Steak

Yes, I do eat my steak well done. Yes, I know it’s dry and you have to chew it forever. But I like it! Stop pissing on someone’s head because their taste is different to yours. I went to a restaurant (and expensive one btw) and after sending the steak back twice, the chef told me I had to order something else..like? Can’t I just enjoy my steak the way I like it? I’ve been too embarrassed to order steak at a restaurant after that because of how I was treated. Every family event I have to sit through a full 30+ minutes of people telling me how uneducated I am. (Sorry for the long rant)

So I'm a head chef, in a place that specialises in steaks. A group of maybe 5 fellas all order pretty expensive steaks. All steaks go out and shortly after a waiter comes back asking for a new one because it was over-done. I say yes but she need to take the wrong steak from them before I do anything.

She comes toddling back in and says "they won't let me bring the steak back, because his mate said he'll eat it if it's just going to go in the bin". So I tell her to let them know no replacement will be coming out, if I don't get the whole steak back (minus what the initial customer had eaten trying it).

She comes back saying they're kicking off and generally being dicks. So I go out and tell them exactly what she had just told them... then I see all steaks have been eaten, even the one that was meant to come back. So I say "if you want a new steak, you'll have to pay for it".

Lots of shouting and a big game of "my dicks bigger than yours" later, all 5 men walk out (luckily the bill is paid when you order rather than after). AITA?

Don’t get me wrong, steak is really good. But lamb has this really odd after taste that I just can’t wrap myself around. And I love it. Beef is overrated and lamb is more of a luxury I find.

Edit: beef in general. In my opinion anyway. I also meant mutton.

Edit no2 : I meant the adult sheep. Not the lamb.

I am 15 years old and my parents still treat me like a baby. They still have baby sitters for us when they're gone for more than a day, they cut my steak into tiny pieces, they insist I use training wheels on my bike among other shit. (I allways take them off when they're gone, and they get pissed when they find out I'm not using them).

Well I told my parents I'm done with it and they said that they're the parents and know best. I invited my girlfriend over and my mom came over and started cutting my steak and I told her to stop, she kept trying to do it, and I told her to stop and I got htis. My girlfriend was looking and it was so awkward. She kept trying to do it and the plate spilled when I tried to push her hand awya and the plate broke. She's pissed at me, and this turns into a massive shouting match between all of us. I'm pissed and I just leave with my girlfreind, they're telling me I need to ocme back or I'm in massive trouble. I said "whatever fuck off leave me alone" and I left.

They spammed me with calls and texts, ugh. I came back the next day and now I'm grounded for the next week.

So today I visited my granny with my brother, and because she is disabled I decided to prepare dinner. My granny has bad teeth so she'd like something soft, so after consulting the butcher I decided tenderloin (first time cooking it for me). Because of covid, I prepared everything else in advance. I made a really nice red wine sauce, oven potatoes and fried green beans. When the time came to fry the steak I was sweating like a pig. I had to handle 3 steaks of 13 dollars each, as well as worrying on not to break my granny's brittle teeth on an overdone steak. But as the title says, I freaking nailed it! It was a perfect medium rare, my granny couldn't stop talking about it (whereas she usually loves complaining about everything), and I couldn't be more proud. I just got home and because my roommates are both passionate vegetarians, I decided not to share with them. But here it is, Reddit. I'm not being humble today!

So,

I took a massive dose of mushrooms a few days ago and while petting my cat was enlightened to how awful the meat and dairy industry is. I started researching about how bad animal products are for your body. It BLEW MY FUCKING MIND. I watched Cowspiracy and What The Health and I am 100% converted. I have zero inclination to ever eat meat again. I am currently living with my mother as well and even convinced her about how bad it is. She watched what the health and immediately got rid of every animal product in her kitchen that she could find. We donated the unused animal products to my brother because I didn't want them to die for nothing... Dont really know what the right option was there but the deed is done.

I went and spent 200 bucks on strictly vegan stuff. I had an idea of what to get as one of my ex girlfriends was a vegan, I just kept searching online at the store when I wasn't sure.

I know in deep in my soul that this how its supposed to be, we are not in a place in our first world life styles where animal products are necessary in any way. We have evolved passed that.

