"Is It Done Yet?" - Food Temperatures

I kept finding myself going back to Google constantly to remind myself about what temperature different foods needed to reach to be considered done. So I put them together here as a quick guide - for myself and for you!

Welcome to The From Scratch Body! I’m Liv - and I believe that anyone can cook. Since being diagnosed with endometriosis, I have been on a journey to find out what food makes me feel great. By cooking from scratch I have not only started feeling much better, but also fallen in love with cooking completely! Join me for my weekly food topic and recipe here on my podcast, and check out my website for the transcripts and more. Find me on Instagram, and on YouTube.

What is The From Scratch Body?

Singer and actor Liv Austen has turned a health issue into a passion for cooking, by taking control of every ingredient that goes in to her meals. Every week she shares something she has learned from cooking from scratch, and goes through a recipe she loves, so you can cook alongside the podcast. Cook from scratch - your body will thank you.

Liv: You are listening to the From Scratch Body. I'm Liv, and I believe that when we make our own food from base ingredients, our bodies will thank us. I wanna help you with the skills, the knowledge, and most importantly, the confidence you need to make food at home in your own kitchen on your terms to fit your body. So every week I share a health topic or a recipe or both which will take you on a journey to effortless cooking step by step and you can always find the topics and recipes in writing on my website the from scratch body dot com Welcome back to the From Scratch Body. Today, we are talking about food temperatures.

Is it done yet? I kept finding myself going back to Google constantly to remind myself about what temperature different foods needed to reach to be considered done. And my husband always asks me as well, what's the temperature for chicken again? So I thought for myself, for him, for other people who have the same issue, I've put together a quick guide. This is also on my website if you wanna have it ready.

You can print it out if you like. Now when you're doing a steak or even baking a loaf of bread, understanding these temperatures, is, you know, in some cases, it's crucial for your health, obviously, because you don't wanna eat food that's not thoroughly cooked. But in other instances, it's just very helpful to avoid disappointment. The latter, you know, bread being a great example of this because if you're eating some bread that's a little bit underdone, it's probably not gonna be detrimental to your health, but it's really disappointing if you've made like a massive beautiful looking loaf, and it could have done with another 5 minutes in the oven. And if you just put, you know, a meat thermometer in there, a food thermometer in there to check the temperature, it could have told you that it needed a bit longer so you don't have to sort of tuck into the bread and see, it's a bit underdone.

So it's about safety, but it's also about flavor. It's about, you know, avoiding disappointment, basically, when you've put in the work of cooking something from scratch. So this is helpful in many different ways. I've gone through some of the most common things here that you you really need to know the temperature for. I've done beef, pork, fish, chicken and turkey, basically poultry, and bread.

So I'm gonna just list these out. It's a bit much to maybe try and remember in your head, but I'm gonna run through them. But they are, as I say, also on the website. So if you wanna do a printout of it and put it inside one of your kitchen cupboards doors or something, it might be handy to, to come back to this one. And for my lovely American listeners, I have, of course, included Fahrenheit.

So here we go. Beef being first. Preferences with beef vary a lot. You know, some people love juicy, nearly rare steaks, and others prefer a more textured, well done steak. So you have a few options here, but you have to keep in mind this is important that a steak that's served on the rarer side, more rare side, needs to be quality meat and it needs to be handled properly by people who know what they're doing.

So if you feel like you're not the one to do this, you know, be honest with yourself about this. Maybe be realistic about the fact that you can have a lovely steak at home, that's lovely and juicy and tender without it needing to be rare or medium rare. So just, you know, if you if you sear the steak well, meaning that you cook it at high temperature first so you seal the fat inside, that really helps our juiciness, and you can still do it, you know, medium, medium well or more on the cooked side and it's still nice and tender. That being said, here are the temperatures that the Internet tells me. Rare is 50 to 55 degrees Celsius, that's 120 to 130 Fahrenheit.

Medium rare, 55 to 60 Celsius, which is 130 to 140 Fahrenheit. Medium is 60 to 65 Celsius, 140 to 150 Fahrenheit. Medium well is 65 to 70, 150 to 160 Fahrenheit, and well done is above 70 degrees internally. That's 160 Fahrenheit and above. I recently did steak for my husband, my baby, and myself, and we learned that, because I did really, really nice steak if I do say so myself, but it was, you know, slightly pink inside and I thought, can babies actually have, steak that's a little bit pink inside?

And looking at it online, searching and googling a little bit, I learned that it's fine for them to have steak that's a bit pink on the inside if it's 63 degrees Celsius or above. So, if if that's something that's interesting to you, that's a little extra bonus, temperature there. For pork, this is a bit more, straightforward. Pork should be cooked thoroughly to kill any harmful bacteria, But, of course, you don't wanna overcook it because it can lead to dryness unless you don't mind it being a bit drier. But if you aim for a blush of pink in the center, then you're kind of on the right track.

