In the game of food dork one-upsmanship, the rarer you order your steak, the more of a real gastronome you are—it means you like your meat good and a little dangerous, like it was meant to be. I always took this carnal orthodoxy as gospel; I mean, people who order their steak well-done deserve their own circle of hell. But…as much it pains my old, snobby self, I’ve started to prefer some of my steaks a little more towards the medium end of the spectrum than I’m completely comfortable with.
But why? Aren’t rare steaks juicier and more tender? Well, not necessarily. I started doing some experimenting—I’m no scientist, but even a knuckle-dragging son of a construction worker like me can learn a thing or two—and it turns out in some cases, cooking your meat a little more can make for better texture and flavor. Blame fat, collagen, and chemistry.
Tom's Favorite Cuts to Serve Raw:
- Top round
- Sirloin tip
Ribeyes, for example, are downright gross when cooked black-and-bleu. I know there are probably a lot of old French guys rotating in their graves right now, but hold on—ultra-rare ribeyes are gross because all that luscious fat that rims the meat, the best part of the steak, doesn't really render when barely cooked, making it weird and pasty.
In contrast, the prime ribs of my Reno, NV youth were slow roasted over the better part of a whole day; while the meat on the inside hovered between medium and medium-rare, the thick layer of cover fat would end up perfectly rendered: crisp, melting, salty and delicious. And to get that effect, you really need to cook it.
Fat aside, there are other reasons that you might want to cook some cuts a bit farther. Some delicious but unglamorous cuts—in particular, the chuck eye or chuck roll—benefit greatly from being cooked medium-ish but the issue here isn’t fat, it’s connective tissue and collagen.
Best Rare:
- Flatiron
- Top sirloin
- Paleron
The collagen-rich sheaths around the eye and exterior of the chuck steak are nearly knife-proof when cooked rare. They stretch and pull into impossible-to-chew messes. They get stuck between your teeth in way that requires something just this side of oral surgery to remove. In short, they ruin the simple pleasure of eating one of my favorite steaks. Cooked past sanguineous, however, those same sheaths firm up enough to give the meat a pleasant, toothsome texture that is easy to cut.
Yet another reason you might venture into the dark, common, side of the meat cookery spectrum is flavor and aroma. Everyone knows a good, crusty sear is delicious. But it turns out that beyond browning, the flavor of meat changes and improves as it cooks, and while rarer steaks are juicier and more tender, the more a steak is cooked (within reason, obviously), the more flavor it has from a, ahem, scientific perspective.
Best Medium Rare:
- Ribeye / rib steaks
- NY strip / shell
- Porterhouse / T-bone
- Tri-tip
- Flank steak
- Sirloin flap
- Filet mignon
- Top round (if not raw)
- Hanger steak
- Chuck eye / chuck steak
I always recall the T-bones my dad would cook, engulfed in flames, on our rusty gas grill as some of the most flavorful I have ever eaten despite the fact that they were more gray than pink on the inside. Of course, childhood memories are always a bit suspect. We tend to forget long, awful car rides and only focus on the time we got to visit Six Flags, ride the Colossus and eat our weight in cotton candy. Sure, your parents got separated right after, but you got to see Shamu!
So surely I must have been weaving wishful thinking and emotional baggage up into the act of eating a steak on a perfect evening in June, 1987.
But page 128 of On Food and Cooking by food science expert Harold McGee proved my sentimental hypothesis right. Turns out that as meat cooks, “the physical change gives way to chemical change, and to the development of aroma as cell molecules break apart and recombine with each other to form new molecules that not only smell meaty, but also fruity and floral, nutty and grassy (esters, ketones, aldehydes).” So to get more complex flavor out of your meat, you really do have to cook it.
Best Medium:
- Skirt steak
- Chuck short ribs
- Chuck flap
The part I don’t quote here is when McGee talks about how, during this process, the meat is also drying out. So there is a balancing act you have to do between flavor and texture, and you have to choose which is more important to you. So the “right” temperature to eat a steak isn’t about simply rules, it’s about personal preference.
So the next time you’re getting ready to fire up the grill or haul out that trusty cast-iron skillet consider what you want and what you’re willing to give up to achieve the perfect steak. More than anything, try to push away all the scowls of judgment and derision from men in toques and find your own balance between rare and just right.
------------
The Butcher’s Favorite Steak Cuts, by Temperature
Now, before I get punched in the face, let’s back up. Am I saying all steaks are better pink than barely warmed through? Certainly not. I’m not attempting to play the part of the contrarian populist or foodie-backlash luddite. In fact, I think the best way to eat dry aged top round is raw, sliced thin and dipped in a tiny bit of grated ginger and soy sauce. So here are my favorite temperatures to serve these cuts of beef:
Best Raw:
- Top round (sometimes sold as “London Broil,” but not always… check first!)
- Sirloin tip
Rare:
- Flatiron
- Top sirloin
- Paleron
Medium Rare:
- Ribeye / rib steaks
- NY strip / shell
- Porterhouse / T-bone
- Tri-tip
- Flank steak
- Sirloin flap
- Filet mignon
- Top round (if not raw)
- Hanger steak
- Chuck eye / chuck steak
Medium:
- Skirt steak
- Chuck short ribs
- Chuck flap
Comments