Okay, so I know it’s the sustainable thing to avoid meat and eat only plant-based diets and I honestly do support that. Really, I do. I love vegetables, I eat them with almost every meal and I’m like 75% vegetarian. I eat a fairly plant-based diet for most meals during the week and then when I’m out in the world on the weekends, I sort of just forget all rhyme and reason and shove my face with everything I can find which usually includes meat.
Now, that being said, there are still plenty of meat eaters in the world and I want to make sure you all know how to safely cook your proteins.
So let’s talk about food safety and temperatures.
First off, my least favorite protein of all time: chicken.
I’ve tried, really I have. I just really don’t like chicken. I love wings, I love fried chicken (duh) and obviously chicken soup. But other than that, I’d rather be 90% vegetarian than eat chicken. That being said, it is one of the only proteins you cannot eat raw and therefore it’s crucial that you know how to safely cook it.
165 is the magical temperature you are looking for! There is no variance here – chicken must be cooked to 165 degrees (F) to be safely eaten. Now, how do I know what temperature my chicken is, you might be asking?
Hello meat thermometer! The ol’ “slice and check” method is a very tedious way to temp your food and is guaranteed to dry out your chicken every time. Temp it with a real thermometer, you’re welcome.
Pork, the other white meat
Pork is similar to chicken in that it should never be eaten rare! Just like you’d be concerned if you saw pink juice flowing from your cooked chicken, you want nothing pink when you have cooked pork. The recommended internal temperature is 145 degrees.
How about red meat?
This is the one that causes so much kerfuffle in the sustainability world and to be honest, I’ve driven past cow farms. It really puts things into perspective when you see literally thousands of cows smashed together waiting to be murdered. I apologize for being gruesome, I love me a good hamburger, but I do feel obligated to provide both sides of this issue here.
Beef can be eaten raw which means you run no risk of undercooking it but contamination is possible. If the temperature of the protein goes above 41 degrees, it needs to get cooked with heat to some level. Rare is 125 degrees and well done is over 160 degrees so find your happy place somewhere in between.
When you’re temping your protein, here are some helpful tips to make sure you get an accurate reading:
- Avoid letting the thermometer touch any bone.
- Temp in the fattest part of the meat. The outside will cook fastest because it’s most likely thinnest but that doesn’t give you a good idea of how done the whole piece is.
- If it doesn’t hit temperature within a minute, it’s not done. Even if it’s only under by 10 degrees, those last 10 count so put it back in the oven for a couple more minutes and let it cook.
- Calibrate the thermometer a couple times a year with boiling (212 deg F) or ice water (32 deg F.) This ensures you’re always getting the most accurate read every time.
