Internal temperatures for meat, poultry and fish

A meat thermometer is the kitchen tool that makes the biggest difference for the least money. Cooking times and rules of thumb depend on the thickness of the cut, your oven and how cold the meat was to begin with. The internal temperature tells you exactly where you are.

Doneness · Fish · How to measure · Beef · Pork · Game · Mince · Chicken and turkey · Duck · Raw and cured fish · Shellfish

Doneness

A dash means we don’t recommend that doneness, either because it doesn’t do the meat justice or because the meat needs to be cooked through to be safe. You can switch between °C and °F at the top of the page.

This is what each one looks like when you cut into the meat:

Fish

Fish is at its best just before it is cooked through, and a few degrees too many make it dry. That is why it has a scale of its own.

Translucent is almost raw in the centre and glistens, like a seared piece of tuna. Moist has only just stopped being see-through and comes apart in large flakes. Cooked through is opaque all the way and flakes easily.

Translucent salmon and tuna are almost raw in the centre. Use fish sold for eating raw, or freeze it first (see Raw and cured fish).

Fish keeps cooking in its own heat, so take it off a couple of degrees early. Thin fillets cook too fast for a thermometer. There, trust your eyes: turn the fish when the edge has turned pale a little way up, and take it off the heat while the centre still glistens.

How to measure

Push the thermometer into the thickest part, from the side if the piece is thin. It must not touch bone or the fat cap, or the reading will be off. In a large joint, measure in two places.

Take the meat out a few degrees before it reaches your target. The temperature keeps rising while it rests: 2–3°C (4–5°F) for a steak, 4–6°C (7–11°F) for a large joint. Rest steaks for 5 minutes and joints for 15–20 minutes, loosely covered with foil. That way the juices stay in the meat when you carve it.

Take the meat out of the fridge half an hour before cooking, so that it cooks evenly all the way through.

Beef

The doneness table applies to tender cuts like fillet, rib-eye, sirloin and flank. Roast beef is juiciest medium rare, at 55–58 °C131–136 °F. Our Beef Wellington comes out of the oven at 55 °C131 °F.

Stewing beef, chuck and brisket are another matter. They don’t just need to be hot, they need to be tender: the connective tissue only starts to melt after a long time at around 85–95 °C185–203 °F. There, time and a fork decide, not the thermometer.

Lamb

A lamb loin is perfect at 55 °C131 °F, a leg of lamb on the bone at 60–65 °C140–149 °F, and a lamb shoulder slow-cooked until it falls apart at around 90 °C194 °F.

Pork

Modern pork can be eaten slightly pink, and it is much juicier that way. Different cuts suit different temperatures:

Ribs are simmered or baked until the meat comes away from the bone.

Game

Game is lean and dries out easily. Fillet and loin of venison and elk are seared quickly and served rare or medium rare. Joints are cooked slowly and are best medium rare to medium, at around 58–62 °C136–144 °F. We recommend the same for our Ostrich Tournedos.

Wild boar can carry trichinella, a parasite that is killed by heat, so it should always be cooked through. Meat sold in shops has been tested. If you got the meat straight from a hunter, ask whether it has been tested, and cook it through regardless.

Mince

Mince (ground meat) should always be cooked through, to at least 70 °C158 °F with no pink in the centre. When meat is minced, bacteria from the surface end up inside, and they only die if all of it gets hot. That goes for burgers too, however good the meat.

Chicken and turkey

Chicken and turkey should always be cooked through, to at least 70 °C158 °F in the thickest part. That is when salmonella and campylobacter die.

The thighs can take more heat than the breast and become more tender for it, since they have more connective tissue. Measure a whole bird in the thickest part of the thigh, close to but not touching the bone.

Chicken breast is juiciest if you take it out at 68 °C154 °F and let it rest for a few minutes. It will rise to 70 °C158 °F on its own.

Our temperatures follow the Swedish Food Agency. In the US, the USDA recommends 74 °C165 °F for poultry and 71 °C160 °F for mince.

Duck

Duck breast is usually served medium rare, like a steak. Whole ducks and legs are cooked longer, to 75–80 °C167–176 °F, so that they become tender.

Start the duck breast skin side down in a cold pan and let the heat come up slowly. That gives the fat time to render and the skin to crisp before the meat is overcooked.

When children, pregnant women, older people or anyone with a weakened immune system is eating, serve all poultry cooked through.

Raw and cured fish

Fish that will be eaten raw, cured as gravlax or made into ceviche should be frozen first, since the cold kills parasites that heat would otherwise take care of. Freeze the fish for at least one day at −20 °C−4 °F, or for three days in a standard home freezer at −18 °C0 °F. Fish sold as sushi grade or for eating raw has already been through this.

Shellfish

Shellfish turns rubbery long before it dries out. Scallops are seared for about a minute on each side and should still be slightly translucent in the centre. Prawns (shrimp) are done when they have just turned pink and curled into a C. An O means they have had too much.