Cooking Temperatures Explained
Tips & Tricks: Cooking Temperatures Explained
Even in a high-end restaurant, a great grilled entrée can be ruined if the meat isn’t cooked to your liking. People are picky about how they take their meat and doing it right can make or break a meal. To be a really great griller at home, it’s important to become a master of cooking temperatures.
The Most Important Tool You Own
Although you can try to judge temperature by color, this has several problems – starting with the fact that you have to cut into the meat to see if it’s cooked correctly. Cutting a piece of meat and putting it back on the grill is basically like asking it to dry out – the juices and natural flavors are going to be at least partially lost.
To avoid this, you need the griller’s best friend – the all-important meat thermometer. Having a thermometer allows you to check internal temperature without drastically affecting it if you have to cook longer – just a few small holes on top, instead of a big cut. Not only can you ensure meat has reached its proper temperature to kill any harmful bacteria, you can also use it as a gauge for how the meat will be cooked as well.
When using a meat thermometer, always check more than one place on each piece of food. The center is important, but you also want to hit a point closer to each end, too. By testing three points instead of just one, you can be sure your meat is cooking evenly and that the ends aren’t getting overcooked as you get the center perfect.
The following is a list of the approximate internal temperatures you want to achieve with various products. For more information on cooking temperatures, you visit the USDA website and refer to their Food Safety Fact Sheet.
| FOOD TO BE COOKED | MEDIUM | WELL DONE OR FULLY COOKED |
| Beef / Lamb / Veal | 160ºF 71ºC | 170ºF 77ºC |
| Chicken Breast | 170ºF 77ºC | |
| Chicken Thigh | 180ºF 82ºC | |
| Fish | 145°F 63°C | |
| Pork | 160ºF 71ºC | |
| Reheated cooked meats and poultry | 165ºF 74ºC |
For rare meats (beef/lamb/veal), you’re aiming for an internal temperature between 145°F and 150°F (depending on how rare you like your rare). Of course, you want to be extremely careful, since your meat will be below the USDA minimum recommended temperature for safe cooking (by USDA standards, ALL meat should be cooked to at least medium). In addition, some medium-rare fish steaks may also be below the recommended minimum temperature, as well, so be cautious.
You’re taking a risk when cooking below the minimum recommendations, that you aren’t killing all of the bacteria present; this, of course, can cause a health risk. Some believe the risk is worth it for the taste, but always ensure when cooking below the recommended guidelines that you’re working with the best, freshest raw product possible.
The Color of Good Grilling
Once you have internal temperature at the right level, you can take the meat off the grill and feel more confident that it’s cooked correctly before it’s ever cut. For a quick reference, these are the colors you will see on correctly cooked meat:
Well Done: Consistently brown throughout
Medium-Well: Almost all pink will be gone, mostly brown
Medium: Center will be light pink, surrounded by brown
Medium-Rare: Center is definitively pink, only a small area of brown surrounding
Rare: Center is red, surrounded by pink
However you and your guests like their meat, knowing cooking temperatures and using them correctly can ensure you’re the best steakhouse in town to your friends and family.
