What's wrong with well well done steak?

My, my, my such blasphemy. Not the well done steak. But from the shoe leather well done steak crowd.

First trick is to have someone that actually knows how to cook with fire. Low and slow is the way when learning. In time you can flare up a ten inch flame while turning and be just fine and crank out a steak from raw to well in 8-10 minute.

Rubs, marinades, sauces, beat down with the old meat tenderizer are all tricks to spruce up a poorer cut and non-aged product.

When I cook a well done, it is at least as juicy as medium/medium well (beyond med but not quite med well). And can do so on a cut that is only 5/8” thick bought at Walmart.

A one inch aged, well marbled cut will not require much in the way of chewing at medium on down. And the well done will be no stiffer nor dried out than a three hour pot roast at 375.

a reply to: Ahabstar

I have to admit I would love to try that but me being me by the time I had tried it the poor thing would end up looking like it had been through Vesuvius or something.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: schuyler

What is not true?

I pointed out that wasn't true, I buy quality steaks, and so do many others.
If a customers enjoys the steak, can it really be called bad or ruined? No I don't think so.

I did say that, and I believe it. Many people have never experienced a truly good steak. They literally do not know what they are missing. So, since they have only experienced cheaper cuts, they do what they can to make it tasty. That includes slathering it with various ungents in an attempt to make it palatable. You can't blame them, since they are just trying to make a bad steak taste good--an impossible task. But it fosters bad habits, and when they finally get a good steak, they will never know because of the overwhelming taste of the ungents, like A-1 steak sauce, a truly disgusting product more suitable as a cure for toe fungus. And there is the ever-popular ketchup.

But if the "customer enjoys it, can it really be called bad or ruined?" Of course it can. By God, this is Murica and if you want to turn a perfectly good steak into a lump of charcoal, you have that right and nobody can deny it! But by the same token, I can call it ruined if I want to. No, I don't have to eat it, but I think that if you are going to commit such an atrocity, you ought to do it in private. Because ordering a filet well done is like walking into a fine restaurant with flip flops and a wife-beater t-shirt. It has no class. It's like you are auditioning for a part in Deliverance.

So you can take the girl out of the trailer park, but you can't take the trailer park out of the girl. The really sad thing is that there appears to be no way out of this vicious cycle. Think of the children! You are ruining them for life.

a reply to: schuyler

You just can't admit when you are wrong, and you are.

Resorting to calling people that like their steak well done to trailer trash and flip flops is amusing.
That says a lot more about you.

a reply to: Ahabstar

First trick is to have someone that actually knows how to cook with fire.
When I cook a well done, it is at least as juicy as medium/medium well (beyond med but not quite med well). And can do so on a cut that is only 5/8” thick bought at Walmart.

Thank you! I don't know what these people are doing to their meat, but my well done steaks are tender and nothing like jerky or leather!

a reply to: JAGStorm

All that said, when ordering out I order Medium and the server generally says “hot, pink center?” Which is medium. But I know full well what I am going to get is slightly more than medium rare, but not quite medium. Which is exactly what I want. Anything over “medium” is going to be charred or dried out. So I order knowing full well that the cook doesn’t know how to cook. And on the rare occasion that I actually do get a medium, I can tolerate it as well.

But when I am grilling, medium well to well, because I know what I am doing. Years of working at an open pit barbecue restaurant in my younger days taught me all about cooking with fire.

Oh the horror! I have nightmares about over cooking a nice ribeye or top sirloin. I admit I liked steak well done when I was young and didn't know better. My grandpa always gave me hell lol.

To me an overcooked steak might as well be cold soup. Just wrong!

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: schuyler

You just can't admit when you are wrong, and you are.

to calling people that like their steak well done to trailer trash and flip flops is amusing. That says a lot more about you.

