[Sca-cooks] Cooking steaks was Re: lethal drinks

[Dragon]

Huette von Ahrens wrote:
> > But you know what really disturbs me?
> >
> > The people who will order a steak well-done. I can vaguely
> > understand medium-rare, but well-done is an abomination... tragic...
> > it's just not right.
> >
> > Dragon

In case anyone hasn't yet figured it out, the above is a slight bit 
of hyperbole. I know humor doesn't always translate well in the 
medium of e-mail. But I'm a committed and unwavering rare steak guy 
and I really feel that a good steak is ruined by cooking it to the 
point of shoe-leather. When I was asked to do so by a camp mate last 
September, it was a hard task indeed to do so. Since she was working 
gate at dinner time, I agreed to deliver her food to her and when I 
arrived with the sorely overdone steak (IMO) I made a flowery speech 
in front of all about how it vexed me so to treat such a fine piece 
of meat to such a hellish fate.

>I think that how people were fed when they grew up has a large part 
>in how they order their steaks.  My mother only cooked steak 
>well-done and that is the way I ordered it when dining out as a 
>child, teenager and young adult.  However, I got better.

Excellent! There is hope ;-)

>I started to dislike chewy meats, so I gradually started ordering my 
>meat from medium well to medium to medium rare.  I have occasionally 
>eaten rare, but it is a textural thing with me; also a temperature 
>thing.  Unless I know a restaurant really well, I will never order 
>rare because I don't want cold raw meat [that has happened to me].
>I like my beef juicy, but at least warm all the way through.  And I 
>don't like the taste or texture of raw beef fat.

Fair enough, warm all the way through does not mean "blasted and 
ready for use as a boot sole". Just be aware that if you go to 
Outback (and a few other steak places) they cook things on the lower 
end of the scale. It's probably best to tell them, warm through but 
still pink/red in the middle.

>One the other hand, I like my sushi and sashime raw and cold.  The 
>taste and texture of fish is entirely different.  But it has to be 
>cold.  Selene and I went to a new sushi place near my house and all 
>the sushi came out lukewarm.  We didn't get sick, but I will never 
>go back there again.

Yeah, sushi is not so good when not cold. You get no argument from me there.

>Dragon, have you always eaten your steaks rare?

Sure have and I eat some beef raw from time to time. I LOVE beef 
tartare and a good carpaccio.

>How did your mother or father cook them for you?

They were fans of the rare to medium-rare steak. My father, having 
served in the Navy for 22 years, would tear into a bloddy one on his 
return from the ship as apparently the only way the cooks aboard 
seemed to know how to cook them was tough and nearly burnt.

>I think that those people who still order well-done steaks have 
>immature pallets or are not adventurous eaters.  My brother is one 
>of those kinds.  He still orders his steaks and [shudder] prime rib 
>well-done.  But then he is not an adventurous eater.  And he dislikes sushi.

For many people it is very much influenced by the foods they were 
exposed to as they grew up. But this is true of almost all food 
preferences in society as a whole.

I am of the opinion that there are two types of people when it comes 
to food. There are those who view food as fuel and who don't much 
care about exactly what they are eating, sticking to a limited and 
familiar menu. These are the people who eat merely to live.

Then there are those who revel in the experience of food, who try new 
things and while they may not like them all, they are willing to 
stretch their limits. These are the people who live to eat.

Dragon

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  Venimus, Saltavimus, Bibimus (et naribus canium capti sumus)
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