Why so much hate towards people who want their meat well done?

[Ripster42]

I only got involved because he insisted people were "uneducated wikipedia gurus" for saying it wasn't blood. I also have to question your basic literacy if you think characterizing most semantic arguments as pedantic and petty in order to contrast it with this one is accusing him of being pedantic.

I assumed he was the one who was being colloquial. I was wrong, it was this guy:

Sorry but I like any meat so well done that it's crispy and crunchy, imo it tastes better, and the nasty bloody mess that other people eat bothers the hell out of me... may as well be some savage living on an island eating something right after they killed it without even cooking it... but that's just my view on it...

This was the guy being pedantic:

Once again, not blood. It's mygloblin and water and the only reason you don't see it is because when you cook the meat well done you're burning off the water, the "icky part" that makes it red is all still in there. And even rare meat is still crispy on the outside. If your'e looking for crunchy on the inside well you've just beyond burned a steak it should be inedible to anyone. Literally all well done is doing is drying out the inside of the meat to appease your visual disgust at the expense of flavor.

And over cooking things burns out nutritional content. Well technically all cooking does but obviously overcooking more so.

I don't know anyone who really gives a shit if it's actually blood or not, but having a semantics argument in this case is being pedantic. But it wan't him who started it. He's just wrong on the facts.

Edit: It wasn't elim who started it, he's just wrong on the facts. Figured I'd make it clear that it's not shimerra whos wrong on the facts.

[Repefe]

I agree that they likely will not spend the time and efford on the steak that they should, but if they want you to finish eating and leave to sell the table to the next customer, then what are you doing there spending the money for a decent cut? No self respecting restaurant that takes $40 a dish would dare to sell a table more than twice an evening. For that price range I certainly expect to have the table for the whole evening if I want, but then do not expect the cook to prepare my meal for free in hopes of getting a tip.

In that example I was not necessarily talking about the $40 price range. Imagine more normal restaurant that tries to turn tables fast. You can get there medium rare steak just fine, but if you order it well done, they will rush it to get it on the table in reasonable time, all the while they have platters filled with juicy roasted meats that they can serve you cooked to perfection instead of your well done steak, except you don't order those. And then you get pissed, because your well done steak too charred or too dry ...

[callipygoustp]

Different cuts go on sale pretty regularly here in the Upper Midwest - sometimes strips steaks are $5/pound, sometimes ribeyes are $6/pound. These aren't exactly the most premium of quality, but they're still pretty delicious. The upper range of grocery store quality where I live generally has grass-fed ribeye more in the ~$20+/pound range.

$20 is similar to the price I pay when I go with an aged Ribeye. Probably a good thing, for my health, that Ribeyes are as expensive as they are around my neighborhood otherwise I'd be having steak a lot more regularly.

[Elim Garak]

In that example I was not necessarily talking about the $40 price range. Imagine more normal restaurant that tries to turn tables fast. You can get there medium rare steak just fine, but if you order it well done, they will rush it to get it on the table in reasonable time, all the while they have platters filled with juicy roasted meats that they can serve you cooked to perfection instead of your well done steak, except you don't order those. And then you get pissed, because your well done steak too charred or too dry ...

In decent restaurants, it is customary to warn client that well-done steak will take longer to make so that client can confirm his order and then not complain about the "delay". Thus both the restaurant gets a happy client and client gets a properly well done steak.

[Stormspellz]

its a running joke, its on the same line of gingers having no souls type of thing.

[shadowmouse]

The fixation on steak is mildly amusing. My grandfather was a rancher, I grew up with modestly good steaks and I heartily enjoy them, but I also enjoy a roast suckling pig, or a roasted sheep. Surely, steak is not the be all and end all to the point that it defines how *meat* in general should be eaten. The OP asked about *meat* and not specifically steaks. Do y'all live on canned sardines when you don't have steak?

[breadisfunny]

$20 is similar to the price I pay when I go with an aged Ribeye. Probably a good thing, for my health, that Ribeyes are as expensive as they are around my neighborhood otherwise I'd be having steak a lot more regularly.

ribeyes are around 12-16$ here.

