Cooking Meat for People With Very Different Tastes in Doneness

This is tricky. My friends from Poland has friends from the old country in last night so I volunteered to make something very American and of course chose the ribeye. (It was Independence Day!) Well it turns out that in Poland everybody eats their meat well done. I think well done on a perfectly good steak is somewhat of a crime but if that's what people want, that's what I'll do. I didn't want my steak like that, which is always a little tricky. This required some mental tap dancing to get right. So here's how I did it.

(1) Put on a good album. As I've been on a '70s jazz rock kick of late, this was legendary drummer Bill Bruford's "Feels Good to Me," which is filled with awesome performances by Bruford, Jeff Berlin (bass), Allan Holdsworth (guitar), Dave "Not the guy from Eurhythmics" Stewart (keyboards), Annette Peacock (vocals), and Kenny Wheeler (flugelhorn). I was going to need to stay in time....

(2) Let meat come to room temperature and preheat the oven to 425. (I was cooking some sweet potatoes, too, so they went in during the preheat.)

(3) Meanwhile, saute 8 oz crimini mushrooms, deglaze with a half cup of white wine and tarragon.

(4) Salt, pepper and oil the steaks as usual. Because I was feeling adventurous, I put onion and garlic powder on, too.

(5) Sear the ones that are to be well done and place in a pyrex dish in the oven with a half cup of white wine to prevent the meat from drying out and to generate more jus. Cook for 25 minutes (about---the wine gives you some leeway).

(At this point, the cast iron skillet was getting kind of nasty so I gave it a quick wash to get out the burned bits on the bottom. Be careful to avoid thermal shock, though.)

(6) Then sear the ones that are to be medium rare, i.e., cooked in a civilized manner, and let finish in the pan, or transfer to another pyrex dish and finish in the oven for 8 minutes or so (if you lack pan space).

(7) Remove all from the oven and allow to stand for 10 minutes. The wine and beef jus from the well done pan should be transfered in with the mushrooms.

(There was an added complication of a latecomer. I seared one steak but did not finish it so that it could simply be finished in a medium pan to the desired doneness.)

The only real compromise I see here is the use of the white wine in the baking of the well done steaks because you lose that nice crust that comes from pan searing. However, without it these things would be shoe leather. If you're careful about pouring the wine there will still be a crust on the top.