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APittsburgh rare steak is one that has been heated to a very high temperature very quickly, so it is charred on the outside but still rare or raw on the inside. The degree of rareness and the amount of charring on the outside may vary according to taste. The term "Pittsburgh rare" is used in some parts of the American Midwest and Eastern Seaboard, but similar methods of sear cooking are known by different terms elsewhere, including Blue Steak, Chicago-style rare and, in Pittsburgh itself, Pittsburgh Rare.[1][2][3]
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There are several possible explanations for the origin of term:
It has been said that the "original" method of preparation was by searing the meat with a welding torch. Whether this is true or not is unknown. Another method, related by a staff member at a Pittsburgh branch of Ruth's Chris Steak House, originates from the region's steel mills and the practice of workers cooking a steak on a cooling piece of steel. The temperature of the steel would be such that it would be impossible to do more than char the outside of the steak while keeping anything worth eating. One popular version of this myth is that steel workers would bring raw steaks to work and, on their lunch break, throw them against the huge searing-hot molten steel "tubs". The steak would burn almost immediately and then fall off, after which they would put the other side of the steak up against the tub to finish it. Whether any of these origins are genuine or just a play on Pittsburgh's industrial image is debatable.
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Many restaurant guests use the term Pittsburgh to describe a steak that is extra charred on the outside, no matter what internal temperature is desired.
There is a restaurant chain in the Minneapolis area called Pittsburgh Blue. It is a steakhouse based on this type of cooking. The explanation given in the menu revolves around steelworkers cooking steaks on hot iron. Instead of calling this Pittsburgh rare (at least in Minneapolis), they call it Pittsburgh Blue or black and blue. Black refers to the char and blue refers to the rare interior of the steak.
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