Well done meat - what's the problem? (burgers, health, coffee)

[70Ford]

Originally Posted by Mooseketeer

I completely agree with you but if people want to eat shoe leather then let them ! An acquaintance of ours invited me and Hubby for a BBQ and was cooking burgers and lamb steaks ( both really good quality as well) and we had to cook our own meat as I knew he would just ruin it otherwise. Ours was ready in no time at all and his and I kid you not took over 30 minutes ! 30 minutes to cook a burger on a very efficient grill.

The lamb steaks had shrunk so much in size they looked like something which had been pounded into charcoal oblivion and when he cut into it it looked grey and so dry you could have used it as kindle for fire and the burgers were like deflated blackened discs.

I could have cried. A Lamb and Cow gave their lives so that person could murder them again !

But then again he was horrified at the way we ate our food, mine basically seared and Hubby's rare... He looked vaguely ill and nauseous looking at our lovely, plump and juicy meat. It was no surprise when he became a vegetarian.

I shall tell a story. I had a friend that would grill things to death. I volunteered to watch his kids while his wife was having their baby and he was in the hospital with her. To make a long story short, that day I had bought some ribs and marinated them and then grilled them and we all sat down to eat that night. HIs daughter said, "MR. 70FORD... what did you do to these ribs? These aren't like Daddy's ribs." I said, "What do you mean..." (Hoping she would say they had a different flavor or something.) She said, "These aren't like Dad's. These are GOOD."

My god, my friend gave me the evil stare. He used to cook pork chops for 1/2 hour on the grill on high heat. Holy crap man. It was like pork jerky. I actually taught him how to grill. He had been given bad advice to cook the meat "'til no juices come out, just press it with your spatula."

What.

[weltschmerz]

I no longer eat meat, but when I did, i liked my steaks raw (Steak Tartare) or bleu.
It still had to have a pulse. Absolutely no steak sauce. Why cover up the taste of good meat with pungent crap? Just a bit of salt and pepper.

Overcooked steak is nasty.

[weltschmerz]

Originally Posted by HS_DUDE
LOL I guess that was where I was going earlier...but didn't want to derail the thread.

I don't get the ego trip with chef's. You're cooking food for crying out loud. Something that everyone else does every day of the week. Granted it is at a much higher level than where the average person cooks but again, it's still cooking.

I know I'm certainly not building rockets and performing brain surgeries, yet these folks don't have near the ego of chefs. I guess I just don't get it.

No, you don't get it. It's an art.

[GoldyViolet]

These threads are always hysterical to read. Some people just really get thier panties in a bunch over this topic!

I prefer medium but I used love well done as a kid. I couldn't handle any pink and yes, it was a visual aversion. I have gotten over that and find medium to be most tasty. I don't care what others prefer however. To each their own!

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by weltschmerz

No, you don't get it. It's an art.

So if you're an artist you're allowed to be a prima donna jerkwad?

[Mooseketeer]

Originally Posted by 70Ford

I shall tell a story. I had a friend that would grill things to death. I volunteered to watch his kids while his wife was having their baby and he was in the hospital with her. To make a long story short, that day I had bought some ribs and marinated them and then grilled them and we all sat down to eat that night. HIs daughter said, "MR. 70FORD... what did you do to these ribs? These aren't like Daddy's ribs." I said, "What do you mean..." (Hoping she would say they had a different flavor or something.) She said, "These aren't like Dad's. These are GOOD."

My god, my friend gave me the evil stare. He used to cook pork chops for 1/2 hour on the grill on high heat. Holy crap man. It was like pork jerky. I actually taught him how to grill. He had been given bad advice to cook the meat "'til no juices come out, just press it with your spatula."

What.

Those ribs sound good ! I would say on the whole most ribs I have had cooked for me I have not liked exactly because they were chewy, dried out and basically tasteless. Meat to me should be handled with respect and an understanding of what the cooking process will do to the fibers and so many people seem completely oblivious to it.

I do think a lot of it is cultural. Finnish friends of ours would look actually ill when we went out to eat and I cut into my seared steak and often sent back steaks to the kitchen which to me ( and the chef) were obviously very well done because it was not cooked enough... I had steak tartare a couple of times and they both looked as though they were going to vomit.

