Do you consider the burger in this photo to be UNDERCOOKED?

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Dear AHT: Sick of Undercooked Burgers

Posted by Robyn Lee, November 21, 2009 at 1:00 PM

Here's a question we received yesterday in the AHT inbox from Serious Eats reader ratbuddy.



"Please get at least one reviewer who likes their meat cooked. Seeing every burger you review (under)cooked rare or medium rare is getting old and I'd bet many of your other readers would agree. That poll on burger-doneness ended up with almost half the voters selecting medium or higher. Where's our representative??

Thanks."

http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2009/11/dear-aht-sick-of-undercooked-burgers.html

[Danger Mouse]

1. Who would eat something like that?

[Amerigo Vespucci]

2. That's about as nasty as nasty gets...

...I made the leap to "medium"...actual medium, not "rare" masquerading as "medium"...and that's about as "pink" as I like. That burger is basically raw with a tiny bit of char on top.

:toast:

[Danger Mouse]

3. I like how one of the writers tries to say...

that people who voted 'medium' only vote medium because they're unnecessarily scared of eating rare because of the supposed health risks.
no, i prefer medium because meat that pink tastes nasty.
sheesh.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

4. that ain't pink. that center is red.

and looks disgusting to me.

[XemaSab]

10. Eating a rare steak is probably not so risky

eating a rare hamburger just ain't right. You have NO idea what-all went in that hopper. x(

[quakerboy]

5. I am a carnivore

I will eat steak at virtually any level of doneness. . Burger, not so much. That burger would get sent back in a heartbeat.

[rebel with a cause]

15. I want my steak done also. ;)

When I was young I sent a steak back because it was basically floating in a plate of blood. The other people at my table, many of which had steaks done rare/medium rare, were gagging at the sight of my raw meat.

[quakerboy]

24. Many people do

I don't care. As long as the outside is seared, and its not cold raw, and it tastes ok, I am all good on steak. Super bloody rare. a little pink. Brown through and tough like leather. I like steak just about any level of doneness.

[rebel with a cause]

28. to be honest,

I'm not much of a steak person. Once in a while I want it but then there are just certain ways I want it cooked. My favorites are probably lightly seasoned broiled or what I call 'Dominican steak'. 'Dominican steak' is just steak cut in narrow strips and cooked like my ex in laws use to cook it seasoned with sofrito and a tomato based sauce.

[XemaSab]

47. The other day I had an OCD attack in the grocery store

I picked up a steak at the deli and I wound up like Carrie. x(

[rcrush]

6. This is why you have tapeworms

In case you were wondering

[PVnRT]

7. Christ, you don't eat hamburger anything less than medium well

Steak, yes. Burger, no. Anyone who says otherwise is a fucking idiot.

[yawnmaster]

14. Medium rare or rare hamburgers for me.

If I'm an idiot, at least I'm fucking!

[hippywife]

22. It depends, really.

If I liked it that raw, I would eat it only from the local farmer I buy all of my meat from, but never ever from a commercial source. :puke:

[Fire Walk With Me]

8. Seen "Zombieland"?

It's all a burger's fault :cry:

[Orrex]

9. Damn! Somebody put a band-aid on that thing before it bleeds out.

[XemaSab]

11. Band-aid?

that thing needs stitches. x(

[Lucian]

12. Mmmmmm...nothing like E. coli on a bun.

[Sebastian Doyle]

13. That would be slightly too rare even for a steak.

For a burger, it's a neon welcome sign for ecoli!

[Graybeard]

16. Anyone who would eat that has a death wish.

Get a meat thermometer and follow the guidelines. If that is too inconvenient just at least "get the red out"!

[yawnmaster]

20. I love some red in my hamburger.

And I don't have a death wish.
And I eat raw eggs and raw egg products without worry, also.

[AwakeAtLast]

17. You can tell it is still raw in the middle!

Even rare does not equal raw. I like my steaks medium rare, but burgers is a different story altogether. Medium is pushing it in the burger category.