[callipygoustp]

ribeyes are around 12-16$ here.

That's closer to what I see in my neighborhood.

[Noradin]

In that example I was not necessarily talking about the $40 price range. Imagine more normal restaurant that tries to turn tables fast. You can get there medium rare steak just fine, but if you order it well done, they will rush it to get it on the table in reasonable time, all the while they have platters filled with juicy roasted meats that they can serve you cooked to perfection instead of your well done steak, except you don't order those. And then you get pissed, because your well done steak too charred or too dry ...

I do not get pissed, I simply do not order dishes that are above the capabilites of the restaurant.
And a "well done" steak certainly fits that bill for most restaurants that have you order after you arrive.

Regarding those restaurants that make you leave so they can reuse your table? That is mostly an American habit.
(I do not count McDonalds and the like as restaurants.)

[schwank05]

I used to think Medium-Well to Well done was normal and only way to get steak, until I met my now Wife when I was a Senior in High school who's dad is a fucking god on the grill and was introduced to a proper steak. Now I will not eat anything more done than Medium I prefer Medium-Rare.

[Zython]

Because it's the equivalent of throwing good meat in the garbage. But if you like the taste of smoked cardboard, you do you.

[Steve French]

How can I ruin it if it tastes the best for me? When I eat food - I eat the food. When I eat, I am not going into % calculations how to eat it the best because that "best" can taste like shit as all I can care and I will not eat shit.

Are you people really this dense? I'm not telling you whats best for you. I'm telling you whats best for the meat. You might not like perfectly cooked steak, but that doesn't change the fact that rare to medium rare is still the best way to eat a steak.

[ellieg]

People who get their meat cooked "well done" and then put sauce on it, are the same as those girls who shave their eyebrows off and then draw on new ones.

[Bathory]

Because people like to get upset over things that don't affect them. "Someone ate their steak differently than I do! Oh noooo!"

[RuneDK]

I would wager most people who like their meat well done, like myself, aren't buying expensive as fuck cuts of meat.

Like when I say "I like my steak well done" and people get super offended... The steak I am referring to is like $6/lb ribeye or something...

You'd be surprised how many filet mignon I cooked well done in my heyday as a chef. If you're going to get well done, that s absolutely fine...but don't waste $40 on a high grade cut when a top sirloin well done will do the job for much cheaper. Also, Ribeye is a great piece of meat...that's a bad example.

[ellieg]

Because people like to get upset over things that don't affect them. "Someone ate their steak differently than I do! Oh noooo!"

For me personally, its not that im upset, i just think those that eat their steak well done are ignorant. Not in a bad "youre so ignorant" kind of way, but in an uneducated way. Most people i know that eat their steaks well done have never had a properly cooked steak, or falsely believe that they are going to get physically ill if theres any "blood" in it. They can eat it however they want and i never make a comment about it to them, but a small part of me pities them.

[Steve French]

You mean like Master Chef? Welp.

"How sad is this? That you asked for a steak to be cooked well-done, okay? Now whatever quality of beef it is, it's gone past any form of taste when you've cooked it well-done" "I don't eat steak well-done, alright? That's your prerogative because you're the customer, but unfortunately you're never going to identify the quality of beef when the steak is cooked well-done" -Gordon Ramsay

Yes, just like a master chef.

[Ol Scratch]

I used to eat medium because that's what my American "family" told me was best.

But the more I was exposed to the idiocy of steak snobbery and the more I heard folks lectured others over such inane tripe, I now order it medium well. I do well-done if I KNOW there's a steak snob in the party.

That's it, you show 'em by eating something you willfully decided to overpay for! "A good piece of meat for $XX? Hmm, well there's a guy over there I think is a dick because he knows what good food is, so I'll just get that $XX of good meat burned to show him! Hahaha, he'll be so mad as I eat this cardboard, what a tool!"

