Hacker News Reader

Comment by spiffytech | Hacker News Reader

I know people who can cook a lot of food pretty well, but don't understand why they can't use a laser thermometer to check their meat.

Knowing really is half the battle.

View on HN

If you cook enough you can tell by feel

The resistance of the steak is going to depend on what cut of meat you are poking (sirloin is stiffer than filet), the grade of meat (prime is more tender than select), how thick it is (thick cuts will yield more than thin), the age of the steer (young is more tender), the breed of steer (cooked Wagyu is more tender than Holstein), the age of the meat (wet aged is more tender than fresh killed), and what the steer was fed (corn fed is usually more tender than grass fed), among other things. [1]

It's not entirely a myth; if you've poked hundreds of steaks by the same supplier, same cuts, same grade, you'll eventually get a feel for them.

The thermometer analogy does carry over though. Some people are not there to be productive or good at their jobs. The job is about them, not their work.

And you can go your whole life without ever cooking or tasting a good steak. The people who can tell the difference will go elsewhere, and those who can't will come back.

And then there's always the boss who wishes he started a franchise but will go with what he has - he'll hire a bunch of newbies or foreign workers who know how to use a thermometer.

[1] https://amazingribs.com/ratings-reviews/best-thermometers/ho...

Yes, I meant given a similar cut ofc

Not with steak. That has been thoroughly debunked over and over. Just use a meat thermometer, it makes it easy peasy.

If you cook enough you won't even need to.

What I've really gotten out of this is that I'd like to learn how to use a (proper) meat thermometer when I make steaks.

They have digital thermometers now that will map out the temperature curve and even predicted when the meat will reach core temp. You really don't need to use them many times before you internalize the behavior.

Since this is HN, here's the maximum technology option: https://combustion.inc/

They have a thermometer with multiple sensors in it that finds the core temperature of the food you're cooking automatically, and predicts the rise in temperature over time. So the alarm goes off when it's time to pull and rest, which is absolutely amazing.

I have one of the Combustion thermometers, and I like it. I used it more than I expected. In particular, I use it for roasting chicken and for sous vide things more than anything else. Then I got a Breville Control Freak, and I used it much less. :)

For maximum techyness, Combustion, Inc. correctly identified that sous vide is normally an overdamped system. If you follow their instructions you can increase the water temp some and then bring it back down in order to move the system closer to critically damped and speed up your sous vide.

I've had a Combustion thermometer since they came out. The best uses for me are butterflied whole chicken on the grill and roasts in the oven. You can get extremely precise results and account for carry over cooking very easily. Huge leap in results.

Is this company owned by either Chris Young or Kenji Lopez-Alt? A few times I have seen them using this product and promoting it. I am curious if a bunch of influencer chefs decided to create a company to create this product.

AIUI it's owned by Chris, and Kenji is a fan, but doesn't have any ties other than that.

The funny part is steak is one of the easiest foods to cook without a thermometer

You don’t have to worry about undercooking like you do with most other meats and most steak cuts will be delicious anywhere from 11-130 (if you cook a filet to 130, it won’t be the best but it’ll still be good) and some can go even higher

It’s not like poultry where the range where it’s “good” is very small. A 170 chicken breast is almost inedible and 160 is not safe…

I agree with your broader point but the chicken food safety thing is missing a ton of important nuance. The safety comes from how long you hold the meat at the temp. 165 is the safe point if you are only holding for 10s. 145 is safe if you hold it for 10 minutes.

This is why sous vide is such a popular way to cook chicken. You can hold a breast at 145 for hours trivially.

Sure. But then you need a thermometer.

Or understand risk ratios and don't rely on food that's 100% safe.

You can be safe down to 135F if you give it enough time. https://douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Poultry_and_Eggs

In particular, I use 135F for 90 minutes (75 minimum recommended) to pasteurize eggs that I am going to be putting into something that asks for "raw" eggs (egg nog, mayonnaise, etc.) that I will serve to other people (if it's just for myself, I'll probably just be lazy and use the raw egg). So far, nobody has noticed any difference from "raw".

160 degrees for a chicken breast is perfectly safe. Considerably lower temperatures can also produce microbiologically safe chicken when combined with sufficient holding time.

165 is a rough rule of thumb, not some magic number like the boiling point of water at 1 bar or something.

laser thermometer only measures surface temperature, unlike meat probes that measure internal temp. depending on the cut size or shape, initial temperature and probably some other factors internal temp will vary wildly for the given surface temperature. combustion probes mentioned in the sibling measure temp in several points at once to estimate readings even more precisely.

Ok, using a laser thermometer for food is hilarious. Thanks for this xD

It's not wrong for all food, surface temperature measurement has its place, you just have to understand it is surface measurement.

I use it to spot check the temp of my cast iron pan all the time.

It is reasonable for measuring cooking environment. Like say pizza oven. Just have to be aware of things like right emissivity.

for a caramel or some sauces it's legit

Reply on news.ycombinator.com