Most steak houses these days offer you the following 5 choices for the doneness of your steak.
Rare
Medium Rare
Medium
Medium well
Well
I consider this one of the tragedies of the fast-paced world of which we now live.
When I was about 15, in 1967, I got a job at a steakhouse called Dante’s Inferno in Auburn Massachusetts. There was no menu.
They served one meal only:
14 oz sirloin steak
Baked potato
Dinner salad
Toasted, buttered kaiser roll
All for about $2.50
After a while working there, as a dishwasher among other things, I was given a shot at the grill.
The grill was about 4 to 6 ft long and about 30 in. deep, front to back.
On a regular busy night you might have 30 to 50 steaks on the grill at one time.
Also their were always at least 2 racks of potatos in the oven. Each rack had about 30 potatoes on it.
I loved the grill.
It was fast and furious.
The way you gauged the doneness of a steak was to push slightly down and away on the center of the meat and judge the firmness of the meat.
The firmer the meat the more cooked it was.
Your 10 choices were:
Raw – seared on the outside.
Rare
Rare-Medium-Rare
Medium-Rare
Medium-Medium-Rare
Medium
Medium-Medium-Well
Medium-Well
Well-Medium-Well
Well
I got very good at cooking those steakes and rarely had one returned.
So many, many steaks.
Part of the reason I finally quit was because I was seeing steaks in my sleep at night.
Today, when they ask you how you want your steak cooked, and you reply, “Rare-Medium-Rare”, you get that blank questioning stare.
Bon appetit,
Kenny
Rare-Medium-Rare, Please
