rare | YOUNG & FOODISH

The Colour of Rare According to John Torode

dansyoung — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 22:23:23 +0000

A burger ordered rare at John Torode's The Luxe

JUDGING THE JUDGE: Food enthusiasts attending the burgermonday meatup at The Luxe got the opportunity to taste and critique the burger of chef-patron – and MasterChef judge – John Torode. To see the video, click here.

el doble my double burger benchmark

dansyoung — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 07:29:30 +0000

The El Doble at Txikito (pronounced “chic-kee-toe”) – a Basque restaurant in New York’s Chelsea. The chubby double burger is draped with smoked sheep’s milk cheese and peppery salsa especial.

The version seen above was requested to be on the rare side of medium rare.

My burger doneness color strip

dansyoung — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:54:15 +0000

rare

medium-rare

medium

med-well

well done

Looking at them now these almost look more like Mark Rothko paintings than hamburgers.

Does anyone know what rare is anymore?

dansyoung — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:02:30 +0000

When I ordered my bespoke burger rare at the Santa Monica (California) location of The Counter, my waitress asked, “Do you know what rare is?” Odd question, I thought, to be asking a native English speaker fluent in basic menu vocabulary. I nodded yes, missing my chance to answer her with the broader philosophical question: “Does anyone know what rare is anymore?”

Because thick hamburger patties don’t toughen much as they cook, grill cooks cannot apply the finger test to check for doneness as they can with steaks. Most err on the long side, which is why burger lovers from LA to London have grown accustomed to getting medium-rare when they order rare, medium when they order medium-rare and so on.

The burger I was served at The Counter was that rarity, a rare that’s actually rare (see photo above). They know what rare is and, judging by the waitress’ question, they also know most of us are no longer so sure. I emailed The Counter to find out if the waitress was acting on her own and got this response from Mike Miklos, the Director of Education and Team Development:

The server probably could have phrased her question better, but what she was trying to say was that “you’re really going to get a rare burger”…Many times our customers order a “medium” thinking it will have no pink, when it arrives they think it’s raw. Since everyone has their own perception of what “medium” or “rare” is we try not to even use those terms and [instead] describe the amount of redness.