Is 'Medium-Rare' the old 'Rare'?
 

Has anyone else noticed that medium-rare seems more rare than it used to be? i used to think that medium-rare was perfect, but sometimes these days it's just too damn rare. And it is highly correlated with how nice the place is. Medium is still too welldone. Lately, I have been asking for the chef to "split the difference" between medium and medium-rare.

I really don't think it's my tastes changing. Can anyone back me up on this?

Mid-rare
 

Ciao, Jerry!
I'm a chef/restaurant owner and your point is well taken (no pun intended). I ask my servers to determine what the guest really wants. Once we know this, the kitchen can cook to order. The terms "rare, medium, etc" do vary from place to place. Volunteer the info to your server. It's the only way to insure that you'll be happy. By the way, for those of you who order medium-well to well, a good kitchen hand picks the proper steak for you. A well done steak should start with a very marbled piece of beef so that you don't end up with a dish of dead protein.

I have noticed lately that medium-rare is medium. I like my steaks still mooing slightly in the middle and they are coming out like they have been way overcooked. It's interesting to note that it really does vary place to place and even different areas of the country.

I agree with Venice. "As rare as you can make it" *might* come out medium rare. Otherwise, it's brown when it goes down. Yuk, make mine moo too.

You know, maybe the restaurants are not really listening anymore and don't want to cook their food too undercooked. I have never had an upscale chop/steak house tell me that I can't have it mooing, but some other restaurants "prefer" to serve their meat at least medium-rare, which of course is totally brown.

The best steak though was the mooing piece of filet at Ruth Chris' NOLA before a parade at Mardi Gras, 2001.

Perhaps the scale is sliding towards rare. Once when I ordered "Medium-Well" it seemed more like "Medium-Rare". I like it juicy but not "mooing".

I agree
 

In the last few years, ordering a steak MR has led to a cool center - no longer cooked through at most major steak houses...

I have been finding the opposite as well, ordering medium rare and having it come out overcooked. I would prefer a little more rare to a little more well. But this tends to be at normal restaurants not steakhouses.

I have also noticed the odd place explaining to you what you ordered, which I find very annoying, especially when they don't bring it out the way they explained it to you.

Rare or black & blue.

I like my steak to graze on my salad.... :D

I order mine rare. I'm distressed to hear that someone who orders their meat "well" gets the very marbled piece of beef. :eek:

My Dad used to say that he wanted his meat so rare that, if given 10 minutes with a good surgeon, it would come back to life.

:D

I also find that many places tend to cook Medium Rare with a cool reddish blue center. I want a warm Red center, not pink and certainly not blue/cold. I usually ask how Medium Rare is prepared at the steakhouse I am frequenting then tell the wait staff how I would prefer my steak. I have also found that some lower end steakhouses try to pass a thin steak to me. Um, not gonna fly with me.

Also, I want a thick steak, as thick as I can get and ask the wait staff for a thicker portion. I know when I frequent Outback, Texas Roadhouse, Lonestar and the like that the steak will be basic and not of high quality. However, when frequenting a really good steakhouse that offers Prime quality meats, I usually do not have to ask for a thick cut of beef.

Now I am getting hungry. :D

I find that this completely varies by steak house. The best thing to do is describe to your server how you like your steak (e.g. red warm center). If it comes out cooked wrong, don't be afraid to send it back. After all, you are paying $40 or more for a piece of beef.

Losing Your Marbling
 

Birdstrike, don't worry. There are cuts of prime (i.e bone-in ribeye) that can be over-marbled. We set them aside for well done. Your rare to mid rare is going to have plenty of fat flavor. At least that's the case from a reputable kitchen.

Well, ok. I'm molified :D I do admit I've never had a bad bit of beef from a reputable kitchen.

^ Same here.....I'll finish the butchering at the table :D

I've always liked Medium-rare. I want my cow soft and pink but not still moving.

