Dave Smith wrote:

Dimitri wrote:

According to local Pittsburgh lore, Pittsburgh steelworkers would often
bring hunks of meat for lunch, rather than sandwiches. When lunchtime came,
they would slap the piece of steak against a slab of hot metal in the mill
to sear a blackened exterior around a red, rare core - a cooking style now
known as "Pittsburgh Rare." Even the area bars got into the act, serving up
Pittsburgh Rare steak, followed by a "boiler maker," or shot of whiskey and
a bottle of beer.

Back in the early 70s I had a summer job in an alloy smelting plant furnace
room. It was much to dirty and dusty in there to cook a steak, though certainly
hot enough. A lot of guys brought in dinners wrapped in boil to heat up and
would put in on one of the pans of metal that had recently been poured.

In the 70's in the San Fernando Valley local workers would,
according to anecdote, suspend chickens in front of military
microwave horns at the Lockheed plant. This was before microwave
ovens were a common feature in people's kitchens.

Steve