[TK421]

31. Rare is cooked to a degree, but this doesn't even look healthy enough to eat!

[trof]

18. I used to have The Cannibal Sandwich at my local pub.

About 40 years ago.
It was steak tartare on a bun.
And it was good.
But I wouldn't now.

[murielm99]

21. I used to eat that forty years ago, too.

I kept thinking about that all through this thread. I remember how delicious they were.

I am not even sure I could eat a pink steak any more, although they are probably safer than pink burgers.

But we could trust our meat then.

Send things back if they are pink, everyone. Never mind how much hassle it is. I had e. coli last January. I had a temp of 106 and had to be medevaced in a helicopter. Then I spent six days in the hospital. I am lucky to still have functioning kidneys.

Send back pink meat, even if you think it makes you look like a troublemaker.

[liberaltrucker]

19. An E Coli infection looking for a place to happen

:puke:

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE a rare steak.
But a BURGER???? Not so much.

[Demoiselle]

23. It needs to cooked just a smitch more...

get rid of the purply blue color and match the pink in the far right hand end of the burger, and it'd be lovely for me.

[Generic Brad]

25. Bacon cheeseburger tartar!

That is definitely to rare.

[Dangerously Amused]

26. That is absolutely revolting.

[Moondog]

27. I'm into Steak Tartare - that shit is overdone ....

Honestly ....

[Shell Beau]

29. Undercooked? That shit is RAW!

YUCK YUCK YUCK!

[TK421]

30. It looks like it wasn't cooked a bit in the center....pretty raw, I would say

I would never order a burger like that!

[deucemagnet]

32. I like them that rare.

Sometimes I'll buy irradiated beef at the grocery store so I can make them that way, but if I'm going to a restaurant I'll order my burgers medium rare for the sake of safety.

[DU GrovelBot]

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[flvegan]

34. Disgusting. n/t

[XemaSab]

48. Even my BARF friends would say no way

:P

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

35. That burger would violate health codes in almost the entire US

Medium - medium well (no pink) is the existing code almost everywhere to avoid e-coli.

There was a heartbreaking thread around here a few weeks ago about a woman who lost her legs due to an e-coli infection - I think it was called "The Burger that Changed Her Life". I read last week that Elton John was suffering from an e-coli infection.

An IDIOT food reviewer in our local paper used to routinely complain about her burgers not being sufficiently rare to her satisfaction - I saw Letters to the Editor that called her out on it, but she persisted for years!

[susanr516]

36. I love rare steak

and I used to enjoy medium rare burgers. Unfortunately, it's dangerous to eat ground beef unless it's cooked medium well.

[Wapsie B]

37. Moo? Hell, I can still smell the manure on that burger.

[snailly]

38. Vomit!

[Odin2005]

39. EWW! I can still hear it moo!

:puke:

[Mojambo]

40. Extremely undercooked.

I wouldn't eat that if you paid me.

[SeattleGirl]

41. Jeebus, what did they do? Past it over the burner once and then

throw in on a bun? :puke:

[Lyric]

42. Unless I've slaughtered the cow myself and ground the beef from whole meat

by hand, there's no way I'd eat ground beef that rare. I like my kidneys and I'd like to have them for a while longer, thanks anyway.

[Kali]

43. didn't even get hot enough to melt the cheese

blech

I have a good immune system, just don't care for burgers that are still cold inside.

[Tommy_J]

44. Yuck.

I love a good burger as much as anyone but that's disgusting

[Oldtimeralso]

45. I know a good vet that can get that steer up and around in a few days. n/t

[XemaSab]

49. Have you seen what the vet charges these days?

Might be cheaper to get a new one. ;)

[The Midway Rebel]

46. It got close enough to 165 degrees...

for me to eat. But ONLY if it came from Westport Fleamarket. KC is known for quality beef!

[ZombieHorde]

50. I eat raw meat often, but I like my burgers cooked more than the one in the OP. nt

[shanti]

51. oh yummy

e coli on a bun...:eyes: that said, as a child, i used to grab pieces of raw hamburger to eat while mom was cooking with it. it was good too :) that was over 40 years ago tho, nope, wouldn't do it now.