It makes me cry when someone want their steak so well done that no hint of juice is present.A crime against a good cook.I understand why Bourdian tells us about throwing the steks in the fryolater!
Medium Rare(very juicy,pinky red,but cooked through)otherwise I will order Carpaccio!

UGH, this is where my boyfriend and I differ at the restaurant. I cannot stand a piece of medium or rarer meat on my tongue! The consistency almost makes me sick. Meat flavor becomes stronger and better (IMHO) as it cooks.

If done properly, well done meat is not dry, it is not hard, it is soooooooo good! I tell the waiter at Morton's to butterfly and get all the pink out of my filet mignon. Then it melts in your mouth...no butter, no sauces, no salt or pepper. Just the wonderful flavor of beef.

I am a big fan of red meat. Ostrich, Bison, Lamb, Beef, even African Impala. All taste so much better if cooked!

The lions have to eat it raw because they can't make fire! :)

While there are cuts of meat that enjoy-in fact are enhanced by long slow cooking,the cuts of meat destined for steaks and good roast are not those IMO.
I love brisket,short ribs,pot roast,and the various beef stews of the world.But I would never subject good,expensive, beef-such as the steaks at Mortons or other fine restaurants-to over cooking.That is why steakhouses usually have a non steak option on the menu.
I grew up in a household where beef,even fillets,were ruined by over cooking.Now I love the look on my mothers face when I order a steak or prime rib roast medium rare!

There are plenty of great steaks out there for a lot less than $40. Yes, I like Shula's, Ruth's Chris, and Morton's...but there is another side. For a big chain, Texas Roadhouse is actually quite good.

I also tend to find the opposite is true in California. I used to order medium-rare, expecting the centers to be between cool and luke-warm, but still deep pink or lighter red. But lately, it's been warm to hot center that is an ash or pale pink...this is what medium is supposed to look like! I worked at a place that prided themselves on their steaks and seafood in the midwest, so I was a little surprised when I came out to California and had to change the way I order steaks. Now I order all my steaks "rare to medium-rare. I like my steaks to be cool to luke-warm in the center."

That's what I usually say and it seems to work-out most of the time. I'd rather they err on the side of rareness than mediumness. Truth be told, raw beef suits me fine.

My one visit to Bern's Steahouse in Tampa was truly an epiphany in terms of how fine a line you can "have it your way." Warm rare for my 8 oz fillet was truly heaven: crispy charred on the outside, bloody and just palpably warm inside. Slurp! If a steakhouse claims right on the menu they can cook it that way, I'll take 'em up on the offer. Otherwise I'll just order a NY Strip or Porterhouse medium-rare to keep things simple, b/c that way slightly over- or under-done isn't going to make me send it back.

Mm-ooo!

Meat temps that go along with rare, medium-rare, etc, are set and haven't really changed. It causes a problem for waitstaff at good restaurants when they are asked, "What is your medium rare?" They will answer, it is medium rare. If you're finding that your medium-rare is more rare than it used to be, then either your tastes are changing, the places you usually go to overcook the meat or the place you are going is undercooking their meat.

The question really is akin to, "Are there still 60 minutes in an hour?". Some clocks might be too fast. Some might be too slow. An hour is an hour though.

I, too, wish any error would be made toward the side of rareness but it sure hasn't worked that way over the past year or more. Frequently my steak arrives medium-ish, even though I ordered rare to medium-rare. Lately I've even tried ordering rare, but it arrives warm in the center more often than not. :(

Mmmmm... raw beef. I want my steak so rare that a shot of penicillin will revive it.

Maybe in theory meat temps haven't changed, and obviously in your experience they haven't changed, but for many of us there is something going on. I have always preferred my steaks very rare. My taste in that has not varied... ever. Yet I am finding it harder and harder to actually receive a piece of meat prepared the way I like it.

