How to Say I Want My Beef Medium in French

Practise you know your steak degree of doneness levels in French? From rare steak and well done steak to seared ahi tuna steak, here'southward a quick guide to assist you order diverse types of meats the way you lot like them in France.

How to order a steak in France cooked the way you like it!

In English, in that location's a standard calibration of five different temperatures or levels of doneness for cooking steak (and sometimes other meats) that chefs and steak eaters use.

The 5 degrees of doneness in English are:
Rare
Medium Rare
Medium
Medium Well
Well Done

The doneness level indicates how thoroughly meat is cooked, which corresponds directly with the core temperature of the meat, the colour, taste and texture. The longer you melt a piece of meat, the warmer the core temperature.

For example, a well-washed steak is thoroughly cooked with no pink or ruby-red and has an interior temperature of at least 158F or 70C.

No matter how streamlined this scale has get, cooking meat to your desired level of doneness isn't an exact science.

In a decorated kitchen, chefs aren't continuing over their stoves with a meat thermometer or colour chart to ensure your steak is cooked at the exact temperature that falls somewhere on the scale of doneness. It's mainly done past fourth dimension, colour and sometimes by affect.

There are also differences in how to define the caste of doneness of a cooked piece of meat which tin can vary past person and by state. Rare in one country, for case, might be considered medium-rare in another country.

Steak doneness levels (steak temperatures in french)

In French republic, eating steaks or any meat where you tin can lodge how much or little information technology's been cooked is similar to English language but there are differences.

Instead of 5 levels of doneness, there are four steak cooking levels in french (levels of doneness that French chefs and steak eaters prefer. One of which is even more rare than a rare steak. Also, the terms medium, medium rare and medium well don't fit very well into a traditional French restaurant'south vocabulary.

The 4 steak cooking levels in French and their English equivalents are:

Steak doneness level in French	Literal pregnant in French	English Equivalent of steak doneness
Bleu	Blue	Blue rare steak
Saignant	Bloody	Rare
À Point	On Betoken / Just right	Medium Rare
Bien Cuit	Well cooked	Well Done

Below is an in-depth explanation of each French cooking level term. Read to the very finish to learn other cooking level terms in French which you might come up across on a French restaurant bill of fare in France.

Actress RARE MEAT IN FRENCH:
"Bleu" (literally means blue)

/Bluh/

Ask for your steak to be cooked "bleu" ( French for blue) in France, and you'll get an extra claret rare steak, ane pace above steak sashimi.

Although in English, there is a term for this level of doneness, it's called "blue rare steak," information technology's not as common in the The states or the Britain every bit it is in France.

Another mode to describe blue rare steak is "à peine saisi" /Ah-pen-sayzi/ which roughly translates to "barely cooked." Y'all can also apply this term if you want your ahi tuna seared rare but you lot would never ask for your ahi tuna cooked bleu.

Why practice people like blue rare steak?"

 Lean cuts of meat lack fat, which contributes to their reputation for beingness tough and dry out the longer it'south cooked. The more you cook meat, the more moisture is purged. Muscle fibres also contract, making the meat firmer as it cooks.

In other words, people like to lodge blueish rare steak, low in fat, considering it stays tender and retains more of its moister and flavour.

Bleu rare steak cooking time & core temperature:

Rare bluish steak is seared for about 20 to thirty seconds on each side in a very hot skillet over high heat. Thicker meats might need to be cooked longer. Either way, the inside remains cool and substantially raw with a core temperature that does NOT go above l°C, about 113F.

Is it prophylactic to eat extra rare blue steak?

Some countries don't recommend eating rare or raw meat because information technology may contain pathogens. Simply near of the pathogens or parasites don't penetrate dense meat. And then in one case the outside is cooked, a very rare steak should be perfectly safe to swallow. Use your all-time judgement.

Some other aspect of eating pathogen-costless meat, rare or raw, is to eat meat from beefiness that's been mainly grass-fed. Cows have evolved to digest the nutrients in grass, but that'south not true for grain-fed cows. A generally grass-fed cow that'southward spent its life in pastures volition have a healthier allowed system and pose little threat to people who like eating rare or raw meat.

French consumers consider meat with hormones unhealthy and possibly dangerous, which is one of the reasons giving hormones to animals for meat production is outlawed in France. French republic does not import US meat that's been fed hormones.

Why is an extra rare steak called bleu (blue)?

Some online sources said a very rare steak is called blue considering the meat has a slightly bluish tint.

All the same, according to the Larousse Gastonomique, an encyclopedia mainly about French gastronomy, "cooking au bleu" was originally a method of cooking Freshwater fish, especially trout.

This most forgotten method of cooking trout au bleu got its name from the scales, which plow a blueish colour when they come up in contact with vinegar, i of the ingredients for the recipe. Somehow, this cooking term became tied to a very rare blue steak. Are the two terms related? I have no idea?

RARE MEAT IN FRENCH:
Saignant (literally means bloody)

/Sayn-yanh/

A rare steak in French is steak "saignant" which literally means bloody steak. A steak saignant is cooked slightly longer than a rare blue steak, but it'due south all the same relatively rare. 75% of the interior is red with a sparse charred crust, and the mankind is still tender and juicy.

It's fairly common to lodge steaks and hamburgers with low-fat content rare (saignant). Magret de canard, which besides has depression-fatty content, is commonly ordered saignant or medium rare too. run across next section for medium rare in French.

Magret de canard is the duck breast from a Moulard duck raised for its liver (foie gras.)

