🇺🇸 English (US)

Methodology

Last reviewed: 2026-07-28

Every number on this site comes from somewhere. This page says where, and where the sources disagree with one another.

Why temperature, not time

Cooking time depends on thickness, starting temperature, how accurate your oven actually is, how crowded the pan is, and whether the meat came straight out of the fridge. Internal temperature depends on none of those things. It is the only measure that means the same thing in every kitchen, which is why every page here leads with a temperature and treats time as a rough estimate.

A safe minimum is not a doneness target

These two get confused constantly, and they answer different questions. A safe minimum is a food-safety threshold set by a national authority: below it, pathogens may survive. A doneness target is about texture and preference.

They can point in opposite directions. A ribeye steak is safe at the USDA minimum of 63 °C / 145 °F, yet most people cook it to 54–57 °C / 129–135 °F — lower than the safe minimum — because an intact cut of beef carries its bacteria on the outside, where searing destroys them. Ground beef gets no doneness scale at all on this site, because grinding distributes surface bacteria throughout the meat and removes that reasoning entirely.

Cuts where only safety matters show a single number. Cuts where preference matters show a scale. That distinction is the whole structure of the site, not a presentation choice.

Carryover cooking

Meat keeps cooking after it comes off the heat. The outside is hotter than the centre, and that heat carries on moving inward while the meat rests — typically around 3 °C / 5 °F on a steak, and up to 6 °C / 11 °F on a large roast. Every cut page lists both the rest time and the expected rise.

The practical consequence is that you pull the meat *below* your target rather than at it. Pulling a steak at 57 °C to land on 57 °C is the most common way to overshoot into the next doneness level.

Where the numbers come from

Each language follows its own national food-safety authority rather than translating one country's guidance, because the guidance genuinely differs. This table is generated from the site's data, so it cannot fall out of step with the pages themselves.

Language Food safety authority Status Last updated
English (US) U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service Verified 2026-05-12
Svenska Livsmedelsverket (Swedish Food Agency) Verified 2026-05-12
Deutsch Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung Provisional 2026-05-12
Français ANSES (Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l'alimentation) Verified 2026-07-28
Español Agencia Española de Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición Provisional 2026-05-12
Nederlands Voedingscentrum (Nederlands Voedingscentrum) Verified 2026-07-28

Where local guidance differs from the USDA baseline

The site's underlying data uses USDA figures as a baseline, and each language overrides them where its own authority sets a different number. Those overrides are listed here — this is computed by comparing the two, not maintained by hand.

Svenska

Deutsch

Français

  • Ribeye Steak — 65 °C149 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • New York Strip Steak — 65 °C149 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Sirloin Steak — 65 °C149 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Beef Tenderloin — 65 °C149 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • T-Bone Steak — 65 °C149 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Flank Steak — 65 °C149 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Skirt Steak — 65 °C149 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Hanger Steak — 65 °C149 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Prime Rib — 65 °C149 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Ground Beef — 70 °C158 °F here, 71 °C160 °F per USDA
  • Pork Chop — 70 °C158 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Pork Tenderloin — 70 °C158 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Pork Loin Roast — 70 °C158 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Ground Pork — 70 °C158 °F here, 71 °C160 °F per USDA
  • Chicken Breast — 70 °C158 °F here, 74 °C165 °F per USDA
  • Chicken Thigh — 70 °C158 °F here, 74 °C165 °F per USDA
  • Whole Chicken — 70 °C158 °F here, 74 °C165 °F per USDA
  • Ground Chicken — 70 °C158 °F here, 74 °C165 °F per USDA
  • Turkey Breast — 70 °C158 °F here, 74 °C165 °F per USDA
  • Whole Turkey — 70 °C158 °F here, 74 °C165 °F per USDA
  • Ground Turkey — 70 °C158 °F here, 74 °C165 °F per USDA
  • Lamb Chop — 65 °C149 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Rack of Lamb — 65 °C149 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Leg of Lamb — 65 °C149 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Ground Lamb — 70 °C158 °F here, 71 °C160 °F per USDA
  • Salmon — 60 °C140 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Tuna — 60 °C140 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Cod — 60 °C140 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Halibut — 60 °C140 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Mahi-Mahi — 60 °C140 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA

Español

Nederlands

  • Pork Chop — 70 °C158 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Pork Tenderloin — 70 °C158 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Pork Loin Roast — 70 °C158 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Chicken Breast — 75 °C167 °F here, 74 °C165 °F per USDA
  • Chicken Thigh — 75 °C167 °F here, 74 °C165 °F per USDA
  • Whole Chicken — 75 °C167 °F here, 74 °C165 °F per USDA
  • Ground Chicken — 75 °C167 °F here, 74 °C165 °F per USDA
  • Salmon — 60 °C140 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Tuna — 60 °C140 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Cod — 60 °C140 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Halibut — 60 °C140 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA
  • Mahi-Mahi — 60 °C140 °F here, 63 °C145 °F per USDA

What is still provisional

Some languages are marked provisional in the table above. Those follow a deliberately cautious European reading rather than a verified national source, and they are being replaced language by language with values taken from the responsible authority. Where a page rests on provisional data it says so, on the page.

This is the honest state of things rather than a roadmap: provisional means "safe but not yet verified against the national source", and it should be read that way.

Corrections

Who maintains this and how to reach them is on the about page. If a number looks wrong, that is the address to use.