It's how I tell if the pan is hot enough for pancakes. When a drop of water dances, the temperature is right. if it sits and starts steaming, it is too cool . . . if it flashes instantly to steam, it is too hot. But when the drop dances, I can drop the batter. E Coli being what it is, I rarely eat rarely cooked meat anymore.
I grew up on a cattle ranch. Whenever cousin Bad Bob walked through a warm room holding raw beefsteak, he thought he had just cooked the thing “medium rare”! The card-cheatin’ curmudgeon liked his steaks “most rare” and once ate an entire steer just because it strayed a little too close to our campfire. Spittin’ out the hooves, hide, and the horns, he exclaimed “Yum”, then belched impolitely! There is not now and never was such a thing as “well-done” grilled steak cooked anywhere upon the entire ranch. If some inconsiderate, rude dude asked for such a ghastly item, he was usually asked to quietly leave the dining room. Once outside, the ill-bred and misinformed tenderfoot was hurriedly hustled down to the creek by “Brandin’ Iron Mike” and “Horseshoe Bendin’ Kelly” – four hundred and seventy pounds of “nasty”… stacked in two piles! The two big cowhands took turns holding the fellow’s upper torso beneath the cold water until his head “cleared” and he apologized to the cook. If the novice had asked for catsup with his steak, his arraignment would be forfeited with extreme prejudice and the guilty, worthless, scoundrel would be scheduled for trial the following day – just before he was lynched.
Rare steak takes no more than ten minutes for a thick cut. Anything longer than twenty minutes and you just wasted your money. As the meat reaches 120 degrees, the cell walls in the muscle fiber begin to release moisture. This is what makes it juicy. Once it has reached 140 degrees, it's cooked. A lot of people consider a rare steak to be raw because of the color which is simply untrue.The redness is due to the myoglobin. The as it's heated myoglobin changes color. After 140 degrees, the muscle fibers begin to contract and squeeze out the moisture like wringing out a dish rag. It's at this point the quality/juiciness of the meat begins to degrade. As for marinades, he fattier the cut the more worthless the marinade. The fat prevents it from working itself into the meat. That's why you don't marinade cuts like ribeyes. To be honest, filets, strips, etc. should not be marinated either. If you want a flavor, add it after cooking or in the final stages. I eat mine rare. Just before the meat hits 140 is when I pull it off the fire... There are three types of people who should not be allowed to eat beef: 1) People who use forks to flip or remove the meat. 2) People who marinade good cuts of beef. 3) People who eat steaks cooked more than medium rare. People who put ketchup on steaks should be drug into the street and shot.
Medium. Somewhere between rare and whatever it is that isn't supposed to exist. I'm quite fond of soaking ribeyes in Italian salad dressing prior to cooking them but apparently that is something that should not be done. To those I say "phuch off" lol. I was going to say "don't knock it till you've tried it" but being in the Christmas spirit and all. ... I do grill up a pretty mean steak, lots of flavor and never in need of a knife for cutting. A few years ago we had my sister in law over for dinner and after putting her steak on a plate she asked for the ketchup before she even tasted what I had created. I threw a fit and vowed to never ever serve her steak at my house ever again. It was downright offensive.
