How do you take your...meat?

[Kevinicus]

I'm amazed at the number of times I've had to explain this to people. If you like your dinner half way to shoe leather that's your prerogative, but short of chewing on it while it's still mooing, it's not blood.

Medium rare for me. I used to order medium, and if it's done correctly a medium steak is excellent, but it's too much of risk to get that close to medium well which is the first stage of the briquette process.

Rare, Medium Rare, Medium, Medium-Well, Well Done. It's all relative. Not all restaurants have the same definition of Medium or Well Done. Some don't really care either (Applebee's - everything = well done). I usually do medium well. Sometimes it's just right, often it's overcooked. I used to do medium, and was very happy with it most of the time until I got one that was too raw for my tastes and seemingly every time I've ordered medium since then I've gotten the same outcome. So now I just get medium well to avoid the possibility of getting one too raw. I love it pink and juicy in the middle, but if it's too raw, the texture is just awful and way too tough. I'll take a well-done sans some flavor over a rare and it's texture anyday.

 

[Teren_Kanan]

Medium Rare steak, preferably medium rare burger, but I'll take it Medium. I can stomach medium well burgers.

Over cooked beef is bad for you, and helps cause liver spots.

 

[notherbob]

Ecoli fears have me avoiding anything too bloody or red, so it's usually medium rare for me.

Concern about e coli is certainly reasonable, given the idea that you really don't know where beef comes from, especially hamburger. That's why you might consider grass-fed, grass-fattened beef; it doesn't develop e coli because grass is its natural food. Grain-fattened feedlot cattle develop e coli because grain is not their natural food and they develop it in their gut to digest what they are fed and they do get fat on it and it tenderizes the meat. Wherever the manure splatters the e coli goes with it.

All beef contains some omega-6 fatty acids which contribute to buildup of arterial plaque; however, grass fattened also has high levels of omega-3 fatty acids which dissolve builtup plaque. Obviously, omega-3 is more desireable.

Grass-fattened beef also has higher levels of Conjugated linoleic acid, which counteracts the carcinogen, Heterocyclic amine, whic is formed when meat is grilled. Eating grain lowers the cow's natural CLA levels. It is not good to overgrill feedlot beef.

Our family usually sells some of our grass-fattened beef to people in west central Texas in the spring and summer when the grass is best. If you can find a grass-finished beef farmer near you, it might be worth looking into. Of course, you usually have to buy a half or a quarter and pick it up at the packer.

Since few people cook roasts anymore, a lot of people just keep the good steaks and have everytrhing else made into premium lean ground beef that is fabulous because it is made from the best cuts instead of trimmings like cheap hamburger.

It is really nice to know for sure where your food comes from.

Life is good.

 

[notherbob]

The red juice in raw red meat is not blood. Nearly all blood is removed from meat during slaughter, which is also why you don’t see blood in raw “white meat”. Only an extremely small amount of blood remains within the muscle tissue when you get it from the store.

So what is that red liquid you are seeing in red meat? Red meats, such as beef, are composed of quite a bit of water. This water, mixed with a protein called myoglobin, ends up comprising most of that red liquid.

In fact, red meat is distinguished from white meat primarily based on the levels of myoglobin in the meat. The more myoglobin, the redder the meat. Thus most animals, such as mammals, with a high amount of myoglobin, are considered “red meat”, while animals with low levels of myoglobin, like most poultry, or no myoglobin, like some sea-life, are considered “white meat”.

Myoglobin is highly pigmented, specifically red; so the more myoglobin, the redder the meat will look and the darker it will get when you cook it.

So... you didn't throw away an undercooked hamburger. There is no such thing as "bloody meat". You simply threw away a juicy hamburger. And it was probably juicy because you pissed off the chef when you ordered it.

I'll take both my steaks and burgers medium, please.

Good post.
Thanks for the explanation.

 

[Eskimo]

Burgers cooked all the way through (no pink) unless you know how the cow was fed and how it was butchered. Ideally you would start with some steak and ground your own and then make your own patties. If you have this set-up, medium is good.

I prefer my steak medium rare. I find rare steak to be too rubbery.

 

[Hoofbite]

I don't eat red meat, so uhmm...well done?

How about charred?

 

[Gemini Dolly]

Big and juicy.