But if you wanna check the internal temperature, medium, done pork is 63 degrees Celsius or above. That's a 145 Fahrenheit, and well done is 71 degrees Celsius, 1 60 Fahrenheit or above if you wanna be absolutely safe and sure about that. With fish, fish varies obviously because there are so many different types of fish and they behave slightly differently when you cook them. But the general rule is cook fish until the flesh is opaque and easily flakes with a fork. Now fish is generally done around 60 to 65 degrees Celsius, which is 140 to 150 Fahrenheit, but it varies slightly depending on the type and thickness of the fish.

So for fish, I definitely would say speaking from, experience that it's more about the the texture and you can quite easily see that it's cooked through because it looks so different. And, yes, go for that flakiness with fish, and then you will be quite confident that it is cooked through. For chicken and turkey, I've done these together because it's exactly the same temperatures. Whole chicken or turkey is 74 degrees Celsius or above, 165 Fahrenheit. Chicken breasts or turkey breast is 68 to 74 degrees Celsius.

It's done. So that's 155 to 165 Fahrenheit. Chicken thighs and wings, turkey thighs, turkey wings is also 74 and above just like a whole, chicken or whole turkey. Now, personally, I will always go to 74 degrees Celsius minimum for all poultry even if it's just a chicken breast, which which this guide is telling me is 68 is enough. But I do find that, 74, I feel like, is a safe minimum for me, 165 Fahrenheit.

I don't feel like it's it's got the chance to get dry at that temperature. So I would personally, to be safe, go to 74 degrees there. Now for bread, people kind of sometimes forget that you can stick a meat thermometer in a bread and check if that's done, as well. And it really depends on what kind of bread. If you're doing a soft bread, then somewhere between 88 to 99 degrees Celsius, 190 to 210 Fahrenheit, will mean that it's done.

More crusty bread, 96 to a100 4 degrees Celsius, so that's 205 to 220 Fahrenheit, and quick breads like a banana bread, for example, which is more like a cake. You just need to get it above 88 degrees Celsius. That's 190 Fahrenheit. When I was doing a lot of sourdough, which I was doing last year especially, I learned that the perfect inner temperature because I didn't wanna waste, you know, a sourdough loaf when I'd made that. So I I checked, you know, scoured the Internet for, you know, what's the right temperature for this bread to be done.

And what I kept coming across was between 96 to 98 degrees Celsius, which is quite a small margin, of course, but around there was the perfect temperature for it to be done, and I really found that to be a great guide for sourdough loaf. So, I guess that would kind of count as crusty bread, which is 96 to a 104, as I said. But, yeah, 96 to 98 is perfect for a loaf of sourdough in my experience. Mastering these internal cooking temperatures will help you feel confident in what you're serving up to not just yourself but to others as well. And whether you're a novice in the kitchen or an experienced home cook, understanding these temperatures will make things a lot easier.

Now how do you test the temperatures? As I say, a thermometer, normally called a meat thermometer, though it doesn't have to be used just on meat, is one of the most helpful tools you can get in the kitchen in my experience. I use mine so much. There are super smart ones that cost a lot and come with things like, a complimentary, you know, smartphone app and stuff like that. But, honestly, I I would say that a simple one for 10 to £20 or, you know, your country's equivalent to that price normally does the trick.

There are also old school ones that you can stick in the meat and keep in the oven, like in a whole chicken, for example. Maybe your parents will have one of those at home that they don't use a lot, and you can, you can borrow that or, you know, you can get one in, secondhand shop or something. And there are others that you can stick in to just test when you take the food out. Remember to clean your meat thermometer thoroughly after each use. An important note is that temperatures are a bit of trial and error and experience in the kitchen, and what I mean by that is that a lot of food continues to rise in temperature after they're taken out of the oven.

This is resting or carryover cooking, which I'll have to talk about more, at some other stage, I think, because there's a bit of science to it, and I'm not sure if I fully understand it myself. But, basically, food continues to rise in temperature internally after you've taken it out of the oven because it is gonna be hotter on the outside and that food carries over and in more internally, so it will warm up after you've taken it out as well. So this is another thing to take into account when you wanna get something at the right temperature, but don't get too bogged down in those details now and instead just get cooking because you will learn by doing. If I missed anything or if you have any useful tips to add when it comes to food doneness, please do email me at [e-mail] or you can message me on social media as well. And I will be here next week.

Thank you for listening to this week's episode. There are tons of recipes for you to try on my website, my YouTube channel, and also on social media channels. Just search for the from scratch body, and you'll find me. Save useful topics and inspiration for the future, and try to have fun and experiment when you cook at home. And remember, cook from scratch, and your body will thank you.

I'll catch you next week.