Food slang
At Thanksgiving dinner, in the midst of all that turkey, the conversation somehow turned to steak. One of my friends said that he had recently heard the term "Pittsburghed" for the first time, so when he went to Lewnes steak house in Annapolis he asked the waiter if he could have his steak that way and the waiter knew exactly what he meant: cooked over such high heat that the outside chars but the inside is very rare.
I thought the slang for that around here was "black and blue," but...
...I could be wrong. Is it a term Baltimoreans use? I've heard that asking for your steak "Pittsburghed" comes from steelworkers cooking theirs on a furnace or using a welding torch, but how likely is that?
It's funny that the only two food slang expressions I can think of at the moment (apart from dinerspeak like "sunny side up") have to do with steak.
The photo is of a Pittsburgh restaurant called Pittsburgh Rare.
Comments
I've seen Pittsburgh style on menus/specials around here, but I doubt too many people around here would use the term without any prompting.
Pittsburgh style is mentioned in the wikipedia article about steak...and if can’t go by what you see in wikipedia what can you go by?
Of course if you wanted the same Pittsburgh style, but you felt like being especially pretentious, you could also order the steak bleu with an emphasis on the French pronunciation.
Speaking of eggs, slang you will hear around here is dippy eggs, which can mean Sunnyside up or over easy...anything with a soft or runny yolk. I used to think that was just an east Baltimore thing, but I've heard it in Carroll County as well.
Posted by: Robert | November 23, 2007 9:55 AM
About "Pittsburghed" steak: The definition you heard is certain. My husband grew up in Pittsburgh. As the story goes, old-time Pittsburgh steelworkers would take a slab of uncooked flank steak to work with them every morning. When the lunch whistle blew, they would take out their portion, then throw it against the red-hot side of the molten iron urn. Using a screwdriver (or whatever tool was handy, they would quickly pry it off and flip it over. Served between two slabs of "dego" (as his Pittsburgh born-and-bred grandmother would say) bread, it would make a nice steak sandwhich. Growing up, my husband worked on construction crews who would get the same effect with a blowtorch. Mmmm-mmm good.
Posted by: Frequent Little Italy Restaurant Visitor | November 23, 2007 11:59 AM
The local slang for a steak is in fact "Pittsburged," or at least has been for my last 15+ years in the business. I would estimate that local requests for "Pittsburged" outnumber request for "Black and Blue" by about 100 to 1. Seriousy, people ask me for "Pittsburged" nearly every night. I only hear "B&B" once or twice a year.
Posted by: Through The Nose | November 24, 2007 10:16 AM
I worked at a restaurant in Little Italy that refused to serve black and blue steaks because of liability issues. Virtually raw steak, of course, isn't exactly the safest food to eat. I wasn't sure what made it worse than rare, but there you go.
Posted by: KB | November 26, 2007 11:15 AM