Meat thermometer

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I understand some of the conflict about 'is the meat cooked'. I partly fixed it by telling my partner that if I cooked I did it my way - if he wanted it some other way then he must cook it. No whining or complaining allowed regardless of who cooked.

I don't have a meat thermometer. I use the time/temperature chart in the first cookbook I owned - I think it was used in Home Ec classes in the early 60's. I can't tell you what it is called as it has no covers - and is missing many pages at the front and back. You would know what recipes got used most frequently at my house by the stains on the pages (butter, tomato sauce, gravy etc). I found this cookbook very helpful. Eventually it stopped being my favourite and I started using More with Less. Each of my kids was given a copy of that wonderful book when they left home.

Who knew that I would live long enough to have cook books that were very outdated?
 
I don't have a meat \| thermometer. I let my mom and my partner take turns doing the cooking -O. The few times I have to cook meat, I fry it to a crisp or else heat it up ^ from frozen.
 
I personally don't think it's anything to brag about that you couldn't personally feed yourself nutritious homemade food from scratch. And quite frankly, given that almost everyone ends up alone in some fashion if they live to a good old age, your inability to do so will limit your ability to live independently should that solo situation present itself.
 
Thus the T was cracked by Q and ended up as some extension ... as defined by "S" in entropy .. a reverse way of looking at "h" for light energy that gets bounced around from Star to Black Holes ... complete unknowns in science as an energetic compression that can stretch a mortal all to pieces --- Dr. Hawking ... by association? Fixed people go right to pieces over such alteration of physics in construct of a mind ... a metaphysical construct like Myers-Briggs ... disregarded by those with pickled souls ... preserved? This leads to extensive criticism by authorities god ... ametaphysical coupling of quantum emotions and intellect in a bond ... leading an Eglish Spy to tie together an enigmatic myth on conspiracy that authority will deny like they denied Stieg Larson. Did you know in ole tongues as strange that Lar was a lord and son ... well that was often the light in a mother's eye ...

When the L is reciprocal it goes out dark as gama and thus the gar fish ... as lord of some swamps ...
 
I bought one for myself this year when I decided to make a turkey at thanksgiving and that has so far been the only time I have used it. I will probably pull it out if I am doing a roast of some sort but for the most part I either a) cook it as long as the recipe says b) already have an idea of how long it needs c) cut open a section and if it doesn't look done put it back in for longer
 
Greywolf336 said:
I bought one for myself this year when I decided to make a turkey at thanksgiving and that has so far been the only time I have used it. I will probably pull it out if I am doing a roast of some sort but for the most part I either a) cook it as long as the recipe says b) already have an idea of how long it needs c) cut open a section and if it doesn't look done put it back in for longer
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That's the method i've used for all these years - yet Seelerman and I still sometimes argue about when its done, and I end up cooking roasts too long. I've learned with steak not to start mine until his is almost done.
 
A thing to remember when cooking larger cuts of meat & using thermometer - if you plan to take the roast out of the oven to "let it rest" (as apparently good cooks do, or so says the recipe books!) remember that it will continue to increase in temperature even after it's out of the oven - so take it out a bit BEFORE the the thermometer says it's where you want to be, or it will be overcooked by the time you serve it.
 
@Bette - you mentioned Cooks Illustrated - we LOVE that magazine! The year end issue is a good buy - has all the recipes from the whole year! For Xmas my mate, who is our chef at home, rec'd their big book - The Science of Cooking - fascinating! I love reading all the variations they tried before hitting on the best methods.
 
When I used to work and travel a lot I listened to CBC while crisscrossing NWFie ...

A food technologist made a lot of commentary about cooking meat ... beef when pink allows for disposal of bladder worms ... the same pink allows for disposing of trichinosis worms ... and yet the meat is moist and not boot-like ... unlike a sneaker blown on the way to TO ... to visit jae ?

Thus the desire to be into the pink and ask what's the beef?
 
Smell, looks, feels - it smells delicious, it looks nicely brown but not dried out, it feels 'just so' - the turkey shakes hands, the pork roast is about to fall apart.
Along with timing, this is how I've always estimated when meat is done. (When in doubt, take a knife and slice into it. If it runs 'blood', leave it in a bit longer. - the meat thermometer might eliminate this final step).
 
One thing I have heard is that food safety wise, you can't just tell if something has reached safe internal temperatures.
 
ChemGal said:
One thing I have heard is that food safety wise, you can't just tell if something has reached safe internal temperatures.
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This is technically true, but we somehow managed for generations without meat thermometers (the rate of food-borne illness may have higher but was still low enough for the species to prosper) so the rules of thumb that developed over that time must have at least some validity.
 
I think in our house, like some of the others here, we ate overcooked meat a lot. Turkey -- same drumstick test. Roastbeef, dry as a bone.
 
I like my meat what many would consider overcooked. I think it's done just right :)
 
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