Cooking Answers

Some kitchen questions are about safety and have firm answers. Others are about why something went wrong, and those answers are usually less tidy than the internet pretends. This page covers both, and tries to be clear about which is which.

Safe cooking temperatures

These are US Department of Agriculture figures, measured with a food thermometer in the thickest part of the meat, away from bone and fat. Colour is not a reliable test — a burger can turn brown before it’s safe, and stay pink after it is.

Chicken and all poultry: 165°F (74°C)

That covers whole birds, breasts, thighs, wings, ground poultry and stuffing. No rest time is required.

Ground beef, pork, lamb and veal: 160°F (71°C)

Also no rest time. Ground meat needs a higher temperature than whole cuts because grinding spreads surface bacteria all the way through.

Steaks, chops and roasts: 145°F (63°C), then rest 3 minutes

The three-minute rest is part of the safety guidance, not a serving suggestion — the temperature stays constant or keeps rising during it, and that time contributes to killing bacteria.

Fish: 145°F (63°C)

Or cook until the flesh is no longer translucent and separates easily. Shellfish has no published temperature: cook shrimp, lobster, crab and scallops until the flesh is pearly and opaque, and clams, oysters and mussels until the shells open.

Reheating leftovers: 165°F (74°C)

Bring soups, sauces and gravies to a rolling boil. When microwaving, cover the food and rotate it so it heats evenly.

Is pork really safe at 145°F?

Yes, for whole cuts. The USDA lowered it from 160°F to 145°F plus a three-minute rest on 24 May 2011. A lot of older cookbooks and a lot of relatives have not caught up. Ground pork is still 160°F.

If you’re cooking in the UK

The Food Standards Agency doesn’t give home cooks a single target number the way the USDA does. It uses visual tests instead: poultry should be steaming hot throughout with juices running clear and no pink meat.

Two differences are worth knowing. The FSA groups pork with poultry as meat that can carry bacteria throughout, so it does not endorse faintly pink pork the way the USDA does. And while it allows whole cuts like steak to be served pink if the outside is properly seared, it is categorical that burgers should not be served rare or pink at home. Rolled joints count as mince for this purpose, because the outer surface has been folded inside.

Why did my food do that?

Why do my cookies spread too much?

King Arthur Baking points to five causes, and butter temperature is the one that catches most people:

  • Butter too warm. It melts and spreads before the cookie sets. Butter should be cool to the touch and pliable with some resistance, not soft.
  • Too much liquid or sugar, throwing off the wet-to-dry ratio.
  • Oversized eggs. Recipes assume large eggs, about 50g out of the shell.
  • Expired baking powder or soda.
  • An oven that wasn’t fully preheated, so the fat melts before the structure sets.

The reliable fixes: weigh your ingredients, chill the dough for 30 to 60 minutes, and let baking sheets cool between batches instead of putting dough onto a hot pan.

Why did my cake sink in the middle?

Two causes are well established. Too much leavening over-inflates the crumb, which then collapses. And underbaking — the cake looks fine coming out of the oven, then falls as it cools.

A better doneness test than the toothpick alone: the cake should be pulling away from the sides of the pan, and the centre should spring back when you press it gently.

You’ll also see opening the oven door, overmixing and wrong pan size blamed for this. Those are widely repeated, but we couldn’t trace them to a named authority, so we’re not going to state them as fact.

What’s the difference between baking soda and baking powder?

Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate — a base. It needs an acid already in the recipe to react: buttermilk, yogurt, sour cream, lemon juice, vinegar, honey or molasses. It starts reacting the moment it gets wet.

Baking powder is baking soda with an acid already mixed in, plus a little starch. It needs no added acid and is usually double-acting, reacting once when mixed and again in the oven’s heat.

They are not interchangeable at equal amounts. Use three times as much baking powder to replace baking soda. To replace 1 teaspoon of baking powder, mix ¼ teaspoon baking soda + ½ teaspoon cream of tartar + ¼ teaspoon cornstarch. Baking soda used without enough acid leaves a soapy or metallic taste.

Does resting meat actually do anything?

Yes, but less dramatically than usually claimed, and the popular explanation for why is probably wrong.

America’s Test Kitchen cooked five pork loins to the same temperature and sliced them at different intervals. The unrested loin shed about 10 tablespoons of liquid; resting 10 minutes cut that to about 4 tablespoons — roughly a 60% reduction. Beyond 10 minutes the returns drop off quickly.

The common explanation is that muscle fibres relax and reabsorb the juices. Several people who have tested this dispute it, arguing the fibres aren’t balloons and the juice isn’t trapped in them. The more likely mechanism is simply that the juices cool and thicken slightly, so less of it runs out when you cut.

Practical version: rest a steak or chop for about 10 minutes and don’t feel guilty about not waiting longer.

What is carryover cooking?

Meat keeps cooking after it leaves the heat, because the hot outside is still driving heat inward. That’s why pulling something out exactly at your target temperature usually overshoots it.

How much depends on size and oven temperature, and America’s Test Kitchen deliberately declines to publish one universal number. As a rough guide, the thermometer maker ThermoWorks suggests a small steak or chicken piece rises at least 3–4°F, while a large roast or turkey can rise 10–15°F. Treat those as ballpark figures, not precision.

Do ingredients really need to be at room temperature?

Usually, but not always — and it matters most in creamed recipes.

When you beat butter and sugar together, the sugar crystals cut air bubbles into the fat. Adding cold eggs to that stiffens the butter into small hard chunks and damages the structure you just built. So it matters for creamed cakes and cookies, cheesecake, enriched yeast doughs, and whites headed for meringue or buttercream.

It matters much less for one-bowl stir-together recipes, where the eggs are contributing fat and protein rather than trapped air.

If you’re cooking in Canada

Health Canada’s recommendations differ from the US figures in several places, so Canadian cooks shouldn’t simply use the USDA numbers for every food.

Health Canada recommends:

  • Poultry pieces and ground poultry: 165°F (74°C)
  • Whole poultry: 180°F (82°C)
  • Ground beef, pork, lamb and veal: 160°F (71°C)
  • Whole cuts of pork: 160°F (71°C)
  • Beef, veal and lamb: 145°F (63°C) for medium-rare, 160°F (71°C) for medium, or 170°F (77°C) for well done
  • Fish: 158°F (70°C)
  • Shellfish and crustaceans: 165°F (74°C)
  • Leftovers: 165°F (74°C)

Use a digital food thermometer in the thickest part of the food, avoiding bone. Colour alone isn’t a reliable way to tell whether meat is safely cooked.

If you’re cooking in Australia

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) advises using a food thermometer and says that, in general, cooking food to 70°C (158°F) in the centre will help ensure it is safe.

For higher-risk meats, FSANZ specifically recommends at least 75°C (167°F) in the centre for:

  • all poultry, whether whole, in pieces or minced
  • minced meat, including hamburgers, sausages and mince
  • rolled meats
  • liver and other offal

Whole cuts of red meat are different because harmful bacteria are generally on the outside. Australian guidance therefore allows steaks and similar intact cuts to be cooked to preference when the outside has been properly cooked.

The important point is that safe cooking temperatures aren’t identical around the world. If you’re following a recipe written for another country, check the food-safety guidance where you live.

Sources & further reading