Buy a good thermometer.
COOKING TEMPERATURE FOR MEATS
A good thermometer will have a chart (on the back of an electronic readout, or on the sleeve of an instant-read stick thermometer) of the appropriate temperature to which to cook food. It should be something like this:
| Beef – rare | 140 F |
| Beef – medium | 160 F |
| Beef – well done | 170 F |
| Fish | 137 F |
| Ham – precooked | 140 F |
| Ham – fresh | 160 F |
| Poultry | 180 F |
| Lamb | 180 F |
HOLDING TEMPERATURE FOR ALL FOOD
Bacteria can multiply at temperatures above 40 F and below 160 F. Once bacteria has contaminated food, it must be discarded (don’t be fooled that you can reheat the food hot enough to kill the bacteria. While that reheating WILL kill the bacteria, it will NOT remove the toxins that the bacteria have left in your food.
Cold food must stay below 40 F. This applies to ALL cold food, but especially any made with mayonnaise. Keep cold food in the refrigerator until ready to serve, and if serving outside on a warm day, use an ice bath to keep the food cold.
Hot food must stay above 160 F. The back of the stove may be warm enough to keep things hot for a while, or keep food in the oven (even if the oven has now been turned off.)
MINIMIZE WARMUP TIME AND COOLDOWN TIME.
When you are ready to put hot food back into the fridge, be very careful to first cool off the food quickly before putting it into the fridge. Hot food put directly into the fridge just makes the fridge too warm, and can spoil the food already in the fridge. To quickly cool of hot food, place the container in a water-bath or ice-bath in the sink, stirring frequently, or, in winter, place the covered food outside. To warm cold food up to temperature, use the hottest temperature you can use without scalding or harming the food that you are warming up.
KEEP YOUR THERMOMETER CLEAN. Wash with hot soapy water. Some thermometers may be dishwasher-safe.
WHAT MAKES A GOOD THERMOMETER?
Electronic thermometers tend to stay pretty accurate. Other thermometers should have a way to re-adjust the setting. To check the accuracy of your thermometer, put it into ice-water or boiling water. If the temperature does not measure 32F or 212F, adjust your thermometer until it does.
I have a selection of electronic thermometers and regular instant-read thermometers, and both types are useful. Most instant-read thermometers can NOT be left in the oven. They are meant to stick into whatever you are measuring, come up to the correct temperature, and then be removed. I enjoy my electronic thermometer, which has a sensor at the end of a long heat-proof wire. The temperature sensor can be left in what I’m measuring in the oven or stovetop or grill, and the other end stays cool outside the oven where I can read the temperature without opening the oven door. It can also be set to beep an alarm if the temperature goes above or below a setting that you can control.
Make sure the end of the thermometer that measures heat is long enough to reach the food you are measuring. I have a regular-size and an extra-long thermometer that clips to the side of my stockpot. If the stockpot is half-full, I need to use the longer probe to reach all the way down to the liquid I am measuring. All of the probes have a small indent at some part of the probe. That marks where the temperature is being taken, and that’s the part of the probe that needs to be inside the food you are measuring.
If you are using the thermometer outside in the dark, for example, for grilling, be sure the dial has a light, or you have a flashlight. Look for a large readout.
To measure meat, try to get into the middle of the meat and away from the bone. The middle will cook more slowly than the outside, so you need to make sure the inside is cooked to the appropriate temperature. The bone also affects the temperature, so keep the probe an inch or more away from any bones.
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