"NOOOOO, STUPID HOBITS RUINS THE MEAT!" That's what I hear any time I hear the age old argument of "if you cook a steak medium well or well done you ruined the meat." Well, I like my steak well done, and there's nothing you can do about it. I've heard all the arguments; "you're cooking out all the flavor," "you're cooking out all the juices," "it tastes like shoe leather," so on and so forth.

Let me start out with a little something about myself. I've had steak medium rare, rare, and medium. If I eat anything less than medium well, my throat hurts. I don't know why, maybe it's an allergic reaction, maybe it's an evolutionary mutation; regardless, I feel crappy if I don't eat medium well or well done. You can take all your juicy-flavor arguments, and burn them to a crisp because I'd rather have "less flavor" than a sore throat.

Now I guess I'll address the juicy argument. If your main argument for medium rare is "it's more juicy and tender than well done," well you've obviously never had the steak they serve at my dorm. Somehow, they have steak that is JUST AS RED IF NOT REDDER than medium rare but is SIGNIFICANTLY TOUGHER and DRYER than well done. Steak snobs like to call well done shoe leather, but if I can cut it with a steak knife, it's not shoe leather. However, the steak at my dorm is so tough I had to use my buck knife to cut it, and I'm serious, it WAS shoe leather. Then, when they have a different cook that cooked it more well done, it was quite juicy and tender. So no, your argument about juicy and tender is absolute garbage; it is possible to have a nice juicy and tender well done steak while also having a dry and tough medium rare steak.

But there is a grain of truth to the whole juicy and tender thing. In many cases, it's true if the cook doesn't know how to cook a well done steak. "Well done" does not automatically mean "over cooked." The thing with cooking a good well done steak is to cook low and slow. When you cook a steak medium rare, you cook at a high temperature for a short period of time to get that good sear on the outside but red on the inside, because you're only really cooking the outside and not the inside. However, when many people try to cook a well done steak, they do high and slow, and you get a similar effect but with the outside being overcooked and the inside being cooked. If you do low and slow, you won't have red but will have the juice and tender, mostly. Sure, if you cook it longer you burn more of the fat and juice out, but it doesn't HAVE to be dry and tough.

Now one semi-true straw man argument people bring up is "you can't taste the difference between a prime cut low end cut when you cook well done, so you're just wasting your money." OK, that's true for the most part. I've had high quality cuts and low quality cuts, and I can see a marginal difference between new york strip and round, but for me it really is just steak. And you know what, I know I can't really notice a difference between them, and that's why I chose lower quality cuts. When I go to steak houses, I get their cheapest cut because I know I can't tell the difference. My grandma swears by the ribeye, and I've had it, and I thought "OK, it tastes like steak, it's good but I don't notice a big difference." In fact, one time when I was at a karate retreat with her we went to a restaurant and I wanted a steak after working out all day. The choice was either a 6 ounce flat iron for like $10 or a 7 ounce ribeye for like $17. I thought "I've never had a flat iron, so I'll see what it's like." Well my grandma was all "no get the ribeye. [Pokematic] the ribeye is a much better cut of meat, I don't know what a flat iron is but you want the ribeye, so get the ribeye, I'm paying as my treat for you and I want you to have a good ribeye." Eventually my mom chimed in and said "mom if the boy wants a flat iron let him get a flat iron." Well, I had the flat iron, and it was pretty good; it was steak. My mom also had a flat iron since she wanted to see what it was like, medium because that's how she likes it, and my grandma had a ribeye, also medium. Mom compared the 2, because my grandma likes to share her food even if you don't want it, and she didn't see a difference. My mom tried to share her steak but my grandma wouldn't have any of that "because hers is just so tender." That has inspired a bit of a meme within my family; when ever someone is being a little ridiculous in trying to make a simple decision for someone else in the family, the receiver will say "no get the ribeye" to say "you're being ridiculous, I know the decision I am making, let me make it." But back on topic, I know I can't tell a SIGNIFICANT difference between steak cuts, and that's why I buy lower quality cuts. And you know what, many people who also like well done are probably the same. Plus, I've also had high quality and low quality on the "less cooked" spectrum, and they taste the same as well; sore throat gag inducing. If you're going to say "why waste your money on a prime cut if you're just going to cook it all the way through?" you're assuming that I buy prime cuts, which I don't. When you assume, you make an "ass" out of "u" and "me."

And here's the final thing, it's my decision, my steak, not yours. If you like your steak less done than me, I won't look down on you for eating a piece of meat that will make me feel sick, so I ask you not to look down on me for eating a piece of meat that would make you feel sick, or whatever it is that you feel when you eat well done. It's my money, it's my steak, I like it prepared differently, and that's all there is to it. I like my cheese burger with only pickles, and occasionally barbecue sauce. You may not like pickles at all on your burger. I bet you don't think pickles ruin the burger; just you don't like the taste, or texture. Well, steak doneness is no different. There is no objective reason why a steak should not be cooked well done, just subjective preference. If you want a good analysis of why any "objective argument" is crap, read this one I found here. The only somewhat objective but still very subjective is "you can't taste a difference between cuts," and for me at least that's true, which is why I buy lower grade cuts; same taste, a quarter of the price. Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off and bu-bye.