Recommended cooking temperatures

I think the trick with chicken is to cook it slowly on a low heat first, then grill it briefly to get the skin nice and crispy. If you try cooking it on a high heat until the middle is cooked, the outside will be dry.

With steak, just cook it to your preference - if you like it pink in the middle, stop cooking it when it's pink in the middle.

I tend to ignore whatever it says on the packaging as temperatures and cooking times are always completely over the top. I presume because theres less chance of you getting salmonella if you absolutely incinerate it

Full chickens seem particularly bad for it, where there recommended cooking time for a large one would be 15 minutes longer than it actually needs to be properly cooked (according to Nigel Slaters timings)

I cook my chicken in a slow cooker (and aim for 165 deg f in the breast and legs). The chicken itself looks awful, but once it is carved, no-one sees that bit anyway (and no-one in our household likes the skin) and it is always much more moist than oven-cooked.

Then I bung the carcass back in the same slow cooker and make some stock ready for the next Sunday dinner.

My guide is 75C for chicken, (but better to stick in a skewer and make sure that there's no trace of pink in the juices that come out) about 70C for pork and 57C for lamb or beef.

I try to slightly undercook and then rest in a nice warm place for maybe 20 minutes. The internal temperature will still continue rising for a bit. I rest steak for longer than I cook it.

I presume because theres less chance of you getting salmonella if you absolutely incinerate it.

Especially with the incredible accuracy of an oven temperature setting. Or the skill at which the average punter wields a steak thermometer.

Not to mention that 2 hours at gas mark 3 could be anywhere from about 140 to 180 degrees, same with having "160" on the highly accurate twisty dial on the front of your oven.
Think the suppliers would rather have customers complaining about dry chicken than funeral costs. Or clean up issues in "aisle 2".

Especially with the incredible accuracy of an oven temperature setting. Or the skill at which the average punter wields a steak thermometer.

Not to mention that 2 hours at gas mark 3 could be anywhere from about 140 to 180 degrees, same with having “160” on the highly accurate twisty dial on the front of your oven.

Nothing to do with the oven temperature.

What "skill" do you need to wield a steak thermometer?

As for steaks, medium is supposed to be 71C, which appears well done to me.

Yeah, that's mental, looking at the app for my sous vide cooker it uses the following;

Very rare - 50

Rare - 52

Med-Rare - 54

Med - 56

Med-Well -60

F**ed - 64

Totally f**ed - 68

Their recommendation of 54 works for me. Also bare in mibnd the temp will continue to rise long after you've stopped applying heat.

I try to avoid chicken breasts as I struggle to get it consistently cooked without it drying out, chicken thighs are a bit more tolerant and seem to absorb the marinade a lot better, chicken thighs brined for 24hours then seared are my current go to meats for stir fry or curry.

I try to do the start at a low temperature as mentioned above.
I then finish off at around 25°c lower than the recommended temp for the remaining time.
The air fryer that I use for the above has 5°c increments and it's easily adjusted.
I occasionally use a digital thermometer when cooking chickens and bigger cuts of meat.

With a steak its only the outside that needs cooked, the inside is sterile. Hence it can be cooked blue.
Or uncooked in the case of steak tartare. but in that its hygienic preparation that stops it from harming you.

Those temperatures are high.

This guide may help. https://cookingissues.com/primers/sous-vide/

Sous vide is the way to perfect chicken every time.

Sorry people measure the temperature of their meat? I get that a commercial kitchen may do it to ensure its fully cooked, but for home cooking it seems excessive. I've never managed to knowingly poison someone with undercooked food in my 40+ years on this planet.

Why not? It’s an incredibly simple task and removes any doubt.

Perhaps all the meat you serve is really overcooked and all your guests are just being polite?

You’re not talking about buying some serious piece of diagnostic equipment. Meat thermometers are 4 quid on Amazon

I’m not doing it because I’m worried about poisoning anyone, I do it because I’m horribly middle class and serving dry, overcooked meat is such a frightful social faux pas, I can almost hear them whispering disparaging remarks about my cooking now

Do you not watch Masterchef for gods sake man?!!!

You can tell when a steak is done, 1.5mins each side on very high heat.

Why not cook some steamed chicken instead? Yummy!

But watch out if it is half cooked.

With steaks you can tell how well its done by the feel from pressing on it.
So well done is quite firm, likened to pressing your thumb with your index finger. When it feels spongy to the touch, thats about a medium. Takes time and practice to get used to what it feels like in the different stages of cooking. In a commercial setting, thats pretty much the way they'll test it.

