====== Cooking Temperatures ======

====== Chicken, Turkey, Duck ======
| **Temperature**| **USDA Safe**| **Practical**| 
| Whole|  165°  |  165°  | 
| Breast|  165°  |  165°  | 
| Thigh|  165°  |  165°-175°  | 
| Ground|  165°  |  170°-175°  | 

====== Beef, Veal & Lamb ======
{{ :recipes:notes:cook-a-steak-blue-rare-medium-welldone.jpg?direct&300|}}
When determining the temperature to cook your meat to, there's a crucial distinction to be made between whole muscle cuts and ground meat. The food scientist Harold McGee explains:

"... meats inevitably harbor bacteria, and it takes temperatures of 160 degrees Fahrenheit or higher to guarantee the rapid destruction of the bacteria that can cause human disease — temperatures at which meat is well-done and has lost much of its moisture. So is eating juicy, pink-red meat risky? Not if the cut is an intact piece of healthy muscle tissue, a steak or chop, and its surface has been thoroughly cooked: bacteria are on the meat surfaces, not inside. "

In other words, with whole cuts of meat it is the external temp, not the internal temp, that must exceed 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Normal cooking methods — sauteing, grilling, roasting, braising, etc. — raise surface temperatures far above 160 degrees Fahrenheit. (To get a sense of this, consider that meat only begins to brown at 230 degrees Fahrenheit.) People very rarely get sick from rare or medium-rare meat. Overwhelmingly, people get sick from the way meat is handled in the home: from cross-contamination, lack of cleanliness and holding meat at dangerous temps. Internal temperature should be the least of your worries. [[http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/articles/meat-and-poultry-temperature-guide.html?oc=linkback|more]]
| **Temperature**| **USDA Safe**| **Practical**| **Finger Test**|
| Rare|  |  125°  | Fore|  
| Medium Rare|  |  130°-135°  | Middle|  
| Medium|  |  135°-140°  | Fourth |
| Medium Well|  145°  |  140°-150°  |  |
| Well|  |  155°+  | Pinky|
| Ground|  160°  |  160°  |  

===== Finger test =====
Lightly touch thumb to finger on same hand.  Feel the fleshy base of the thumb with the other hand.  That's the same feel the meat will have.\\
{{:recipes:notes:finger_raw.jpg?direct&100|}}{{:recipes:notes:finger_rare.jpg?direct&100|}}{{:recipes:notes:finger_mediumrare.jpg?direct&100|}}
{{:recipes:notes:finger_medium.jpg?direct&100|}}{{:recipes:notes:finger_well.jpg?direct&100|}}

====== Pork ======
| **Temperature**| **USDA Safe**| **Practical**| 
| Medium Rare|  145°  |  145°  | 
| Medium|  |  150°  | 
| Well|  |  160°  | 
| Ground|  |  160°  | 

====== Seafood ======
Seafood cooks quickly and is usually thin.  This means that it can be tough to measure with a thermometer, so use the visual indications.
| **Type**| **USDA Safe**| **Cook Until**| 
| Fin Fish|  145°  |  Flesh is opaque and separates easily with a fork.| 
| Shrimp, Lobster & Crab|  |  Flesh is pearly and opaque.| 
| Clams, Oysters & Mussels|  |  Shells open during cooking.| 
| Scallops|  |  Flesh is milky white or opaque and firm.| 



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