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My wife and I typically eat our steaks on the rarer side of medium rare. However, since she is pregnant she's not supposed to eat steak cooked to a temperature under 160 degrees. Is there a way to cook a steak well done while keeping it tender and juicy?

UPDATE: For anyone curious, we ended up going with a combination of sous vide skirt steak (in a homemade Styrofoam cooler), and home-ground burgers with extra fat added to the mix in the form of trimmings from the butcher, and strips of bacon. It definitely did the trick, but I'm glad we're back to medium-rare again. We ate a whole bunch of Omaha steaks that I had been saving after our daughter was born. The baby won't have an opinion on her red meat preferences for some time.

cad
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    I have a whole new respect for the suffering women go through to give birth. Maybe dish up big, thick burgers until the child is born, then have a medium rare steak to celebrate, afterwards. – PoloHoleSet May 03 '17 at 21:21
  • @PoloHoleSet You cook your burgers well done? – Catija May 03 '17 at 22:02
  • The list of banned food is indeed long. Funny you mention burgers, that's exactly what we've been doing so far. I've managed to make a well done burger taste good by adding more fat trimmings and a couple strips of thick bacon to the grind. – cad May 04 '17 at 02:57
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    @Catija - I don't, generally, but you can cook a burger much closer to well without completely killing all the flavor, especially if it's covered with cheese and an assortment of toppings or condiments (I don't do ketchup, mustard or relish, either, actually). It doesn't seem as much a crime against the gods as cooking a steak to well-done. Just make sure the fat content of the ground beef is a little bit on the high side? – PoloHoleSet May 04 '17 at 15:23
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    Are pregnant women really not supposed to eat medium rare steaks? I don't recall that in the recommendations. Sous-vide is a great idea. Also remember that safety in food when cooking is a relationship between time and temperature. So bacteria in a medium steak dies after about 12 minutes at that temperature: http://cookingissues.com/primers/sous-vide/purdy-pictures-the-charts/ – Behacad Jul 20 '18 at 16:34

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sous vide is an excellent technique to use, for your situation. You can cook any number of foods to your desired doneness while also pasteurizing the product. So, you can have your cake and eat it too, so to speak. With sous vide there is no problem with a rare steak, because you can pasteurize. Remember, pasteurization is not simply a result of temperature...but, temperature + time. For example, with sous vide, you can cook a raw egg at 57C (134.6 F) for two hours...it will appear raw and behave as raw, but will be pasteurized and safe to eat. Why give up steak the way you like it?

moscafj
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    You might point out that 160F is the recommended temperature because it is near instant death for pretty much everything. It is the safe recommendation for people who don't know how to cook. At 130F it takes a while to kill everything but it will be just as dead. – Sobachatina May 03 '17 at 20:41
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Sear the steak in an oven-proof pan, then move the pan to a low temperature (120C) oven to finish. A food thermometer will let you know when to take it out.

Robert
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    I'm surprised no one voted up, but for those without sous vide equipment, or the finances to buy one, this is the way to go. (Sear all sides, then finish at low heat (low oven or cool side of a grill)) – Joe Jul 20 '18 at 15:41
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This will come across as sacrilege to some: One way would be to brine the meat in the fridge for half to one day before cooking. You probably need to experiment a bit with brine concentration, say somewhere between 0.25% and 1% weight of salt to weight of water water. Weigh the meat, use the same weight of water, add the salt. Wash and dry the meat afterwards before cooking.

Salt intake might be something to watch out for though.

Alternatively, sous vide the steak at your desired temperature. If you need to be careful about food safety, sear the meat on all sides for 30 seconds before bagging it for sous vide.

user110084
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  • I'd argue that if you cooked it medium rare like she normally eats it in a sous vide for 2 hours that it would be fine. Get a sous vide, it will change your life! – haakon.io May 03 '17 at 18:15
  • Actually, most microbial contamination happens on the surface of the meat first. (Why ground meat needs thorough cooking with all the countless tiny surfaces) So for as long as the surface is cooked at a high enough temperature, whether the inside is under-cooked and below pasteurization or not, it is probably still ok. However, parasites and their cysts are typically inside the meat and the kind of medium/medium rare temperatures are probably too low to destroy them regardless of how long you expose them to such temperatures. – user110084 May 03 '17 at 18:21
  • I'd be curious to know what parasite can survive 2 hours at 140 degrees. :-S – haakon.io May 03 '17 at 18:30
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    Toxoplasma Gondii comes to mind to begin with. Other non-parasite pathogens such as fungal spores like botulinum can survive at boiling point of water. – user110084 May 03 '17 at 18:44
  • I learn something new everyday! – haakon.io May 03 '17 at 18:49
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    It maybe sacrilege, but it's either find a way to make well-done steak taste good, or no steak until the baby comes.

    Brining is a great idea. Do you think there's any reason a wet brine would be preferable to a dry brine in this case?

    And a sous vide is definitely on my "someday list".

     – cad May 03 '17 at 19:02
  • What I described is equilibrium brining which takes much less salt. Also, dry brining will most definitely draw out moisture from the meat and make it dry, a bit like curing. If you play around with brine concentrations, you will find a level that no one could tell the meat had seen any salt. As for sous vide, it is very easily doable without a machine. Use an eskie/icebox for the water bath, get a thermometer. It just takes more effort to monitor the water temperature frequently. Pour hot water in to maintain temperature. – user110084 May 03 '17 at 19:17
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    You usually sear after sous vide - are you saying that's not enough? – Cascabel May 03 '17 at 20:27
  • Botulinum is not a fungus it is a bacterium. Regardless of the spores' survival, the bacterium can only reproduce and create toxins in an oxygen-free environment, ie. not on a steak. Both botulinum and Toxoplasma Gondii cysts are destroyed in 140F for two hours. – Sobachatina May 03 '17 at 20:39
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    @Jefromi searing before and after provides the best result for crust formation. Searing before is sometimes helpful on long, low temperature cooks, to kill off any surface bacteria that might be present, which might multiply and fill the bag with gas during a cook. I usually do this with oxtail or short ribs, for example. – moscafj May 03 '17 at 21:36
  • I was wrong on botulinum. Yes, baterium rather than fungus. And oxgen free condition is indeed needed to create toxin. Well above 145F and heading towards 160F would be safer with Toxoplasma. – user110084 May 04 '17 at 05:55
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My wife likes her steak well done, I like mine medium to medium rare. I bbq her steak as I would bbq mine then wrap it in tin foil and put it on the rack while I cook mine. Hers is well done and not dry.

Mike
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    "Wet heat" does not prevent meat from drying out when overcooked. It's not evaporation that causes the dryness, but the contracting muscle fibers. It sounds like your wife is happy with what she's getting, but I'll bet you'd find it dry. – Sneftel Jun 27 '22 at 09:30