Tips for Cooking Red Meat

Stephanie Allen recently posted some tips for perfectly cooking red meat on her blog.  Here is a general summary, read her full post for more details:

Check roasts with an instant thermometer while cooking. To accurately measure the temperature of the meat, insert thermometer into middle of the meat until the tip of the thermometer is in the middle of the thickest part. Wait about 10 seconds to allow the needle to settle.

Rare: Pull meat out of the oven when internal meat temperature is 100 degrees, place on counter with a tent foil for 5-10 minutes to rest before slicing.

Medium Rare: Pull meat out of oven when internal meat temperature is 120 degrees, rest with tent foil for 5-10 minutes on counter.

Medium: Pull meat out of oven when internal meat temperature is 130 degrees, rest with tent foil for 5-10 minutes on counter.

Well Done: Pull meat out of oven when internal meat temperature is 150 degrees, rest with tent foil for 5-10 minutes on counter.

Resting the meat will allow the meat to continue to cook while keeping the juices in for better flavor.

If you don’t have an instant thermometer, you can use a meat thermometer on a roast, leaving it in the middle of the thickest part of the meat while cooking in the oven.  The downside to this type is the hole it leaves, which  allows cooking juices to escape.  A good rule of thumb, or should I say fist is, …. clinch your hand into a fist as hard as you can squeeze.  The pad of flesh between your pointer finger knuckle and your thumb knuckle should be hard.  That is the same way a well-done piece of meat feels when you poke it.  Loosen your squeeze a little, that is the feeling of medium cooked meat, a little less squeeze is the feeling of medium-rare and no squeeze is the feeling of a rare cooked piece of meat.

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