How Do You Like Your Steak?

[schneeland]

Medium for me. Though I'm not sure the definitions in the UK quite match those in the OP (and I'm near-certain that they're not in France - basically, move everything one step up).

Same for me (also voted medium). At least anecdotally, what I get when I ordered "medium well" here in Germany was much closer to the "medium" picture. Which is also how I try do have my steaks when I prepare them myself (maybe a bit closer to "medium rare").

 

[el-remmen]

My vote is public.

But has anyone encountered this thing at restaurants where they ask you "pink or no pink?" and not the standard "rare, medium, well" gradations we've all been using in this thread?

I have once or twice, and find it annoying. A server explained that it was supposed to be clearer for patrons who often had different ideas of what the categories mean, but it seems kind of limiting. When one server refused to tell the kitchen that I wanted it medium rare because "that is not the policy," I had to comment that I was sure that anyone working in that kitchen understood within a reasonable range what I wanted when I used that term.

I haven't gone back there. It is a brew pub and most of the other food and beer isn't great (though their brick oven pizza is excellent).

 

[gnarlygninja]

It's been a while but I used to hear it semi frequently growing up. Usually at the sort of place where I would not have felt very confident the people working the grill knew what medium rare meant.

 

[Zardnaar]

Im more worried about the steak tasting good than purity to cooking to my exact specifications.

Close enough tastes great I'm happy

 

[Cadence]

Medium-Rare to Medium, but would rather err towards Medium-Well instead of Rare for most, so I say Medium or "pink in the middle" for steak.

Medium to Medium-Well for a burger.

Iirc, 128 degrees to pull the standing rib-roast out of the oven to tent it before serving at Christmas.

 

[CleverNickName]

But has anyone encountered this thing at restaurants where they ask you "pink or no pink?" and not the standard "rare, medium, well" gradations we've all been using in this thread?

At the restaurant where I worked, we would only ask "pink or no pink" if someone ordered their steak Medium, because there's three different kinds of Medium and we wanted to make sure we got the right one. "Pink or no pink" was code for "Medium Rare or Medium Well."

I admit, it was a strange system. Fortunately our menus had a fact sheet on the back with full-color photographs of Rare, Medium Rare, Medium, etc. on them, along with the internal temperatures. So most folks would just point at a picture and say "cook it like that one right there...Medium Well, please."

 

[Cadence]

At the restaurant where I worked, we would only ask "pink or no pink" if someone ordered their steak Medium, because there's three different kinds of Medium and we wanted to make sure we got the right one. "Pink or no pink" was code for "Medium Rare or Medium Well."

I admit, it was a strange system. Fortunately our menus had a fact sheet on the back with full-color photographs of Rare, Medium Rare, Medium, etc. on them, along with the internal temperatures. So most folks would just point at a picture and say "cook it like that one right there...Medium Well, please."

Googling: steak doneness guide
gives a huge variety of different posters and pictures where they don't look like they all match up.

vs.vs.vs.vs.


For a while when I used to order steak more I got frustrated trying to ask for what I thought was medium and getting them all over the place, so I started asking for "pink in the middle". Sometimes the server would go "which one is that?" and I'd have to reply "I wish I knew" or something of the sort. If you ask for "pink in the middle" and the middle is either red or brown it feels like it is pretty hard for them to argue.

 

[el-remmen]

At the restaurant where I worked, we would only ask "pink or no pink" if someone ordered their steak Medium, because there's three different kinds of Medium and we wanted to make sure we got the right one. "Pink or no pink" was code for "Medium Rare or Medium Well."

See, that makes sense to me. Insisting on "pink or no pink" as the only options? Not so much.

 

[CleverNickName]

I don't really get the appeal of "Pittsburg Rare" to be honest. That much char isn't pleasant.

To be honest, I'll take a good crust on a steak over char any day of the week. Maillard reaction goodness over carbonized flesh.

It has to be an acquired taste and I've never acquired it. I guess some people like that bitter taste of ashes?

Years ago, a buddy of mine was grilling up some steaks for everyone at his house. He has a nice charcoal grill, and he buys chunk charcoal instead of briquets. Anyway, one of the guests asked for a "black and blue" steak, and the host didn't even flinch: he pulled one of the metal grates off of the grill, raked the coals up into a fresh red-hot pile (to knock off the excess ash), and then laid the steak directly on the coals for several minutes. When he flipped it over, it still had burning chunks of charcoal stuck to it which he casually flicked aside.

He put it on a plate to rest for a few minutes, and when he sliced it, it looked like that picture in the first post. It was so charred you could have told me it had been rubbed with coffee grounds and I would have believed you. But the inside was bright red and extra juicy, a perfect Rare steak.

 

[The Soloist]

No more steak (beef) for me. It causes joint inflammation and doesn't agree with wife's poly-arthritis. It missed it at first but now I'm fine with not eating it. We had been reducing portions as we grew older. Red meat is not very good for your health anyway.