Yes, I believe that was the point of the thread. ;) Some (like me) have reported encountering restaurants that are over-cooking steaks. And according to the OP some restaurants are under-cooking them. (I can only dream of finding one of those places.)
If the number of posts here are in anyway significant, it seems to be a common occurance. So do you have any helpful suggestions? You say that quizzing the wait staff is not appropriate, so what else should we do to insure we receive our steak exactly like we want it?

Return the steak if it is not how you want it. The metric system hasn't changed since its inception and the idea of how hot a steak should be on the inside in order to be classified as R, MR, etc, hasn't changed. If it's not as you want, send it back, but be sure that you know what each temp should be. The overcooked part of dining can often be explained by restaurants that keep food heated on the line until the server picks it up. If they don't get it right away, the meat can easily be cooked up a grade or two. If you're finding that one place is over/undercooking commonly, then mention it to the manager. Another alternative, would be to request that they use a meat thermometer to make sure of the temp on the inside. In any case, the difference between R/MR and M is quite a bit and a cook/chef will definitely know once the meat is sliced open. If you want more info, I'd suggest heading to a bookstore and reading through the meat section of something like Professional Cooking. Hope this helps.

Actually, as noted in another post, I went to Mortons this past weekend. Ordered the usual done rare-medium rare with empasis on the coolish center. They came back with a medium. It was ash/pale pink in the center and it was hot. I sent it back for another...hey, if I'm plopping down $50 for a piece of meat a la carte, then it better be perfect! Anyway, they always seem to get it just right the second time around...which makes me wonder why they can't do it the first time???

I wonder that as well.

They needed alittle human saliva to make it right. ;)

I know that I can send it back when it's not correct the first time but I also want to know why it's becoming increasingly necessary to do so.

I may have to try your tip about asking if they do/will use a meat thermometer. But since the steaks I cook at home aren't the problem, I'll skip the suggestion about reading a book on the topic. ;)

If you're worried about that then you don't eat at very nice establishments in the first place. You could always try some places with an open kitchen concept.

NO!
I find it the other way around. Maybe it's just a string of bad luck of receiving overdone beef. But, lately I find that when I order MR, I too often get something bordering on medium... which is a waste.

I've noticed a couple things.

People, in average, seem to be overcooking meat, in response to the health scares of a few years back. I like a medium-well steak, and I've taken to ordering medium now.

Also, many menus now have the "doneness chart" in order to alleviate any confusion in the sliding scale of doneness.

i'm in the medium rare comes back as medium or medium well when ordered these days. I like it still to be red, not pink in the middle, and I've even had some i've struggled to find any pink in :eek:

Was in YVR a few years back, when I ordered medium rare, came out well done. Complained to wait person, who was mortified (one thing I learnt is that Canadians hate well done steaks ;)) brought me a new one... medium-well. At this point my friend was practically finished her meal, I'd had enough cocktails to give up caring so I ate it, but didn't have to pay for it...

I whole heartedly agree, I too am a Chef and I would NEVER sort thru my stock to find a prime cut only to be destroyed... When I am asked to cook a cut of red meat to well done I insist the wait staff inform the guest that the product will be "butterflied" so that it will spend less time on the grill.

I always order blue rare and I'm finding more and more that means rare or occasionally even medium rare.

I've stopped frequenting two places I used to like because they insist on overcooking my meat.

Along the lines of what stebu and jenbel were saying....

Let me put it this way. Over the past 25 years my taste in steaks hasn't changed, but what I order has. "Back in the day" I liked mine medium rare....so nowadays I order medium and get the same thing!

But rather than trust someone else's "definition", the best thing to do, as others have said, is to specify the designation, then explain exactly what it is that you want. In my case that would be "pinkish, hot center".

walk it through a warm kitchen
 

The best way, as noted by other posters, is to specify not only the color, but what temp you want the center. Then there is no ambiguity.

I like mine rare. Bloody, bloody, still slightly twitching on the table rare. I always emphatically order it rare, then smile brightly and say "basically, walk it through a warm kitchen." :D

Yum. I need to go get a Delmonico now.