Cooking steak......safe or not?

Question

Is this safe.....or not safe?

I was cooking steaks in a pan for a few friends. I plate one for my friend Leo and drop it in front of him at the table. Approximately 10-15 minutes later he brings it back to me with a small slit in it saying that it was a little too pink and he wanted to throw it back on. Being that the steak had cooled for close to 15 minutes, is it safe to just put it back in the pan to cook more? And even if it was safe, won't putting it back in the pan make the meat real tough?

Answer 1

It's certainly safe. Cooling for 15 minutes is well within the typical 2 hour to refrigerate window, and then you're going to cook it more so anything on the surface is going to get killed.

It would only "get real tough" if you went from slightly underdone for the person eating to overcooking the heck out of it, rather than just cooking it to medium rare or medium rather than rare.

If the person eating it wants it well done, then they are presumably used to tough meat. There's a reason virtually every restaurant states "we are not responsble for steaks ordered well done" on their menu somewhere.