Mr.Food - How Do I Know if it’s Done?

How Do I Know if it’s Done?

How can we tell when our cooked food is done to perfection? Mr. Food shares his meat thermometer tips plus favorite food doneness tips for steak and veggies to avoid guesswork when cooking.

How Do I Know if it’s Done?

Mr. Food’s Doneness and Meat Thermometer Tips

Veggies
There’s a fine line between undercooking and overcooking green veggies like asparagus:

When steaming or boiling, we want them tender with a bit of crispness.
After 3 to 4 minutes, check your veggies by either taking a small bite or piercing a piece with the tip of a sharp knife. Either way, it should resist slightly.
You'll want to undercook them just a bit, because they’ll continue cooking even after they are removed from the heat.

Steak
Here's the secret method used by professional chefs to check for the doneness of steak:

Extend your arm, relaxing it slightly.
With two fingers, gently push down on the skin beneath the crook of your elbow; it should be soft to the touch. That should be the texture of a rare steak.
Moving further down toward the wrist, as the flesh feels firmer, that should be the texture of medium, with the firmest texture being well-done.

General Guidelines for Doneness
To ensure safety and quality, the minimum internal temperature (°F.) on a meat thermometer/appearance should be as follows

Ground meats – 160°
Whole cuts (roasts and steaks, etc) – 145°
Fresh Pork (all cuts, including ground) – 160°
Poultry (chicken, turkey, duck) – 165°
Eggs – Yolk and white are firm
Egg dishes – 160°
Fin Fish – 145°
Shellfish – Until firm, opaque
Leftovers, casserole – 165°

Choosing a Meat Thermometer
When choosing your meat thermometer, keep a couple simple things in mind:

Be sure the thermometer is designed for meat and poultry — and not for candy or other foods.
Instant-read meat thermometers which have a dial or digital readout are the best option to use for ground beef because they give an accurate temperature reading much quicker than oven-proof meat thermometers.

Chart and thermometer tips courtesy of 2009 Cattlemen's Beef Board and National Cattlemen's Beef Association

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