And the push back I have gotten from the couple of people I have told and a discord group are INSANE. Like, people really think you are doing the wrong thing by becoming vegan? I never had an opinion on it before but I never felt the need to tell someone how dumb it was to be one. Like, these people don't care about my health until I want to do I diet that they wouldn't do. So annoying. I wanted to throw a chair.

Any tips to help me out? how do we deal with haters? How do I navigate the "Oh I can't wait to eat some cow later" from the people I work with. What can I expect as far as trials that come with this decision?

I have just been binging all night on animal free products, not gonna lie, I am a bit stressed about it.

EDIT: Wow, what an overwhelming amount of responses to this! Did not expect so much love and support. Thank you all so very much for the advice and direction. I know this is the right way to live and I will keep this post close if or when this change gets too hard. Thank you again.

I'd qualify myself as a decent cook; it's one of my favorite hobbies, but I'm nowhere near the level of anything that would be considered remotely professional. That's why I was so happy with the way this steak turned out.

I've had my fair share of "nice steaks" from good restaurants, but I don't eat a ton of steaks anymore (maybe once every other month or so). However, at my local grocery store yesterday, they had a special going on that was $13.99 for a bone-in ribeye. I thought it was too good to pass up, so I got one that was about 1.3 pounds.

Got home and immediately sprinkled with kosher salt and then set on a wire rack in the fridge to dry brine for around 3-4 hours. 45 minutes before cooking, I took the steak out to bring up to room temperature. I ground some pepper and seasoned all over (like I had done previously with the salt).

I set my oven to 270F. On a baking sheet, I crushed about 7-8 cloves of garlic and spread them out about the size of the steak, then covered with thyme sprigs and drizzled olive oil over it. I rested the steak on this garlic/herb bed to put in the oven (instead of on a wire rack) and cooked until the center was about 115F.

I decided to do a reverse sear, so I got a cast iron real hot. This is where the real game changer happened. I cooked a whole duck for Thanksgiving this year, so I saved a lot of the rendered duck fat. After taking the steak out of the oven, I seared both sides in the duck fat for about 45 seconds each to form a nice crust and bring the temp up to 130ish for med rare.

And that's how I made the best steak I've ever had in my entire life.

(I made a twice baked potato as my side and before baking the second time, mixed the potato in a bowl with sour cream, duck fat, salt, pepper, and rosemary)

Thanks for reading lol.

Let me preface this by saying my boyfriend (33M) fully admits that he wants to like veggies but that he never got used to eating them growing up (mom didn't/doesn't cook, let him be picky when he was little, always fast food, etc) and it's mainly a texture thing for him. I wanted to make him a nice steak dinner but I can't stand just steak and mashed potatoes so I told him I wanted to add veggies as a side. Specifically, I told him it would be "zucchini, spinach, green beans, shallots, and mushrooms", to which he replied "that sounds like a bunch of stuff I don't like." CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

I did a pretty basic steak (salt/pepper/garlic, medium rare, seared on a buttered pan) and focused on the veggies. Since it's primarily a texture thing (he doesn't like the crunch or pop of veggies) I peeled the zucchini when I otherwise would have left the peel. I also used canned sliced mushrooms (which I also chopped) because they tend to be softer than dry packaged. I chopped the spinach and minced the shallot.

Recipe for one saute-pan-full

I prepped 1 shallot (minced), 1 green zucchini (peeled and diced), and 1 cup green beans (chopped into 1inch pieces) in enough olive oil to coat and sauteed them in the same pan I did the steak (crust/fat/etc and all) until medium tender and then threw in the one small jar of chopped mushrooms (strained) and ~1/2 cup chopped spinach. I seasoned with salt and at the very end, garlic powder and black pepper to taste, but depending on the amount of flavor you get from the steak pan leavings, this will be more/less necessary.

I admit I did over-cook them specifically because of his apprehension to the texture but I figured the green beans and shallots are always a good introduction to "crunchy" cooked veggies. He ended up having one-and-a-half extra servings of veggies with a ~6oz steak. Not gonna lie, him saying "the only reason I'm willing to try new things is that you know how to make things I don't like, in a way that I will love" made my day.

When we moved in together and I first started cooking for him, he would literally gag and spit out any vegetable that wasn't french fries or didn't texturally resemble baby food. Now he eats broccoli, corn, zucchini, green beans, peas, diced tomatoes, spinach, and sometimes, caramelized onion. My ultimate goal is to have him eat cold lettuce, but I try not to get ahead of myself lol happy cooking!