Last updated: 2026-07-13

Meat Doneness Temperature

Two numbers decide how a piece of meat turns out: the temperature at its centre and the temperature you eat it at. Those are not the same, because meat keeps cooking after it leaves the heat. This calculator maps a meat type and a target doneness to a recommended final internal temperature, then subtracts a carryover allowance to tell you when to pull it off the heat.

Doneness is really a temperature. "Medium-rare" is not a colour or a cooking time — it is a band of internal temperatures at which a whole cut of beef or lamb has a particular texture and juiciness. Cooking to temperature rather than to the clock is what makes the result repeatable across different cuts, thicknesses, and ovens.

Doneness bands for whole-muscle beef and lamb

These bands describe the final internal temperature of an intact cut — a steak, roast, or chop — of beef or lamb. They are culinary targets, not safety thresholds.

Rare and medium-rare sit below the safe minimum for whole cuts, which is acceptable for intact beef and lamb because the bacteria of concern live on the surface and are killed by searing. That logic does not transfer to ground meat, mechanically tenderised meat, poultry, or pork taken below its minimum — see the safe minimums below.

USDA safe minimum internal temperatures

Food-safety guidance sets a floor that overrides doneness preference. The USDA safe minimum internal temperatures are:

This calculator enforces the floor: poultry is always held at 74 °C regardless of the doneness you select, fish is held at 63 °C, and pork is never taken below 63 °C. Only whole-muscle beef and lamb are allowed into the lower doneness bands.

Carryover cooking, and why you pull early

When meat comes off the heat, its outer layers are much hotter than its centre. Heat keeps flowing inward until the temperature evens out, so the internal reading climbs during the rest. This is carryover cooking. For steaks and chops it adds roughly 1 to 3 °C (2 to 5 °F); for large roasts it can be more.

To land on the target instead of overshooting it, you pull the meat off the heat a few degrees below the final temperature and let carryover finish the job:

Resting is not just about temperature. As the muscle fibres relax, juices that were driven toward the centre redistribute, so a rested cut loses less liquid when you slice it.

Worked example

A beef steak cooked to medium-rare targets a final internal temperature of 57 °C (135 °F). With a typical steak carryover of about 3 °C:

Take the steak off the heat when the centre reads 54 °C, tent it loosely, and rest it for a few minutes. It drifts up to about 57 °C — medium-rare — by the time you cut it.

Where to measure

Temperature only means something if you read it in the right place. Insert an instant-read probe into the thickest part of the cut and stop at the geometric centre, which is the last point to reach temperature. Keep the tip away from bone, large fat pockets, and the pan or grate, all of which mislead the reading. For thin cuts, slide the probe in from the side so the sensing tip sits in the middle, and on large or irregular pieces take several readings and trust the lowest.

Before you cook, the Meat Thawing Time Calculator helps you plan a safe thaw, and for large roasts the Brisket Cook Time Calculator and Turkey Roasting Time Calculator estimate total cook time.