 

[silverbear]

Thirty minutes ago I had a conversation with the fill in night cook about my dinner order. I ordered a Cheeseburger well done. I made a special point about it being done, not pink, not raw but WELL DONE!

I do not eat raw bloody meat. In my humble opinion anyone that does is a savage and should be on a leash in the public square. I take my steak medium well with just a hint of pink BUT NO BLOOD!

Anyway as a precaution I cut the cheeseburger in half. Blood literlly ran across the plate. I almost threw up. needless to say it went in the trash in front of the cook.


So, how do you like your meat?

If the cow doesn't groan when I make the first cut, it's too well done...

 

[silverbear]

I guess I should be on a leash.

Naw, you've just got good taste... LOL...

Seriously, I grew up in a family where all meats were cooked very well done, and I was glad to get out on my own and finally get some juicy steaks...

There just ain't no flavor left in a well-done piece of meat... if that makes me a savage, well, I'm a proud savage... but I prefer to think of myself as a carnivore...

 

[silverbear]

Are these tastes once a month on a full moon?

Naw, that's when you eat your meats raw...

I wonder who'll go down the double entendre road with this post?? LOL...

 

[silverbear]

It's called steak tartare.

And it's freakin' great...

 

[silverbear]

I don't understand why people cook the flavor out of their food.

You've spoken a whole mouthful of truth there... I guess it's just one of those moments like Butch Cassidy had in the movie, when he said "boy, I've got vision and the rest of the world wears bifocals"...

 

[WoodysGirl]

How about charred?

It could be burnt crispy, as far as I'm concerned. Beef smells good, but I can't really digest it anymore. Hurts my stomach, the rare times I try.

 

[silverbear]

Big and juicy.

Sweet and meaty...

 

[Concord]

Medium Well

 

[Eric_Boyer]

Concern about e coli is certainly reasonable, given the idea that you really don't know where beef comes from, especially hamburger. That's why you might consider grass-fed, grass-fattened beef; it doesn't develop e coli because grass is its natural food.

this is junk science perpetuated by a bad study that has been refuted by peer review. unfortunately shows like Food inc have made this myth grow.

it is true that e coli is reduced drastically in grass fed herds, but it it still exists. And so long as it exists, poor handling in processing lots will produce the same bad results.

 

[CanadianCowboysFan]

I like my steaks medium. CCF's wife prefers them charred, it is like eating charcoal.

 

[CliffnDallas]

I am surrounded by Zombies!

 

[notherbob]

this is junk science perpetuated by a bad study that has been refuted by peer review. unfortunately shows like Food inc have made this myth grow.

it is true that e coli is reduced drastically in grass fed herds, but it it still exists. And so long as it exists, poor handling in processing lots will produce the same bad results.

Junk science is anything that supports the feedlot system and purports to justify the bovine growth hormone laced cattle and the genetically modified grains they are fed along with them standing knee deep in manure in crowded conditions and the overuse of antibiotics that this brings about.

Junk science is trying to justify the confinement factory pork and poultry farms and confinement dairy operations using similar handling techniques and methodology that produce hormone-laden, antibiotic-laced milk and encourage our children to consume it.

Junk science supports genetically-modified foods that are in the process of bringing about undesireable change in natural plants through aggressive pollination as well as undesireable change in the people and animals who consume these unnatural foods manufactured to make international food corporations rich at the expense of the general public who is foolish enough to eat them.

Junk science is when scientists sell out to corporate interests and then science is used against humanity's best interest instead of in support of humanity.

Fortunately I am an old man and I will not live long enough to see things arrive at where they are presently heading. What saddens me is that the gullible public is so easily misled by those they trust and they have no idea what is happening to the food supply.

 

[Eric_Boyer]

Junk science is anything that supports the feedlot system and purports to justify the bovine growth hormone laced cattle and the genetically modified grains they are fed along with them standing knee deep in manure in crowded conditions and the overuse of antibiotics that this brings about.

I am only going to address the issue of grass fed vs grain fed beef. I have a problem with the giant corporate farms and their practices, but that is a separate issue.

junk science is the report that is fueling your views on the safety of grass fed beef. It is bad science based on three cows. three! And even worse, it didn't even isolate the deadly form of e-coli, which later studies have shown is not vulnerable to the higher acid levels found in grass fed beef.

http://meatgeek.org/2010/01/25/beware-the-myth-of-grass-fed-beef/