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Cooking meat and poultry to that perfect state of "but correct" is not as elusive as it sounds. While judging doneness by expect and experience is an uncertain art at best, it is actually pretty like shooting fish in a barrel to get great results all the time when you apply an instant-read thermometer. A thermometer is the only reliable way to measure out internal temperature. Take a few minutes to commit these temperatures to memory or jot them downwardly in a identify near where you proceed your thermometer.

Meat Temperatures

At what temperature is craven and turkey done?

To take the temperature of a whole chicken or turkey, insert the thermometer straight down into the thickest part of the breast near the backbone and straight down into the thigh, taking care not to hit the bone (which can crusade an wrong reading). If you're cooking chicken parts, stuffed chicken or ground chicken, insert the thermometer probe into the thickest part to take the temperature.

Chicken breast: 165 degrees F

Chicken thigh: 165 to 175 degrees F

Blimp chicken: 165 degrees F

Ground craven: 170 to 175 degrees F

At what temperature is beef and lamb done?

Insert the thermometer probe into the thickest part of the meat to take the temperature, taking intendance to avoid any bones if in that location are any.

Rare: 125 degrees F + iii minutes of resting time

Medium rare: 130 to 135 degrees F

Medium: 135 to 140 degrees F

Medium well: 140 to 150 degrees F

Well done: 155+ degrees F

At what temperature is pork washed?

Insert the thermometer into the thickest role of the meat to take the temperature, taking care to avert any basic if at that place are any.

Medium rare: 145 degrees F + 3 minutes residual

We roasted chickens and checked the temperature throughout the cooking process to see how rapidly the thermometers registered the temperature of the meat. We besides tested for accuracy past placing each thermometer in a drinking glass of ice water to run across how rapidly and precisely they measured the freezing temperature. Here are the best picks.

What is carryover cooking?

Meat volition continue cooking even after y'all've removed it from a heat source. That means if your steak hits the perfect medium-rare temperature on the grill, information technology will continue to rise several degrees while it's resting. Meat temperature can increase ten degrees or more while it's resting, depending on its size. The larger the cut, the more than carryover cooking volition occur. And then, if y'all're cooking a larger piece of meat (such as a turkey), you will want to remove information technology from the heat source when its several degrees under the USDA's official temperature for doneness.

What to Know Nigh Taking the Temperature of Footing Meat

You may have noticed that ground meat often needs to be cooked to a slightly higher temperature than whole cuts of meat. The food scientist Harold McGee explains a crucial stardom to be made between whole musculus cuts and ground meat: "... meats inevitably harbor bacteria, and information technology takes temperatures of 160 degrees Fahrenheit or higher to guarantee the rapid destruction of the bacteria that tin cause human disease — temperatures at which meat is well-done and has lost much of its moisture. So, is eating juicy, pink-ruddy meat risky? Not if the cutting is an intact piece of healthy muscle tissue, a steak or chop, and its surface has been thoroughly cooked: leaner are on the meat surfaces, not inside. " When raw meat is basis up, the distinction between internal and external no longer applies. McGee says: "Ground meats are riskier, because the contaminated meat surface is broken into small fragments and spread through the mass. The interior of a raw hamburger usually does contain bacteria and is safest if cooked well done." Because E. coli is killed at 155 degrees Fahrenheit, the USDA sets the minimum safe temperature for footing beef at 160 degrees Fahrenheit. We tin can only 2d this.

A Few Notes on Meat Prophylactic

People very rarely get sick from rare or medium-rare cuts of whole meat. Overwhelmingly, people go sick from the way meat is handled in the home: from cross-contamination, lack of cleanliness and holding meat at dangerous temps. Internal temperature should be the least of your worries. Withal, we should emphasize that actress caution must be exercised when cooking for at-adventure groups, especially the elderly, children under seven and the immuno-compromised. In such cases, we advise the USDA guidelines be strictly followed.