Single Guy’s Kitchen

Most recipes for a roast or other meat dishes will instruct you to cook at a certain temperature for a certain period of time. This works more or less but what about those times your meat comes out dry or over cooked even though you followed the instructions exactly. Every cook and kitchen is unique and these recipes are either written to one specific setup or to a very broad range of setups. This can lead to overcooking and thus, dry meat.

My favorite food network personality, Alton Brown, almost always specifies a temperature rather than a time on his show when cooking meat. Why is that? Well, temperature is the only way to really know how much a meat has been cooked and for some meats there is a specific temperature or range of temperatures to aim for. Beef has a range based on the desired level of “doneness” while things like pork and chicken have a “safe” temperature. A quick Google search will get you whatever temperature for whatever meat you like. This one popped up first for me.

Obviously you need a meat thermometer in order to read the temperature of the meat you are cooking. There are generally two types, the instant read probe and the remote probe. These are pretty self explanatory. With the instant read type, you simply stick the probe in and the temperature is displayed back to you fairly quickly. The downside is these are typically small and you have to have to close to the meat and thus the heat source. The remote probes are meant to be used in an oven cooking scenario. With these the probe is inserted prior to cooking and left in during the cooking process. The temperature is read at a remote source outside the oven and is usually set to alarm at a certain temperature. Some modern ovens even have a probe feature like this built in.

So which one do you pick? I think a properly stocked kitchen really needs both. Sure the remote probe can sorta work as an instant read in a pinch, but it’s not the same. A good instant read thermometer is great to have when grilling and the remote probe is invaluable when working with the oven, slow cooker, etc. I think this is also a case where you want to spend a little bit for a good thermometer. You want an instant read probe to be as instant as possible and you want the remote probe to have an alarm feature and be durable. Remember, it will be spending a lot of time in a hot oven, so look for a braided metal sheath over the wiring.

There’s a trick to inserting the probe as well. You want the probe close to the center of the meat to make sure the center is done but you don’t want to contact any bones as that will throw off the reading. Inserting the probe at an angle usually helps. This just takes a little practice really.

Cook your meat with precision and eliminate the guesswork.  When you monitor the temperature you will never produce a dry, over cooked roast again.