Steaks/Meat - Do you like the same "doneness" as your parents?

[TheNinja]

I'm trying to figure out if this is a culture thing or a generational thing. My parents cooked all our steak and meats well done. I always used to do it until I started going less and less done. I'm a medium guy now, even with burgers as long as it's a decent place. If it's a dive I ask well done on my burgers. Anyway, what so you?

 

[crashtestdummy]

I'm the same. Medium/medium rare on my meat, my parents were always the well done types.

 

[Ns1]

vietnamese relatives (all of them) - medium well - well

myself (1st gen vietnamese american) - medium rare for everything but lamb.

 

[Gibsons]

Same as my dad - on the rare side of medium rare, assuming a good steak.

My mom likes them a little more done, maybe even to medium.

 

[DCal430]

My parents liked theirs medium and well done. I use to like it well since that was how my mother made it. A few years back I tried it medium rare and it is 1000x better. I always do medium rare. I also notice some places over cook medium rare, so it looks more like medium. I order rare at these places.

 

[thegimp03]

My parents like theirs medium well and medium rare. I like mine medium.

 

[DCal430]

FYI Anything over medium rare is ruined meat.

I use to hate steaks growing up, and now I realized it was because mother always ruined the meat.

 

[vi edit]

Mom - well well well well done.
Dad - Medium

I used to be a well done guy because that's how I thought they were supposed to be. Then I was finally enlightened to the tender & juicy awesomeness of medium rare. So that's how I order/cook mine now.

 

[TheNinja]

very interesting - almost everyone had parents that overcooked meat and now they like it less well done. I wonder if the older generations were basically told you'd get sick if you didn't cook your meat properly. Or maybe we have better meat nowadays or have more knowledge that a medium rare steak isn't going to kill you.

 

[Scotteq]

I gew up on some... thing... which was just this side of shoe leather.


Now that I know better: Hot, Pink, and a little Bloody, baybee!

 

[ahenkel]

I like it rare to almost medium same as my parents

 

[davmat787]

I had the same experience: parents would cook the meat until its jerky, but now I have learned how to properly cook meat and have reversed this, and broken the cycle.

I think it has to do with the availability and price of high quality "choice cuts" that we have now days, vs. our parents or grandparents generation.

Thanks for posting this, I had always wondered the same.

 

[Lonyo]

Parents medium-rare to medium, me medium-well to well.

 

[TheNinja]

I had the same experience: parents would cook the meat until its jerky, but now I have learned how to properly cook meat and have reversed this, and broken the cycle.

I think it has to do with the availability and price of high quality "choice cuts" that we have now days, vs. our parents or grandparents generation.

Thanks for posting this, I had always wondered the same.

I was wondering if that was part of it too. Maybe we can get good cuts and our parents didn't. My guess is that it was more ignorance about getting sick from "undercooked" meat.

 

[Electric Amish]

My parents were always Medium. I'm usually medium/medium-well...depending on the restaurant. I really prefer to not have blood on my plate.

 

[lxskllr]

Always well done. From a kid up to present.

 

[Kirby]

Mom - medium
Dad - rare
Me - extra rare

 

[CVSiN]

I'm trying to figure out if this is a culture thing or a generational thing. My parents cooked all our steak and meats well done. I always used to do it until I started going less and less done. I'm a medium guy now, even with burgers as long as it's a decent place. If it's a dive I ask well done on my burgers. Anyway, what so you?

You parents and your poll fucking fail..

"well done" kills the meat, texture, and flavor..

medium rare 4 teh winz

 

[Schadenfroh]

Father: Medium
Mother: Well-Done
Me: Medium

 

[lord_emperor]

My parents overcooked everything and it tasted like shit.

I thought I was weird for not liking steaks and chicken, then my GF cooked some properly.

 

[mmntech]

Father: rare
Mother: medium to well done
Me: Medium

My mom is English so she has a habit of overcooking meat. A carryover from her mum's generation, who grew up poor during the depression. If it ain't black, it ain't done.

 

[Fritzo]

My parents would make shoe leather steaks. My mom gets grossed out by any pink in meat (she grew up on a pig farm, so pink = tuberculosis in her mind).

I thought that was the only way to eat steak until I was a teenager and had a job carving beef steamships for a caterer. I tasted medium rare and never looked back 🙂

 

[AstroManLuca]

I like my steak on the rare side of medium rare. Parents used to always order medium and that's how I got them when I was growing up but I know now that medium = ruined.

Still better than "well done" though.

 

[crashtestdummy]

very interesting - almost everyone had parents that overcooked meat and now they like it less well done. I wonder if the older generations were basically told you'd get sick if you didn't cook your meat properly. Or maybe we have better meat nowadays or have more knowledge that a medium rare steak isn't going to kill you.

Both my parents grew up in families (and I think a culture) where "food is food", and you didn't spend much time really worrying about it. While our era is often vilified for it's love of processed food, it's driven those who do cook to become more passionate and emotionally attached to what they make (as has the huge increase in popular culture dedicated to cooking).

The better meat hypothesis might have an effect, too. Meat is a lot cheaper now than it used to be on a fraction-of-income basis (thanks to higher efficiency in industrial farming), and so we eat more and better cuts of it than we used to.

 

[Amused]

My Father liked it medium rare, my mother, rare. I like a good steak medium rare.