I take it very personally when someone TELLS me how I should have my steak done.
In our society steak is sacred. The way a person likes their steak cooked is a personal preference.
So I ask, 'Is it right for a restaurant to encourage a diner to not have their steak cooked welldone?'
The people I have surveyed say they feel disserviced when they do not have it done the way they ask.
I have always enjoyed steak cooked as the chef intends because I learn a little about the person cooking it. But whenever I am not asked how I like my steak done my answer will range from rare for thin cuts up to medium for thick cuts.
I also understand that you exchange flavour for juiciness the less done you like your beef cooked. With rare being juiciest and welldone being tastiest. The reason being is that when beef cooks it develops its flavour and loses its juiciness because collagen, a membrane binding the meat, breaks down under the cooking process and that adds more flavour to the meat, but this is done at the expense of tenderness/juiciness. Which to some people is a good thing and to some people is a bad one.
But the overall sense I get from people in the food industry and foodites is that it is wrong to cook steak to welldone.
Hmmmm.... Wrong.
Why?
When all roasts are welldone, all fish, chicken and pork is welldone. Beef, except for some game, is the only meat cooked to a specified doneness. The consumption of raw or undercooked pork may lead to trichinosis, though this is rare in the developed world. Chicken is typically eaten cooked as when raw it may contain bacteria such as salmonella. As with any raw food, when one eats sashimi one risks foodborne illness caused by bacteria, parasites, and toxins, such as Anisakis simplex and Tetrodotoxin in Fugu fish. But beef steaks can be served at 145F, medium rare, and pose no foodborne problems at all. Raw beef though is still a health risk because of E. Coli and Salmonella. Which means steak cooked to 'blue' or 'rare' is considered, by national food boards, to be risky.
As far as your health is concerned, welldone is the safest bet. By simply cooking all meats to 160F you are freed of worrying about foodborne illnesses.
Welldone is not encouraged because it reduces the tenderness of meat. Tenderness is an industry buzzword. Everything is vaunted as being tender, and that promotes a perception of high quality. But tenderness, in fact, has very little to do with quality.
I think that tenderness of meat is a little overrated. In our pursuit for tenderness we're telling people how they should have their meats cooked, we're soaking chicken breasts in water, we're slaughtering animals so young that they haven't be around long enough to even develop any flavour, we're raising our animals in boxes so that they move as little as possible to not toughen their muscles by flexing them, we're injecting the animals with hormones so the muscles retain more water, and we're feeding them scientifically formulated shit loaded with fat and fillers ... All this to make the meat more tender. I am actually surprised these animals aren't tougher because they're so stressed. That's probably because they are prescribed a cycle of Percasete to keep them happy or are being electrocuted before slaughter to keep the muscles relaxed so the meat doesn't toughen from going through such a stressful ordeal.
Yummy stuff.
Think of that steak you're biting into. If it's not naturally raised you're probably eating one vitriolic piece of meat that's gonna end up killing you. There is absolutely nothing beneficial about it. Cheating nature and cutting corners is not meant to work and that is exactly what is being done in the name of tenderness and profitability. Although these meats are very tender, almost too tender, they are very low in quality.
Does this help the flavour?
Nope.
Flavour develops by allowing animals to run around and look for food and to breath in that country air, to age, eat grass, procreate, etc.
Things that we humans love to do, eat, hang with our herd, make love, have kids and grow old are things that are actually good for animals as well. Animals taste better when they're treated better.
It's soooo bloody simple.
Look at the best meats in the world: proscuitto di Parma, Pata Negra ham, Bresse chickens, Chianina beef, Argentine Pampas beef, Sienese pigs, all wild game. These world class meats are all raised and handled with care, attention, and devotion. There is nothing mechanical or scientific about it. The foods are good because they are artisanal. If you want meat to be good you have to provide the animals with the same basic needs you provide for yourself and your loved ones.
Love, food, shelter.
As UK cattle farmer Richard Vaughan says, "I think age has an effect on flavour, then diet. We don't want the cattle to grow too fast. I think giving animals a really good life so that they're happy animals comes through into the final product."
Well said, sir!
I absolutely agree.
Refusing someone welldone is more short sighted than insinuating that you cannot have a glass of red with fish.
I also understand that if you're dining at a Michelin starred restaurant, there is a sense of giving yourself over to the staff to enjoy a dining experience. At a Michelin starred restaurant I would expect and understand that they know what's best and allow myself to experience what they have to offer. But how many restaurants in your city are of the Michelin star ilk? Two maybe three.
Most restaurants exist to feed people and are not capable of doing what top flight restaurants do. So it makes sense in such a competitive market to encourage diners to order their steak done the way they like even if it's 'welldone chicago' because you just might find yourself out of business with your clientele dining in another restaurant where they feel welcome. Then your establishment is left empty and considering being made over by Restaurant Makeover or Kitchen Nightmares.
Ouch!
Quickly reared, cheaply produced beef has no place in our markets, our restaurants or in our bellies.
So if you want welldone and the chef says no ask him if his beef is naturally raised, hormone free and grass fed. If the chef doesn't know, tell them that they have no right to not cook the meat welldone because they do not know where the meat is from and what it might contain.
Once you get into the rights and wrongs about cooking, you have lost the point of cooking. Of course, following sound principles in cookery makes sense but cooking is about discovery, necessity, sharing and survival.
So, is it right for a restaurant to deter a diner from ordering steak welldone?
Absolutely not.
Meat is safer when cooked through and service is more pleasant when the customers' wishes are granted.
Welldone is better for everyone, yet I still haven't been able to figure out why welldone is shunned by gastronomes but my guess is that meats cooked to welldone are usually dry and tough. But that is usually due to the fact that a meat cooked to welldone has been done so without the use of a meat thermometer. Cooking meat to 160-165F does not dry the meat out. It is still quite succulent and surprisingly tender.
Try it you just might like it.
I understand that a person's preference on how they like their meat cooked comes from what they grew up with. I also understand that gastronomically speaking welldone is considered to be the wrong way to cook high end cuts of beef.
But cooking is more about emotion than it is about technique. So cooking beef welldone is absolutely the right thing to do if that is what a person so desires and we all know how good it feels to get what we desire.
Now that is a paradigm that I can't wait to shift ... people actually wanting to give me what I desire.
No matter how you like your steak done just remember, you should always eat local, naturally raised hormone free meats specially if you like your meats cooked at temps lower than 145F aka medium rare.
If tomorrow I walk on to the set of Survivor China and offer all the contestants all the welldone meat they can eat, I doubt any of them will refuse if they can't get their steak rare.
