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Originally Posted by delisa2850  Please forgive me for posting on the Guys Club Thread, but I feel bad that Mike keeps asking the same question over and over. Not that I would ever be one to come to Mike's aide, but maybe this will help? I am not the greatest of cooks myself, but I have watched Texas Roadhouse cooks use the poke test, and their steaks are perfect!
Testing a steak’s doness by temperature
This is the scientific approach, and probably the most accurate. Taking an instant read digital thermometer, poke it into the center of the steak and allow it to take a reading. Based on the internal temperature you can tell when the steak is done to your liking.
Very Rare Steak – 120°
Rare Steak – 125°
Medium-Rare Steak – 130° – 135°
Medium Steak – 140° – 145°
Medium-Well Steak – 150° – 155°
Well-Done Steak – 160°
One thing to keep in mind is that just because you take a steak off of the grill doesn’t mean its through cooking. The heat built up in the steak will continue to cook the meat until it begins to cool off, adding up to an additional 5 or 10 degrees of doness. This means you have to undershoot your steaks, removing them from the grill just before they reach the desired temperature. Undershooting is a good strategy anyhow, since you can always throw it back on the grill (in shame) if its not properly cooked, but you certainly can’t “uncook” a steak.
Testing a steak’s doneness by touch (the poke test)
Once you have mastered cooking with the thermometer, you can move up the method the pros use, a simple poke with your finger and you can judge the approximate doneness. Use the list below as a guide, but experience is the best teacher. As you test the temperature with your thermometer, give the steak a poke and note its firmness. This will help you develop a feel for doneness and you can eventually put the thermometer away!
Very Rare Steak – feels soft and squishy
Rare Steak – soft to the touch
Medium-Rare Steak – yields gently to the touch
Medium Steak – yields only slightly to the touch, beginning to firm up
Medium-Well Steak – firm to the touch
Well-Done Steak – hard to the touch |
Good info there...Right now I take them off when I feel they are ready, and so far that's worked pretty well. That of course comes from the experience of using the thermometer to see when they are done (and I usually use it on my wife's steak just to be sure as she likes hers well done). And I can definitely vouch for the steak cooking after it's done. I went to a restaurant a while back and asked for a steak medium well. I cut it open and it seemed to be cooked at medium. After a few minutes of it sitting there, it was cooked a lot more than when I got it. However, I think this has a lot to do with the thickness of the steak. A thin steak will cool quicker so it won't cook the inside much after it comes off the grill, but this was a thick cut so it retained a lot of heat to self-cook.
I've never tried the "feel test" and I wonder how much that depends on the thickness of the meat.