Love the logic. I sincerely hope you live your entire life that way. Would make me absolutely overjoyed.

That said, it's simple: People who haven't had a properly prepared steak don't know what they're missing. Overcooking all the flavor out of a steak is how bad cooks hide the fact that they're bad cooks. And because those same people have never had a properly prepared steak, they're completely and utterly ignorant about why so many other people are taken back when they hear them order a well-done steak. For them, their ignorance truly is bliss. Unfortunately, it also turns them into the same exact irrational assholes they accuse the "snobs" of being, but somehow they firmly believe themselves to be taking the high road in the whole ordeal.

Long story short: Medium or lighter-cooked steaks that are properly cooked and prepared are superior for all sorts of completely objective chemical reasons. Overcooked cardboard is just a way to hide shitty cooks and convince the ignorant that they're not as ignorant as they actually are on the subject.

[breadisfunny]

That's it, you show 'em by eating something you willfully decided to overpay for! "A good piece of meat for $XX? Hmm, well there's a guy over there I think is a dick because he knows what good food is, so I'll just get that $XX of good meat burned to show him! Hahaha, he'll be so mad as I eat this cardboard, what a tool!"

Love the logic. I sincerely hope you live your entire life that way. Would make me absolutely overjoyed.

That said, it's simple: People who haven't had a properly prepared steak don't know what they're missing. Overcooking all the flavor out of a steak is how bad cooks hide the fact that they're bad cooks. And because those same people have never had a properly prepared steak, they're completely and utterly ignorant about why so many other people are taken back when they hear them order a well-done steak. For them, their ignorance truly is bliss. Unfortunately, it also turns them into the same exact irrational assholes they accuse the "snobs" of being, but somehow they firmly believe themselves to be taking the high road in the whole ordeal.

Long story short: Medium or lighter-cooked steaks that are properly cooked and prepared are superior for all sorts of completely objective chemical reasons. Overcooked cardboard is just a way to hide shitty cooks and convince the ignorant that they're not as ignorant as they actually are on the subject.

and if they want to throw their money away that is their choice.

[Ripster42]

You're not cooking out any bacteria in the steak. The bacteria lives on the surface. Rare, medium, well-done, it doesn't matter, the bacteria is all the same, and only requires the surface to be cooked enough.

Not exactly true. It's just increasingly unlikely the deeper you go. Otherwise you could just sear the outside and be done. It's like having an acceptable allowance of rat feces in your processed food, the chance harmful bacteria will be deep in your cut is rare but is non-zero. I get your confusion though as higher cooking temps for ground meat is recommended because the "surface" is now diffused throughout, but that's just because of likely hoods, not because the inside of your cut of non-ground meat is sterile.

- - - Updated - - -

That's it, you show 'em by eating something you willfully decided to overpay for! "A good piece of meat for $XX? Hmm, well there's a guy over there I think is a dick because he knows what good food is, so I'll just get that $XX of good meat burned to show him! Hahaha, he'll be so mad as I eat this cardboard, what a tool!"

Love the logic. I sincerely hope you live your entire life that way. Would make me absolutely overjoyed.

That said, it's simple: People who haven't had a properly prepared steak don't know what they're missing. Overcooking all the flavor out of a steak is how bad cooks hide the fact that they're bad cooks. And because those same people have never had a properly prepared steak, they're completely and utterly ignorant about why so many other people are taken back when they hear them order a well-done steak. For them, their ignorance truly is bliss. Unfortunately, it also turns them into the same exact irrational assholes they accuse the "snobs" of being, but somehow they firmly believe themselves to be taking the high road in the whole ordeal.

Long story short: Medium or lighter-cooked steaks that are properly cooked and prepared are superior for all sorts of completely objective chemical reasons. Overcooked cardboard is just a way to hide shitty cooks and convince the ignorant that they're not as ignorant as they actually are on the subject.

You say this, but again, that's only the case if people LIKE the flavor of raw meat, which is completely subjective, and why your claim that it's superior because of some objective chemical reason is complete horse shit.