On Food and Cooking

when it’s completely relaxed, with little
or no colored juice (some colorless fat
may melt out).
Rare meat, some of whose protein has
coagulated, is more resilient when poked
with the finger — like the thumb-
forefinger muscle when the two digits are
stretched apart — and red juice begins to
appear at the surface. To some people
this is meat at its most succulent; to
others it is still raw, “bloody” (though
the juices are not blood), and potentially
hazardous.
Medium-done meat, whose connective-
tissue collagen has shrunk, is more firm
— like the thumb-forefinger muscle
when the two digits are squeezed
together — and squeezes droplets of red
juice to steak and chop surfaces, while
the interior pales to pink. Most but not
all microbes are killed in this range.
Well-done meat, nearly all its proteins