By Aaron HutchersonThe Washington Post We’ve ranted and raved for years about the benefits of an instant-read thermometer and how using one can help you be a more confident home cook. It’s useful for baked goods, deep frying, custards, cheesemaking and — perhaps most so — meats, where over- or underestimating doneness can leave you with food that’s unpleasant to eat or that might even make you sick. Though the basic premise of measuring the temperature of meat is simple, that number can easily be misleading if not taken properly.
Recently, I was watching an episode of Netflix’s “Barbecue Showdown” in which one of the contestants stuck the thermometer probe vertically into the top of a steak and saw a reading they were looking for. But when they served the meat, the judges found it was undercooked. How could that happen? It’s possible the thermometer needed to be recalibrated.
The more likely answer is the contestant misjudged how far they inserted the metal tip into the steak. When measuring a food’s temperature, the key is to find what’s known as the thermal center. With any cooked food, the outside will be the hottest, and the temperature will gradually decrease until you reach the thermal center, which is the coldest area.
This is the temperature you want to read with your thermometer. (One exception to this rule is during sous-vide cooking, when the temperature of the food is consistent throughout.) When you factor in that the temperature sensor on s.