I prefer rare to medium now. Before LCHF I preferred medium well.

I never even liked steak before this WOE. Now a medium rare filet is my favorite thing!

Bake it at 320 degrees. That's the safest way.

kirkor wrote: »

I think it's less a factor of low carb causing taste preference to change, but if you are eating steak with more frequency you're going to realize that less than medium is objectively better.

+1

I ate medium for decades, but I now choose medium rare. Hubby always chose medium well, but he prefers medium rare now too.

I sear the outside and the inside is generally still cool.

I've always preferred medium-rare. And as @daylitemag wrote, I too have become a much better cook at perfecting the best flavors and timing of everything. One thing that has changed is that I used to buy very lean cuts of meat, now I seek out steaks that you can see a lot fat and I never cut it off, so the meat cooks better and stays tender.

I grew up thinking the only way to eat steak was with Heinz 57 sauce because my dad cooked the very few (cheap) steaks we had well done. I (and my indoctrinated children) eat steaks rare to medium-rare. Medium is overdone.

I also cook burgers at home to medium for me.

mcpostelle wrote: »

Awesome feed back everyone! Honestly, I wish I was more willing to eat med-rare steaks just due to how much faster meal prep would be and juicy. I'm still hung up over the blood oozing out though. But hopefully I can get over that soon.

@kirkor I do believe this is the case. Not yet past medium though.

That's not blood. It's called myoglobin, a type of protein.

@mcpostelle sear your meat at a nice high temperature and be sure to let it rest for 5 minutes before cutting into it so the juices get a chance to soak back in evenly, you'll have less of the juices spilling all over your plate that way

I eat mine rare or medium rare whereas before I liked medium well. For me it was more about growing to like meat more. I was never a huge meat lover before so I would cook it to be less meat like: no gristle, no fat strips and no "blood". I seem to have moved passed that in the past year so rare and tender is better now.

Dragonwolf wrote: »

jesslintch wrote: »

I've always thought when it is done moo-ing it is done cooking.

Wait...you're supposed to wait until it's done mooing?

I have young children. The mooing disturbs them.

I've always liked my steak on the rare side. I guess I didn't eat a lot of raw meat before going low carb, but that was just a natural transition. At least, it felt like it was an obvious step. The one real change would be eggs. I've always liked my yolk just a little but runny, but the white and everything had to be cooked. I would rather have the egg be overcooked than undercooked. Well, low carb (paleo really) got me into making my own mayo and other eggs dishes that use raw eggs or raw yolks. At first, I stressed about finding pasteurized eggs and looked everywhere. I never found them. So, I resorted to the regular old store eggs. Things worked out fine. The more I looked into it, the more I realized that the risk was not nearly as dramatic as I had been led to believe. So, now I will eat raw eggs without a second thought. In particular, raw yolks (as the raw white is an anti-nutrient).

So, I have found myself eating raw ground steak (freshly ground at home) topped with a raw egg yolk and a little salt and pepper. That's something that would have never been part of my eating choices before low carb.

Edit: Just to be clear, there is a risk to consuming any raw or undercooked foods. I am comfortable with the level of risk. Is the risk higher with meat products? Potentially, although I like to point out that those who watch the food poisoning outbreaks might notice that vegetables are much more often the culprit than meat. On the third hand, vegetables are more likely to be served raw and meat isn't commonly served raw.