Your ring finger represents a medium steak, and touching your thumb to your pinky—which you'll notice produces a very taut result—is a well-done steak. To get a perfect steak, simply poke it while it cooks, until the firmness of the meat matches the firmness of various parts of your hand.
The Poke Test
By comparing the tension in the fleshy part of your hand at the base of your thumb with the tension you feel as you press your index finger into the center of the cut of meat, you can guesstimate how much it has been cooked.
Ground beef can be pink inside after it is safely cooked. The pink color can be due to a reaction between the oven heat and myoglobin, which causes a red or pink color. It can also occur when vegetables containing nitrites are cooked along with the meat.
If you'd like your steak medium-rare, it should feel like your cheek: tender and soft but still fleshy (as opposed to raw, which would be just soft). If you want a medium steak, touch your chin: The steak should still be tender, but with some resistance.
During cooking, aim to cook your steak medium-rare to medium – any more and you'll be left with a tough piece of meat. Turning it every minute or so will make sure you get a really even cook. After cooking, leave it to rest and rub with a little extra virgin olive oil or butter for an incredible, juicy steak.
Have you ever wondered what they are doing? Here's the answer: they're feeling for the state of doneness. With just a touch, a skilled cook can judge if a piece of meat is done or if it needs more cooking. They're feeling for a degree of softness or firmness in the meat.
No. The United States Department of Agriculture recommends not eating or tasting raw or undercooked meat. Meat may contain harmful bacteria. Thorough cooking is important to kill any bacteria and viruses that may be present in the food.
If your grill is too hot, the crust might be a perfectly charred deep brown, but the center could still be raw; if your grill isn't hot enough, the steak could overcook by the time it gets those coveted grill marks. All in all, it can be difficult to recognize when a steak is fully cooked, inside and out.
When you look at the meat and it has a gray-brown color with no pink, and has charred blackening on the outside, then you have a well-done steak. It is a challenge to cook beef to this level without overdoing it. The key is to cook on low heat, or else your steak could end up dry and difficult to chew.
If you have bad meat or spoilage, a slimy surface film that you can see or feel on a piece of steak is a tell-tale sign. It'll be clear or yellowish in color but will make the steak appear shinier than usual. It will also have a slippery or sticky feel when you run your fingers over it.
What is the liquid coming out of steak? Even the rarest and reddest of steaks is actually bloodless. Instead, what you're looking at is a combination of water, which makes up about 75 per cent of meat, and a protein found in muscle tissue called myoglobin.
Most chefs regard beef cooked to medium-rare — with an internal temperature of 130-135F (55-57C) — as the best way to bring out flavour and retain moisture in tender cuts such as rib eye and top loin. Unlike rare, medium-rare allows time for the outside to caramelise and develop a sear.
Most big steakhouses broil their steaks, using overhead, infrared broilers that produce incredibly hot temperatures to cook steaks. Don't worry though, you don't need to go out and invest in one, but the principle is the same. You need incredibly high heat in direct contact with the meat.
Additionally, overcooking meat, even meat that comes from the more tender muscles, can make it tough. That's because heat causes the proteins in the meat to firm up. Overcooking also basically squeezes the moisture out of the meat, making it dry as well as tough.
If you're cooking steak on the grill, you most definitely should flip it about halfway through the cooking process. We typically recommend flipping your steak just once on the grill because it's not getting direct heat on one side like it would on a pan.
Cooking slowly therefore is really the best way to naturally tenderize the meat and maintain a juicy texture. Gelatinized collagen is actually what gives the meat a sweeter flavour when smoked slowly. Does that mean Hot & Fast cooking should be avoided? Absolutely not.
Hot and fast: Anytime you are planning to use a thinner meat cut like the Skirt steak or the Flank, cooking it fast on high heat will yield the best results. With a thin cut, any slow cooking method will overcook the meat and leave it with a chewy, rubbery texture.
Medium (or Medium-Rare) Meat
Medium meat is cooked to 145 degrees Fahrenheit. That means your steak or burger will be tender but well-cooked and provide just enough flavor. High-quality meat will be tasty at this temperature and tender enough to chew easily.
If the fresh meat is a steak, roast or chop, then yes — medium-rare can be safe. That means the meat needs to reach 145°F internally and stand for three or more minutes before cutting or consuming.
While medium may seem tempting, at Steak University we advise against it, since premium cuts of meat taste best at medium-rare steak temperature.
Use the following timing recommendations to learn how long to rest steak so that the flavorful juices have time to distribute through your meat: Rest meat for 5 minutes per inch of thickness. Rest meat for 10 minutes per pound. Rest meat for 1 minute for every 100 grams.