Kate Connally wrote:
> "Bob (this one)" wrote:
>
>> Kate Connally wrote:
>>
>>> "Bob (this one)" wrote:
>>>
>>>> Kate Connally wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I like mine "Pittsburgh rare" which is charred on the outside
>>>>> and very rare in the middle (mostly pink, just barely warm).
>>>>> Of course it depends on the kind of steak you're cooking. I
>>>>> only do the best steaks this way - Delmonico and Porterhouse.
>>>>
>>>> Pittsburgh rare is charred on the outside and cold and red on
>>>> the inside, essentially raw. Your steak as described is medium.
>>>>
>>>> Pastorio
>>>
>>> Well, maybe I should have said red on the inside, but it should
>>> not be cold, but just warm.
>>
>> Kate, that's maybe how you like it, and that's medium-rare. And
>> it's different than what you say above.
>
> No it's not different that what I said above. Our terminology just
> differs. And it is definitely not medium rare the way I like it. The
> way I like it is rare - Pittsburgh rare!
>
>> The actual definition of a Pittsburgh steak is raw, cold red center
>> with a thin layer of cooked meat on the outsides. Seared or
>> charred outside and cold red center.
>
> Uh, whose definition is that, pray tell?

French chefs cook beef to "bleu" which is the same as Pittsburgh rare.
Center temperature is no higher than 110°F or about 45°C.

"Bleu meat, cooked at the surface, but just warmed within remains
relatively unchanged -- soft to the touch like the muscle between the
thumb and forefinger when it's completely relaxed, with little or no
colored juice (some colorless fat may melt
out)." Harold McGee; "On Food and Cooking" - pages 154-155.

He characterizes 110° as "just warmed." I think of that temperature as
tepid at most, and if served food at that temperature, it would be
called cold by most people.

The texture of the meat is slack, as raw meat is. The meat faces are
seared on very hot surfaces or very close to a flame.

> I'm *from* Pittsburgh! I *know* what Pittsburgh rare is!

I used to live there. Shadyside. Liked it.

> I've had it many times in my life. It's never been *cold* in the
> middle, it's always been just slightly warm. Charred on the outside
> with less than 1/4 inch cooked meat around the outside, the rest
> red/pink, bloody, and slightly warm!
>
> And as far as the definition of rare - every source I've consulted
> claimed the rare was cooked to an internal temperature of somewhere
> in the 120-125 degree Fahrenheit range. That is warm, by most of the
> world's definition.

But that's for conventionally rare meats, anyway. Not Pittsburgh rare.
It has a different name because it's a different result.

The name comes from the steel mills. People would bring pieces of raw
beef to work and they'd drop it on the ledges of blast furnaces or mold
tops. Those surfaces run to more than 2000°F. Meat sears instantly and
if left there for more than a few seconds is charred to inedibility. So
the outsides were crusted and the centers were raw.

Here's the science behind it:
The total amount of energy available to cook radiated by a hot object is
proportional to the fourth power of the absolute temperature, so that a
2000°F metal surface is radiating more than 40 times as much energy as
the equivalent area of a griddle or oven surface at 500°F.

You say that 110°F is warm? Ok. It's warm.

Pastorio