It IS amusing, isn't it? Don't forget the french fries and ketchup! And some Mountain Dew, too! Yee haw! Next time you visit a fine restaurant to ask them to create a mound of charcoal out of a perfectly good steak, be sure to wear a baseball cap on backwards to complete the ensemble. That's so you can show the adjusto-strap to advantage.

Like I said, you have the right to do whatever you want with your steak. YOU ARE THE ONE WHO ASKED THE QUESTION. Now you're all butt hurt because you're not getting the affirmation you want. And that says a lot more about you.

a reply to: schuyler

Don't forget the french fries and ketchup! And some Mountain Dew, too! Yee haw! Next time you visit a fine restaurant to ask them to create a mound of charcoal out of a perfectly good steak, be sure to wear a baseball cap on backwards to complete the ensemble

That's OK I wouldn't want to be confused as your doppelganger.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: schuyler

Don't forget the french fries and ketchup! And some Mountain Dew, too! Yee haw! Next time you visit a fine restaurant to ask them to create a mound of charcoal out of a perfectly good steak, be sure to wear a baseball cap on backwards to complete the ensemble

That's OK I wouldn't want to be confused as your doppelganger.

Sorry I triggered you.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
So I know I'm in the minority here, but I like my steak well well done.

I went to a nice restaurant. I asked for my steak well done. Many chefs do not like to cook steak like that. I got
my steak back and it was slightly burnt and charred around the edges, chef thought he got me. Little did the chef know I loved it, absolutely loved it.
I love it so much I wrote a review to let other well done steak lovers that this place knows hows to do it. ha!

I've had steak from rare to burnt. I don't like juice coming out, I don't like to see red or pink. I don't like that mineral taste, or that texture.
I don't care how many people tell me that I am ruining it, to me i'm not.

Maybe it is pushed so much because the powers that be want people to have a taste for blood, for the raw, for the life source?
I can't stand it.

The red in steak is not Blood though it's Myoglobin. The protein that carries oxygen to the muscle, but not blood.

And the reason Steak houses don't like doing well done is because they don't know how.

I used to like my steaks well done as a kid but as I got older I do Medium.

a reply to: solve

Smoked ribs and a steak are two entirely different preparations. I don't want smoked ribs rare and I don't want a porterhouse blasted into oblivion.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Again you're speaking in absolutes but showing you haven't done your research. Unless you're in the back kitchen of these restaurants or meat processing butchers/supermarkets you'll never know.

Price does not equal quality.






Ever hear of meat glue?

a reply to: JAGStorm

Resorting to calling people that like their steak well done to trailer trash and flip flops is amusing.

How is that a serious insult compared to your broad paint brushes:

Maybe it is pushed so much because the powers that be want people to have a taste for blood, for the raw, for the life source?

There is something primal about people wanting others to eat raw/rare meat.

Yeah we must be vampires/soul suckers...lol

Sorry JAG, but anyone who cooks food is laughing at you. We call your order hockey pucks, and no care is given to your order. It been years since I've worked a kitchen, but I assure you nothing has changed.

Nothing wrong with a well done steak.

But remember you are what you eat.

So I choose not to make a ‘ash’ out of myself.

Just wanted to say that things like char tend to be a function of temperature.

A beautifully cooked medium rare steak with some great charred bits is my preference.

In my experience, "well done" means a lot of different things to different people too. I dont necessarily mind a steak thats cooked all the way through, but lose interest pretty damn quick beyond that.

If I can't look those sad eyes in the face, I don't wanna eat it.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I like mine almost mooing. Well done steak is good but rare and bloody is better IMHO.

You can enjoy whatever you like, but I personally feel well done or medium well just has bad texture, is tough, dry and just.. not great. I either sous vide or reverse sear my ribeyes to medium. I'm fine with medium - if cooked right, it's very juicy and tender, and that's what I want. Also prefer my pork medium, and again with sous vide, it's very juicy but very safe as well.

Each to their own however! But yea.. you will usually hear how well done is a ruined steak, that will never stop, no matter how much you rant. : )