Measuring internal temperature when roasting / cooking meat

Issue

• How to measure internal temperature when roasting or cooking meat?
• How to use the food probe?

Applies to

• oven
• cooker

Resolution

2. Insert the probe so that as little metal as possible is visible.

3. General instructions:

• It is important that lean meat is not roasted for too long, whereas fatty cuts can be roasted for a longer amount of time.
• To achieve the best results, maintaining the recommended internal temperature is critical.
• This is important for the tenderness, juiciness, flavour and colour of the meat.
• Meat is most succulent when the internal temperature is 58–65^oC.
• Bacteria such as salmonella could be found on the surface of a piece of meat, while there are practically sterile bacteriological conditions inside the piece.
• There is no reason to advise against pink coloured roast pork loin, tenderloin and sirloin/veal. Chops, medallions and cutlets cut from whole joints may also be red/pink inside. 

4. Recommended internal temperatures:

	Recommended internal temperature
Beef tenderloin	58-60ºC
Beef sirloin	58-60ºC
Roast beef	58-60ºC
Filet Mignon	60ºC
Veal	60–62ºC
Pork tenderloin	62–65ºC
Pork loin, pork joint	65ºC
Pork silverside and pork mignon	65–70ºC
Chuck steak	80ºC
Minced meat, rolled joint, etc.	75ºC
Shoulder and shoulder filet	80ºC

5. Traditional roasting:

• Traditional roasting takes place at 150°C and above.
• Meat with crackling should be roasted at 200ºC.
• More fatty types of meat such as spare ribs should be roasted at 180ºC.
• Lean meat such as Filet Mignon, pork silverside, pork tenderloin, sirloin steak and beef silverside should be roasted at 150–160ºC.

• If possible, place the meat in a cold oven.
• It is better when the piece heats up slowly.
• Fan ovens should be set at approx. 20°C lower than normal ovens with upper and lower heat.
• The internal temperature of the meat may increase 0–5 degrees after the meat is brought out of the oven.
• The higher the oven temperature, the more the internal temperature will rise.
• The exact internal temperature may prove difficult to determine due to a large difference in temperatures throughout the roast/meat. Additionally, it is difficult to hit the coldest point of the roast with the tip of the probe.

6. Slow roasting:

• Slow roasting takes place at 130–150°C.

• The slower heating achieves a more uniform roasting.
• The internal temperature will therefore be easier to measure than in traditional roasting, and it will not increase as much after cooking.

7. Low-temperature roasting:

• For low-temperature roasting, cooking takes place at 100ºC or lower.

• The oven temperature must be set 20°C higher than the desired internal temperature. However, pork shoulder should be roasted at 125°C. 
• The meat becomes more tender and succulent when roasted at a low temperature. Another benefit of low-temperature roasting is that it allows for more accurate measurement of temperature, as there are smaller differences in temperature throughout the roast. The exact placement of the probe is therefore not significant.
• The internal temperature of the meat does not normally increase after the meat is taken out of the oven.