[Biff]

I have to weigh in on the meat "doneness" as it has also been a sore spot for me. It seems there are a great number of people with an ingrained and even generational lack of understanding when it comes to red meats. I, too, have been suffering with hordes of the "shoe leather" brigade where grey meat is the only acceptable standard. It seems to me that they operate under a misconception that pink is the same as red and, consequently, pink means rare. Likewise, for roasts, red juice is equivalent to bleeding therefore all redness is rawness.

In point of fact, beef goes from red to pink to gray. Only a well-done item will exhibit no color. Medium-well will be pink in the center with bands of gray on the outside. Medium will be pink throughout. Medium-rare will be red center with pink bands on the outside. Rare will be red throughout.

I am constantly dissappointed by the degree to which this is misunderstood and the quantity of meat which is over-cooked as a consequence. I am even more dissappointed with those who refuse to consider their own conditioned misconceptions in this regard.