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Comment by tedunangst | Hacker News Reader

Doesn't matter how it's cooked as long you put enough ketchup on it.

Hah. Try ordering a steak any temperature above medium or up at some NYC steak houses and they'll give you a charred hockey puck because they're assuming you're going to drown it in ketchup and can't taste the difference anyway. It's not always about meat quality or whatever stick the chef has up his butt about serving it barely warmed over. For some of us uncooked / undercooked bloody and gelatinous steak is downright disgusting. It's a texture thing: I don't want rubbery meat in my mouth.

At least for me, I love it when a place serves steak on a hot metal plate. They usually sear it and go under a little, assuming it'll be cooked further just from the plate during delivery. I can cut my steak into little pieces and push it the rest of the way myself. The chef doesn't try to substitute strip for filet because he's a pretentious snob and I don't have to eat gelatinous, bloody steak for the same reason. Not every wants beef sashimi.

That doesn't make sense, because the major difference between a properly cooked steak and a "charred hockey puck" is texture, not flavor, and ketchup isn't going to mask that.

Trust me when the meat's so burnt and dried out that you have trouble getting a knife through it, you don't want any part of the flavor that's left behind. I haven't set foot in Bobby Van's on Park Avenue in a decade after that fiasco.

Have you tried just ordering your steaks medium rare? That's what I do, and I've never had the type of trouble you speak of ordering at steak houses in NYC.

OP said:

>Try ordering a steak any temperature above medium or up...

Medium rare is below medium. ;)

> bloody

The red liquid isn't actually blood! The blood gets drained out at the slaughterhouse. It's a protein called myoglobin.

That's right. I did forget that but it's still a texture issue. Rubbery steak just grosses me the fuck out.

Do you like your steak well done or more rare? Overcooked is rubbery. If you're eating rarer steak that's turning out rubbery, it's a shitty cut of meat.

Why having steak instead of slow cooked meats then?

I think this went over a few heads.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/trumps-first-d...

Plus, some chefs respond to “well done” with a lesser cut of steak, figuring the recipient isn’t respecting the ingredient.

This is also a myth (it comes from Kitchen Confidential, I think?). What's really happening is that you're probably getting a thinner cut of steak (same weight, different shape) so your entree finishes at the grill station at roughly the same time as everyone else at your table's does.

Why buy an expensive and tasty meat and put some sugary sauce on it? No offence intended, it's just that this baffles me. The only thing I would put on a steak besides salt is black pepper if I feel feisty.

> Why buy an expensive and tasty meat and put some sugary sauce on it?

Why does anyone combine flavours and use sauces and different elements of taste?

I don't put ketchup on my steak either, but let's not pretend that the idea of sauces or combining sweet and savoury is somehow unfathomable.

Agreed. However, effectively saying "I don't care about the meat, just drown it in sauce" is a different matter. The article is intended for those who do care about grilling good and flavorful steaks.

With pork ribs I actually agree: I drown them in BBQ sauce and pretty much only care that they are tender.

With steak and cow cuts... hey, I'm Argentinian, we care about our grilled meat [1], the thought of just not bothering about how much it's cooked personally offends me!

[1] though not most restaurants. Given the importance beef cuts have in our diet, it's surprising most restaurants just don't care. They will either serve you meat so bloody the cow might as well still be alive, or something that is hard, chewy and not tender at all ("the sole of a shoe"). Honorable exceptions exist and tourists seem happy even in the worst restaurants, so what do I know?

Another argentinian here, 37 years old and after years to fight with matambre.., man.., no more fighting when you knows how to cook it...

Im agree with fancy restaurants cooking meat without care about it.

anyway, i think 33% is meat quality, 33% knowladge and 33% experience. 1% is the fernet or wine you are drinking while cooking.

Bearnaise, hollandaise, red wine reduction, roquefort cream, lemon + olive oil, salsa verde, green peppercorn, garlic butter, bordelaise, au poivre --- not saucing a steak is a wasted opportunity for deploying some of the world's great sauces.

Beautifully put.

What's beautiful about a steak is that it transcends the collective human culinary craft. It's like this pure thing that prove god exists. All of those sauces, those creations of men, are more for making poorer quality steaks more palatable than elevating the best steaks. There is a reason restaurants that specialize in serving high quality steaks generally forgo the sauce.

Go pull up a list of the top steak houses in NYC, or in Chicago, or in Los Angeles, and find me the steak house that doesn't have a steak au poivre, or a bunch of other sauce options. What you're saying about steak restaurants is just not true at all.

Also, the best steaks that you're getting in steak houses are honestly pretty boring (at least, until you dry age them halfway to the point of rot) and if you think that a prime ribeye is the acme of cuisine, I really recommend you go out and find yourself some birria.

Minor nit about an offhand comment, but, to be fair, a proper dry aging setup really has minimal to no risk of actual rot. Sanitary conditions and good air circulation will let you go pretty much indefinitely without worry, though from what I've seen of 400-700 day dry ages, you're really not getting much left that's usable as steak.

Me too, but you just didn't get the joke.

I am tired of people acting like their bang average pub steak has any semblance of an exquisite culinary experience. Yeah, don't sauce your A5 Wagyu or beauty marbled meat from a cow that lived like a queen. But, the 20$ filled mignon that grew up without getting shoulder massages is as mundane as any other 'decent cut of an animal'.

That's not to say that I don't like a good simple steak, but there is nothing extraordinary about a grocery store cut of meat to warrant eating it with just salt and pepper all the time. Hell, at least goat, elk or salt water fish are gamey enough to have enough complex flavors going on by themselves. Steak is honestly, a little one dimensional.

IMO, a medium rare, dry brined and cast iron seared fatty steak with some chimichurri on top is admittedly excellent. Also, complaining about a welldone steak not being as juicy as a medium rare steak is ridiculous. But if thats what they like, then making fun of people's culinary tastes because you have a specific classist hangup about your food is snooty and stupid.

I found this painful to read.

I upvoted you just because your blog is great.

Wrong bottle. It's all about A1 sauce.

As a child, my grandfather would serve filet mingnon at family holidays, and I would drown it in A1. It is only as an adult that I truly understand the severity of my sin.

That's not much of a sin; there isn't much flavor in a filet to cover up. It's more a textural experience.

But also just this idea that a steak is a pure thing meant to be enjoyed without a powerful sauce --- some of the best sauces in cooking were invented for steaks. Deglaze a steak pan, cook down some shallots, hit it with some cream and maybe a shot of whiskey, and break up some Roquefort in it while the sauce reduces. It's an overwhelmingly flavorful sauce --- invented for steaks. Steaks are delicious. Sauces are delicious. Steaks and sauces are synergistically delicious.

Don't apologize for saucing a steak.

Ahh the Mahomes Method. A classic!

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