Remember, well done is very slightly pink inside, if its not pink, and more grey, thats overdone.

this could cross over with the knowing your old thread. my dad, who is 34 years older than me (which used to seem like a lot) has 2 oven thermometers, the oven dial and a meat thermometer.

the first is to check the oven setting (which is wrong), the second to track the reading of the first just in case it ever goes wrong, the last, just to be sure.

my wife dries chicken out and if i cook chicken she try’s very hard to not behave like i’m trying to poison the family.

i find 75 to be good for chicken cooked slowly. steak i sear in a hot pan then
pop in the oven 200°C for 10 minutes or so. if it ends up “over done” it remains tender with this method.

but going back to the Old Man’s belt and braces and applying a bike analogy, do you trust the pressure gauge on your pump?

Q: When do you know when the temperature of a Gregg's Cheese pasty is correct?
A: When you peel blistered skin from the roof of your mouth

going back to the Old Man’s belt and braces and applying a bike analogy, do you trust the pressure gauge on your pump?

I trust it to be reliable, meaning that it gives the same reading for the same pressure each time. I don't trust it to be accurate, but it doesn't need to be. It's a trial and error process to find the gauge reading that gives the best performance on the bike. Same with cooking meat or chicken - it doesn't matter whether the gauge is accurate, as long as it gives consistent readings. You experiment to find what gauge readings give you the desired result - juices are clear for chicken, middle is pink for steak.

There's a little magnetic fridge chart that came with my Salter cooking thermometer. It gives 2 sets of values - the recommended USDA values and the Heston Blumenthal* recommended values.

For whole chicken breast it recommends 65oC and 75oC for whole chicken. USDA says 74oC for both. I think one of the issues with chicken is the Salmonella is present in the birds guts and shit as standard so it's highly likely to be contaminated at some point. That contamination will be all over inside and outer parts of the bird.

Whereas maybe for say a steak or bit of fish you're worried about surface contamination during processing / storage that will get killed off on the outside of the meat during cooking.

*although his restaurant was responsible for a massive norovirus outbreak from contaminated shellfish so maybe not foolproof!

Chicken - 180C fan, 1 hour with foil on, one hour foil off and baste 2-3 times. Stick a skewer in the thigh to check juices run clear. Rest covered whilst prepping gravy and finishing veg.

Wow I didnt realise people went to such nerdy lengths in home cooking.

Supermarket packaging is always OTT IMO, maybe to stop you suing them?

With a chicken if the juices are not clear you know you are in trouble.

A few years old but

suggests Salmonella contamination in ~5% supermarket chicken, and Campylobacter at 50%

So being careful when handling raw chicken and cooking it is actually necessary.

I don't find the clear juices thing a reliable indicator. Far more consistent to measure it which avoids any over / under cooking.

Not long started cooking myself...never bother with temperatures, I'm sure they help make the food taste great, but so far I'm not had anyone not eat my food or get sick from it - so I can only assume they've all got cast iron guts and are far too polite to decline the food!

Sorry people measure the temperature of their meat? I get that a commercial kitchen may do it to ensure its fully cooked, but for home cooking it seems excessive. I’ve never managed to knowingly poison someone with undercooked food in my 40+ years on this planet.

So much this! It's thread like this that remind me I live a very isolated and perhaps somewhat ignorant life.

db (who chucks everything in the oven a 180 and eats it when it looks done)

Oh just remembered....

We do get nerdy ! Well occasionally,

We have cooked the Christmas Turkey on the BBQ a few times at low heat. To save getting to Xmas meal time and opening up the bird to find it raw we do stick a thermometer thing in it, but your talking a big bird being cooked on a stove we are not used to using that much

Dunno, I went veggie and all veg taste better when cooked at the surface temperature of the sun.

Anyone who talks about cooking veg whilst the meat rests (i.e. throwing it in a pan of boiling water until it's limp, tasteless and any nutritional value has leached out) voids any validity of their cooking opinions.

Does any find these to be a bit excessive?
The recommended temperature for chicken is 75C in the thickest part of the breast

Nope, as I don't want food poisoning. Yes if the juices run clear it cooked, but sticking a meat thermometer into it proves it, without messing around hacking at it. We cook whole chickens in oven bags, retaining the moisture and still browns nicely. I can't be arsed with cooking (just) chicken breasts, I'll always substitute chicken thighs, as their a better flavor IMO (no chicken kiev's et all for us..)

Steak though is a different matter, no way it should be 70..

For roasting I've used the Hugh Fearnely Whittingstall timings from his meat book. Basically bang it on at a high temperature for 20 minutes then drop it down for the remainder. If you're an avid carnivore it's a really good read.

Brief summary below but the book goes into loads more detail about weight and so forth.

http://iolarfood.blogspot.com/2017/01/roasting-meat-hugh-fearnley.html

Yes if the juices run clear it cooked,

IME the juices run clear at around 65 - 68C.

messing around hacking at it

No need to hack, just a poke with a meat thermometer to get the juice running.....

In fact just dropping it onto the spikes on a carving tray gets the juices running.