Saignant cooking time:

Depending on the thickness of the meat, the outside should be seared for about 60 seconds to 1 minute and 30 seconds on each side in a very hot skillet over loftier rut. The core temperature should achieve about 50 to 55 °C   (122° to 131°F)

MEDIUM RARE MEAT IN FRENCH:
Á point (literally on betoken or just right)

/Ahh-pwoinh/

If yous would like to gild a medium rare steak, yous'll need to ask for a steak "à apoint."

 "Cuit àbespeak" ways "cooked only right", as in perfect and figures somewhere between medium-rare to slightly less than medium. The interior is not fully cooked and has a slightly pinkish interior or rosé colour.

Á point cooking time & core temperature:

Steak is usually seared over high oestrus, then the temperature is lowered and cooked for a total of about 1 minute thirty seconds per side. The cadre temperature does not go higher up lx°C, about 140F.

WELL DONE MEAT IN FRENCH:
Bien Cuit (literally well cooked)

/bee-yen Kwee/

If you lot desire to social club a well-done steak in French, you'll need to say "bien cuit," literally well cooked.

Bien cuit or well done is probably the least popular fashion for steak eaters to order their meat in France. The interior is fully cooked with no pink visible.

Y'all'll ofttimes hear French people complain that the well-done meat is as well tough, likewise dry and that information technology'south lost all its favour.

Sometimes cooks and steak lovers compare this level of doneness to the sole of a shoe.

• Cuisson de la semelle (cooked like a shoe sole)
• Façon semelle (Shoe sole way)

These terms idiomatically mean to melt your meat until it becomes like shoe leather.

Bien cuit cooking fourth dimension & core temperature:

Depending on the thickness of the meat, each side is cooked for several minutes until throughout cooked through. The cadre temperature is 70c (160 F) or more than.

Don't ever ask for your steak "bien fait"

Although "bien fait" means "well washed" in French, information technology'due south non a term used to describe cooking. Some other little caveat most "bien fait" in French is it'due south a term that's usued mainly in a sarcastic way like "well done genius". Yous can as well apply "bien fait" to describe someone who is well congenital like a adept looking guy who is well built you might say "il est bien fait".

Other cooking terms

In addition to bleu, saignant, à bespeak and bien cuit, there are other French cooking terms used to draw different cooking levels in french or levels of doneness. Here are a few that you may come up across on a French bill of fare in France.

Mi-cuit

/mee-kwee/

If yous see the term "mi-cuit", which literally means "half-cooked" or "semi-cooked, it's usually a term used to describe the level of doneness for seared ahi tuna, aka tataki tuna.

For seared ahi tuna, information technology figures somewhere on the doneness scale between rare and medium-rare depending on the melt.

Mi-cuit can also be used to depict the cooking level for foie gras.

But we're not done yet. Mi-cuit is as well a baking term for cakes cooked with a soft gooey center. For example, a molten chocolate cake is called mi-cuit au chocolate.

Poêlé

The french discussion for pan, as in frying pan, is une poêle /pwell/.

If you come across poêlé(east) on a French menu, it means that something has been pan-fried. Technically, anything cooked in a pan is poêlé, and yous'll unremarkably run into this give-and-take as function of the directions in a recipe that requires pan frying.

Sometimes dish names include the word pan fried poêlé(e) to depict the dish. For instance, a pop dish in France, especially during the vacation season, is foie gras poêlé which is basically a thick piece of pan-seared foie gras seasoned with table salt and pepper.

Steak Tartare

Steak tartare is raw minced beef seasoned with different spices and ingredients such equally capers, onions, gherkins and usually contains raw egg yolk. It's oft served with toast and a green salad in France. Although it originally referred only to ground beefiness and ground horse meat, you lot tin now lodge a diversity of meats à la tartare, including fish tartare such as salmon and tuna.

If you're wondering what the word "tartare" means, it doesn't have a clear origin.

Some sources say steak tartare beginning appeared in France around the 20th century in Grand hotels, simply it was called "Beefsteack a fifty'Americaine" or "steak à fifty'Americaine." No one knows for sure why it was called "Americaine" although some people seem to think it was created in the US effectually 1889. I'thou not so sure about that.

Around the time this dish get-go showed upwardly in Paris, tarter sauce had already been invented. Sometimes steak a fifty'Americaine was served with a side of tarter sauce. At the time, anything served with tarter sauce was called "à la tartare." Alexandre Dumas even mentioned "goat à la tartare" in 1846 in his book "The Count of Monte Cristo." And in 1850, Honoré de Balzac also mentions "Eel à la tartare?"

Over time, the version of "steak à fifty'Americaine" served with a side of tarter sauce was replaced by the shorter term steak tartare. Ironically, steak tartar is called filet américain in the French-speaking office of Belgium.

These days, steak tartare is never served with a tartar sauce that I know of.

Some other legend around steak tartar is that information technology was named after the nomadic Mongolians and Turks, collectively known as the "Tatar people," who ate raw meat.

Final Thoughts

Ordering a steak à point or a hamburger saignant in France doesn't take to be complicated. Just think, there are 4 bones ways to order how well done or rare yous would like your steak and magret de canard cooked in French republic.

Bleu, saignant, à indicate and bien cuit.

For ahi tuna, mi-cuit pretty much ways seared.

Instance dialogue for ordering a steak in France.

Hullo, I will have the steak and fries/crisps (bonjour, Je vais prendre le steak frites s'il vous plaît.)

1. Annotate voulez vous votre steak? (how would you like your steak cooked?)
2. à quelle cuisson? (which way would you lot like information technology cooked?).
3. comme cuisson? (cooking level/doneness?)

Bonne dégustation!

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