Originally published at: Toronto diner gives a man his burger — accompanied with a waiver
…
2 Likes
I still maintain that the only people who like their meat cooked well done are people who don’t actually enjoy the flavor of meat.
15 Likes
11 Likes
This.
I have always subscribed to a description my friend had for doneness.
Rare: Scare the cow to death with a candle.
Medium: Light the candle first.
8 Likes
No steak tartar or carpaccios, I presume…
5 Likes
I was always a medium-rare guy until once I ordered a medium-rare steak and it came back quite obviously very rare. I’ve been a convert ever since.
5 Likes
6 Likes
… AIUI the rationale for undercooking a steak is that there is no way for pathogens to get into the center of the meat where they could survive
Ground beef is a completely different substance from the point of view of a rambling bacterium 
22 Likes
Not if you grind it on-site right before cooking.
1 Like
They brought him the waiver after they brought him the burger and he’d already taken a bite? I would not have signed that waiver. What would they do? Take the food back? You’re not under any obligation to sign something like that. Why do people sign shit like that?
21 Likes
Those are totally fine in Canada, but ground is required to be cooked to well done.
Many Canadian places that sell burgers bring in their ground beef pre ground so it can easily be contaminated with E.Coli.
Steak Tartar is usually house ground or knife cut (the superior one IMHO) from larger cuts. I will happily eat carpaccio or tartar at a nice place, but I’m very cautious around ground beef.
8 Likes
“As rare as you can legally make it,” is typically my order. That being said, if they make you sign a waiver for a medium burger, that tells me a lot about how much confidence they have in the skills of their cooks, and that would definitely inform my decision whether or not to dine there!
6 Likes
Most places in the US just have a disclaimer at the bottom of the menu. A separate waiver is someone covering his ass. Maybe the place was recently targeted by a customer claiming they got food poisoning. And yes, I know this place is in Canada, and I don’t know Canadian legal requirements for this kind of stuff.
4 Likes
Do they at least play “Corporate Deathburger” for you while you review the waiver?
4 Likes
There is also Ethiopian kitfo, which I’ve always assumed (hoped?) is made properly but I still usually request it just slightly cooked. I’ve also been asked if I wanted it lightly cooked before I asked, so I must not be the only gringo weirded out by raw ground beef. They never seem offended.
Carpaccio I always assumed was “cooked” by the lemon (like ceviche).
4 Likes
I have worked as a cook in Canada and rare burgers are not done here. No idea when that became the norm, but E. Coli is generally the reason.
Steaks on the other hand, rare all day long. Seared and salted.
The waiver seems like a strange twist, usually the cooks just refuse to cook a rare burger.
9 Likes
This American tourist sounds like exactly the sort of person the waiver was created for: if he complains this loudly about the waiver and refused to eat the burger, what sort of litigation would he have gotten up to if he’d eaten a waiver-free undercooked burger and subsequently suffered any sort of food-borne illness?
7 Likes
There’s your problem!
3 Likes
Maybe, but then warn him when he orders the burger and make him sign the waiver then. Giving him the waiver and asking him to sign it after he’d already taken a bite arguably makes that waiver ineffective, legally. I’m not sure I would have finished the burger, either, after they pulled that nonsense. You can’t warn people after the fact.
14 Likes
Sorry, hit wrong button.
1 Like
