Is It Better to Undercook or Overcook a Steak?

Feeling a bit anxious about grilling steaks for your friends and hitting that perfect level of doneness they want? Wondering whether it’s better to slightly undercook or overcook them to well done? Did it ever cross your mind that what your guests think they like for steak doneness might not really align with what they enjoy eating?

Let’s dive into some fascinating research that’s all about steak, specifically how its appearance influences our enjoyment more than we might realize. Scientists conducted an experiment where they played with lighting to trick the eyes of steak eaters, making it hard to judge how well-done the steaks really were. This clever setup helped uncover whether our eyes could be leading our taste buds astray, and whether there’s a sweet spot in steak doneness that pleases most palates. It’s a juicy piece of research that might just change the way you think about cooking your next steak.

Research to Study Perception of Doneness

Initially, the study kicked off by asking consumers about their favorite way to enjoy steak – rare, medium-rare, medium, medium-well, or well-done.

Then, it got interesting: participants tasted steaks cooked to all these levels under two lighting conditions. First, under red light, which cleverly masked the steak’s true color, making it hard to tell how cooked it was just by looking. Then, under normal white light.

Surprisingly, the change in lighting didn’t significantly alter their opinions on the steak. However, this experiment did shine a light on an important insight: it pinpointed exactly how consumers like their steaks despite their stated preferences.

In general, they found that when steaks were UNDERCOOKED, consumers scored the steak more favorably in tenderness, flavour, juiciness and overall liking. And conversely, when steaks were OVERCOOKED, consumers scored them less favourably.

Interestingly, even those who usually favour well-done steaks found themselves giving higher scores for likability, tenderness, and overall acceptability to steaks cooked to medium and medium-rare.

The study also revealed that the perceived quality of steak improved as the level of doneness decreased, with steaks cooked to medium-rare and rare being regarded as the highest quality.

All of these findings are also in line with previous research that as final temperature increased, beef steaks become:

• Tougher Cover et al., 1962; Parrish et al., 1973
• Less Juicy Lucherk et al., 2016; McKillip et al., 2017
• And the overall likability decreases Lorenzen et al., 1999; Drey et al., 2019

What This Means for Home Cooks:

• Know Your Guests’ Preferences: When hosting a barbecue or cooking for others, inquire about their steak doneness preferences. Aim to cook slightly under their preferred level, as it’s easier to further cook a steak than to reverse overcooking. There’s a lot of people scouring the internet for how to tenderize an overcooked steak – you don’t want to be one of them!
• Use a Meat Thermometer: To accurately gauge the doneness of your steaks, invest in a reliable meat thermometer. This tool can help you achieve the perfect doneness for every preference, reducing the guesswork and enhancing your cooking precision.
• Let It Rest: Allow your steaks to rest after cooking. This allows the internal temperature to continue rising, gently finishing the cooking process.