Thermometers & Timers
Thermometers & Timers
Thermometers and timers are culinary precision measurement instruments at the very foundations of cooking and baking. Modern day thermometers have provided conveniences and a myriad of options when selecting your cooking thermometer. There are digital meat thermometers, instant read thermometers, infrared cooking thermometers, and candy and deep frying thermometers.
Every home chef culinary move you make depends on one of these or the other. Chefs know that the only surefire way to know when meat is cooked is to use a thermometer. And there’s not a baker around that would dare set out to bake a beautiful cake or pastry without an extremely accurate timer.
When cooking meat, each meat type varies at which temperature it is considered “cooked”, and safe for consumption. The below table with meat and temperatures is a good guide to use when checking your meat temperature for doneness. Be sure to stick your meat thermometer directly and deeply into the center of your piece of meat as this will the deepest point and most rare point in which to take the temperature with your meat thermometer.
(Ground Meat) Beef, Lamb, Pork, Veal 72 degrees Celsius
Fresh Beef, Lamb, Pork, Veal (Must rest 3-minutes) 63 degrees Celsius
(Ground) Turkey & Chicken 74 degrees Celsius
Whole Turkey & Chicken 74 degrees Celsius
In Canada there are certain restriction from professionally prepared food versus what you can make for your family and friends at home. The above temperatures are required to serve in restaurants. If you’d like to prepare your beef to your preference of doneness, there’s another thermometer table you may use to get the perfectly cooked filet.
Rare Beef with a cool red center 52 degrees Celsius
Medium-rare Beef with a warm red center 57 degrees Celsius
Medium Beef with a warm pink center 66 degrees Celsius
Medium-well Beef with slightly pink center 66 degrees Celsius
Well-done beef with little or no pink center 71 degrees Celsius
One thing is sure – you want a meat thermometer if you are running a professional Canadian kitchen, as its required to be cooked as prescribed. And if you’re cooling for family and friends, the meat thermometer is your friend as you’ll have your guests cut open perfectly cooked meat without you having to slice it open during the cooking process.
Enjoy!
