| 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 |
| 1 | 103 | 205 | 308 | 410 |
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or roasting meat at high temperatures. They think HCAs appear predominantly in
charred, blackened meat, that happens when you let meat juices and fat burn in
the fire. They are probably not dangerous if you eat them in moderation. These
scientists also believe that marinating meat, poultry and fish reduces HCAs.
TASTINGS Guidelines for final internal meat temperatures
Doneness
medium-rare
medium
Meat temperature
145°F (63°C)
160°F(72°C)
Meat color
center pink
center light pink
brown throughout
well-done
170°F (77°C)
Let it set
Letting a large piece of the meat, such as roasts, stand after roasting allows juices to
diffuse into the tissue throughout the meat. This standing period is called setting of the meat.
During this time not only the juices, but the meat temperature equalize. The oven heats the meat
from outside in, therefore the surface area is always hotter. During setting the hotter outside
tends to cool while the cooler inside tends to warm. Setting makes carving considerably easier,
too. It is a welcome 15-minute time period for the cook when he or she can forget about the meat
and can concentrate on sauces, vegetables, bread, butter, beverages, kids, pets and other myriad
of tasks before serving the meal. Count on setting a roast for one minute per pound (two minutes
per kilo). Even smaller pieces, like steaks, benefit from a short rest before heading to the table.
Raw meat
A third way of serving meat I haven't mentioned yet, is raw. Serving raw meat has two
distinct advantages: it involves minimal kitchen work and you can't ruin the meat by cooking it
wrong. No one eats raw meat much any more, partly because it is out of fashion but also because
raw meat is no longer as safe as it once was when the route from the ranch to the butcher was
considerably shorter.
Steak tartar, which is raw, freshly scraped, high-quality beef blended with raw eggs,
onion, capers, caviar or anchovy, was a very popular and classy buffet item in the 1940s and
1950s. It was a fad more than anything else. Raw meat doesn't taste very good—it is salty, tastes
like blood and is more difficult for the stomach enzymes to break down than cooked meat. True
meat flavor only develops during cooking.
Raw meat, in case that’s what you crave for, that you scrape from a freshly-cut surface of
a chunk of meat from a healthy animal is still perfectly safe.
Microwave cooking
Because of its speed and convenience, microwave oven cooking has become the way of
life in many kitchens. But the microwave is a poor choice for cooking most cuts of meat. If the
meat has a lot of connective tissue, the microwave heat converts collagen to gelatin, but if the cut
is tender and has little connective tissue, the meat fibers toughen before the meat is done. The
microwave also causes more drip loss than either roasting in a conventional oven or in a
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