Corduroy Orange

I have an odd random question for you. My dad was from Pittsburgh, and he always wanted his steak “Pittsburghed” (meaning it was pink/red in the center but blackened on the outside). Is this a real thing, or is it just something my dad made up? I never thought to ask while he was alive, but my husband and I were talking about him the other night which made me think of this.

–Courtney 

Courtney:

Pittsburgh rare is indeed an actual way of serving a steak: burnt on the outside, raw in the center.  In recent years, some people have taken to asking for their steaks ‘Pittsburgh medium’ or even, I recall, ‘Pittsburgh well’ (overcook it and then burn it to a crisp, please!).

The story behind this phenomenon dates back to the steel mills where, as I understand it, workers would often take raw steaks with them for their lunches and then slap them on the mill’s furnace to cook them.  Problem is, the furnaces were so hot (they were designed to melt steel, after all) that the outside of the steak would singe before the inside even cooked.

Funny thing about food is how you can develop a taste for something (I think of the story Larry Lagatutta [Enrico Biscotti's owner/ head baker] tells about the old Italian woman who would go into the bakery asking if they had any burnt bread because it was what she ate as a child and she really enjoyed it).  Stranger still is how you can pass that taste along.  The end result is that while not exactly a popular way to eat steak, restaurants will have occasional requests even from people who never set foot in a steel mill to serve their steaks Pittsburgh Rare.

Do you have a question about the world of food?  Email me and I’ll do my best to provide an answer.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 14th, 2008 at 8:38 am and is filed under Advice Column, Pittsburgh. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.