And we went to Finland to some supposedly decent restaurants and the chef actually refused to cook my steak blue because and I quote "It cannot be done like this !". I was shocked and my friends were obviously quite smug about it !

Which of course meant I did not order the steak (usually the most expensive item on the menu) shocking both friends and waiters and choosing the cheapest thing off the menu to make a point ! I would have walked out had I not been with friends. It is like going to a restaurant and having to explain what "blue" means. You instantly know the staff has no understanding of food and you should probably steer clear from the place....

In the UK it is now becoming almost impossible to order your burgers blue ( or even rare) because of ridiculous health and safety guidelines about food poisoning. Note the word "guideline".

Yet I am told constantly it is against the law when it is no such thing simply because restaurants either do not understand the policies or are too worried about being sued should I fall ill. It is ridiculous. I actually have to argue with restaurant staff and even carry around a piece of paper with the policy printed from the government website....And still fail to convince many morons that I should be able to order my meat as I want it.

[Annuvin]

Originally Posted by aquietpath

As for not being able to tell the difference between shoe leather and steak - b.s. Well done meat has a lovely char on the outside and beefy flavor inside; without the grossness of tasting blood.

Meat cooked even at rare does not taste like blood. However, I have relatives that think meat will literally kill you if it has any trace of moisture left in it when eaten. The "steaks" they cook, no matter the cut, are very tough, bone dry and have no flavour whatsoever (unless you consider 'dry as desert sand' a flavour). Same goes for the chicke breasts that they will cut open and butterfly on the grill after overcooking them whole. I won't waste my money buying decent steaks if I know they are going to 'prepare' them. Why would I waste a decent T-bone or ribeye when they could burn any cheap cut of meat and get the exact same result?

Seriously, if you think meat cooked this way has any flavour left, you have no palate whatsoever. Try switching to barbequed soy curd and save yourself a few bucks. It's not like you would be able to tell the difference anyway.

Originally Posted by 70Ford

I shall tell a story. I had a friend that would grill things to death. I volunteered to watch his kids while his wife was having their baby and he was in the hospital with her. To make a long story short, that day I had bought some ribs and marinated them and then grilled them and we all sat down to eat that night. HIs daughter said, "MR. 70FORD... what did you do to these ribs? These aren't like Daddy's ribs." I said, "What do you mean..." (Hoping she would say they had a different flavor or something.) She said, "These aren't like Dad's. These are GOOD."

That reminds me of the time I cooked steaks for my younger cousin at the cottage one weekend. I straight-up told him the way he was used to eating steak was a complete waste of good money and told him to try it medium for a change. He was absolutely shocked at how much more tender and better tasting the steak was when it wasn't allowed to turn into boot leather and actually had a little juice left in it.

[70Ford]

Originally Posted by Annuvin

Meat cooked even at rare does not taste like blood. However, I have relatives that think meat will literally kill you if it has any trace of moisture left in it when eaten. The "steaks" they cook, no matter the cut, are very tough, bone dry and have no flavour whatsoever (unless you consider 'dry as desert sand' a flavour). Same goes for the chicke breasts that they will cut open and butterfly on the grill after overcooking them whole. I won't waste my money buying decent steaks if I know they are going to 'prepare' them. Why would I waste a decent T-bone or ribeye when they could burn any cheap cut of meat and get the exact same result?

Seriously, if you think meat cooked this way has any flavour left, you have no palate whatsoever. Try switching to barbequed soy curd and save yourself a few bucks. It's not like you would be able to tell the difference anyway.

And LOL. Yeah. Might as well grill a round and just chew your meat to death. There is a difference in done and "well done" and sometimes I think when people say "well done" it means "Cooked to death." Sushi raw is different, as you are looking at the texture.

I had a friend that worked at a high end restaurant as a waiter. When someone ordered a steak well done, he'd always ask them, "and do you want ketchup with that?" Foodies will get the joke. He said quite a few said, "Yes."

[nmnita]

Here we are, still deciding if cooking is an art, if we should eat our meat rare, med or well done, is it really blood we see, etc. and the OP has gone onto other topics. Well, at least he gave us something to debate about.

[Scooby]

Reading through this thread I have realized that all these years I have been misinformed. Apparently, everyone is not entitled to their own opinions and preferences. Quite sad to see how some can be so belligerent over such a trivial topic.