and baked potatoes with butter and sour cream and chives, garlic toast and a nice garden salad um um um good..
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6-21-2010 @11:36AM britt said... I LOVE a Rare-Med Rare steak. I worked in a restaurant and i know the well-done steak was an old steak. Sometimes even one that was sent back...

No thanks... I want my steak to moo at me.
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6-21-2010 @11:56AM Jill said... I'm a fan of medium rare steaks and tend to order them in slightly more upscale, reputable restaurants while in a typical family restaurant/sports bar type of atmosphere, I tend to go with medium, or just avoid steak altogether. Part of the appeal, which I think people forget, is that the chefs give better cuts of meat to those who order rare or medium rare, as well-done steaks can sort of be thought to have their flaws cooked out of them.
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6-21-2010 @11:47AM Michael said... And my favorite dining story is... When served my medium rare steak, I cut into it and found it to be PURPLE on the inside.. After I told my server that it was raw on the inside, I was told,"EAT AROUND THE EDGES,IT WILL BE JUST FINE." Now can anyone guess the amount of tip the 8 of us left for our eat around the edges server.... Fine dining is a lost art... Michael
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6-21-2010 @11:49AM Jay S. said... I first ran into this disparity between rare and well many many years ago, when I went to college. I grew up on a farm, and everyone I knew had been around livestock and wanted their food good and dead! Hence well done. On the other hand, in college I ran into all the city kids, who had never seen a cow up close and personal, and wanted their beef rare. Since hardly anyone lives on a farm anymore, I suppose it is only natural that most want their beef on the rare side. But I have to say, it is possible to have [a good cut of ] beef cooked well or at least medium well, and still have it be juicy and tasty. Doesn't have to be "shoe leather."
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6-21-2010 @11:55AM S Garey said... I enjoy a steak once in a while, and I like the flavor that a medium rare steak offers. But all that flavor is gone in a well done steak. It's also too dry.
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6-21-2010 @12:11PM Dick said... The opening questions asks: "Have you noticed how the centers of your steaks have become bloodier over time?" My answer to that is NO! I only notice it if it's NOT bloodier! I prefer my steak blood rare and if it's not it goes back to the kitchen. It took an Outback Steakhouse four tries one night before they got it right!! Anyone who likes their steak well done, including Susan Burton, (whoever she is) is a cretin with a dead palate.



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6-21-2010 @12:37PM jb said... My question is, why do people who eat rare or medium rare meats care so much about what people who order well done eat? I have friends/family who always tell me that I should order medium instead of well done and personally I find it very annoying. I have tried medium done steaks and they just don't taste good to me, so it's my preference to eat them well done. If it tastes good to me, then why is it a waste??? There is a big difference between well done and burnt. Burnt or overcooked steaks are what become dry, and these are not well done. It is absolutely possible to have a well done juicy and flavorful steak.
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