How to Tell When Your Beef is Done
When you buy a nice cut of beef, the last thing you want to do is end up with overcooked shoe leather or a bloody mess when you go to serve it. However, you can easily learn how to cook a beef steak or roast to the perfect temperature.
How to Take the Internal Temperature of Beef
All you need to cook your meat to the right temperature are a meat thermometer and an internal temperature chart like the one below. Make sure that you use a quality meat thermometer and that you’re getting the best reading possible. For roasts, insert the temperature down the length of the roast. For a steak, put the thermometer across the widest part of the steak. Then wait until the needle on the thermometer, which can take as long as 30 seconds.
How to Tell How Done Your Steak or Roast Is
Now, it’s important to remove the meat from the heat at the correct time for it to be rare, medium-rare, medium, medium-well or well done. The amount of time this will take can vary widely from grilling a thin steak over direct heat to barbecuing a roast low and low in a smoker. That’s why it’s important to use internal temperature to tell you how done your beef is.
Roasts will continue to cook after they’re removed from the heat, so take them off five degrees before the temperature you’re shooting for. Steaks can be removed immediately on hitting the desired temperature.
Internal temperature chart:
photo credit: FotoosVanRobin