Cooking Temperatures

The Late Night Gourmet said:
Does anyone else use something like this?

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I find it essential when frying a turkey: stick the probe in, carefully lower the beast into the medieval anti-siege device, and then monitor the temperature from a safe distance with an app on your phone. I've only used it once for large things in the oven, and it's flawless. Normally, however, I just use this since it's quick and easy to use:

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No...

Oh dear. It isn't something I even think about having. The meat thermometer has been a prize for the Spice challenge but I don't have one!
 
MrsDangermouse said:
Interesting. What are the temperatures on yours?
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I can't photograph them unfortunately. To get close enough to be able to read them, all you get is a reflection of the phone on the photo. But here are a few of the temperatures.

Old New

Beef, medium 70 71
Lamb, medium 80 77
Pork 90 77
Turkey, fresh 90 82
Ham, full 75 60

Interestingly, neither gives a temperature for chicken.
 
My old Zanussi oven used to have a meat thermometer that you plugged in to a point inside the oven at one end and stuck in the meat at the other. You could then set the temperature and, as soon as the meat reached the required temp, the oven switched itself off. I found it OK for meat that had a regular or flat surface, but not very good for poultry. I still preferred to stick a sharp knife into the meat to see when it was properly cooked.
 
flyinglentris said:
Wow! I totally disagree with this. I think controlling temperature has an enormous effect on final results. And I am always very conscious about how I proceed in terms of both temp and time. That's why we can talk about overcooking and undercooking, cardboard tasting and shoe leather. Consider a math problem where you calculate the rate of expiration of water from a 2 inch Collette steak. Does water expire from the steak at the same rate for every temperature and how much water will be left for each state of done for every possible temperature used. Just how juicy will that steak be?
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One of my cookery books that does state an oven temperature says use 200 C, while another says 170 C, and so many minutes per pound or kilo. Most supermarket meat says 180 C on the pack, and they often give a total cooking time rather than so many minutes per pound or kilo. It doesn't seem to matter what type of meat or poultry you have (except for large turkeys or very large cuts of meat)
 
For most "normal" roasts I'll usually cook at 180C (fan oven) for roughly 20 mins per lb - no matter what the meat. If I'm doing something that needs slow cooking then I'll start with a hot blast for 15-30 mins then turn the temperature down to something around 100-150C for the rest of the time.

Just before Christmas I was researching this topic: looking at the different time and temperature methods of cooking the turkey. What I found is that there are as many ways to cook a turkey as there are websites on the internet! The one I originally setlled on was 35 minutes per kilo, with the initial 30 minutes at 200C and the rest of the time at 160C. For our 7 kilo bird that would have meant a total cooking time of 4hrs 12mins.

But when we picked up the turkey, the farmer included some instructions that he said he'd had good comments on the previous year so in a fit of adventurousness we followed them instead: 24 mins per kilo (for a 7lb bird) with the initial 30 mins at 230C with the bird breast-down, and the rest of the time the right way up at 190C - for a total cooking time of 2hrs 54mins.

And as usual, no matter what recipe I follow, the turkey was ready half an hour early :eek: They do say that Norfolk Black turkeys cook quicker than other turkeys, or maybe my oven runs hot (but I've checked it with an oven thermometer and it seems to be well calibrated). But that's why for special occasions if I'm doing a large roast that I really want to make sure is perfect, I start checking with the meat thermometer at least 30 mins before the end of the expected cooking time.

Elawin said:
My old Zanussi oven used to have a meat thermometer that you plugged in to a point inside the oven at one end and stuck in the meat at the other. You could then set the temperature and, as soon as the meat reached the required temp, the oven switched itself off. I found it OK for meat that had a regular or flat surface, but not very good for poultry. I still preferred to stick a sharp knife into the meat to see when it was properly cooked.
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My mum has an oven like that, it also has a steam function and pyrolytic cleaning. I had severe oven-envy when I first saw it (still do in fact!). The funny thing was, apart from the pyrolytic cleaning she didn't even realise it had those functions....she thought it was just a standard oven. :laugh:
 
MrsDangermouse said:
And as usual, no matter what recipe I follow, the turkey was ready half an hour early :eek:
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I find the same thing! You also need to build in resting time afterwards which works out quite well as you can then cook the veg. I leave the turkey in the tin, cover in foil and a couple of T-towels where it will sit quite happily for 45 mins or more.
 
morning glory said:
I find the same thing! You also need to build in resting time afterwards which works out quite well as you can then cook the veg. I leave the turkey in the tin, cover in foil and a couple of T-towels where it will sit quite happily for 45 mins or more.
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I'd already factored a generous resting time......the resting time is not only essential for the meat, but the turkey almost filled the oven so there wasn't room for all the other things at the same time, so whilst the turkey was resting, all the other stuff was cooking LOL I think it had about an hour resting in total - it stayed plenty warm enough though :okay:
 
MrsDangermouse said:
For most "normal" roasts I'll usually cook at 180C (fan oven) for roughly 20 mins per lb - no matter what the meat. If I'm doing something that needs slow cooking then I'll start with a hot blast for 15-30 mins then turn the temperature down to something around 100-150C for the rest of the time.....
My mum has an oven like that, it also has a steam function and pyrolytic cleaning. I had severe oven-envy when I first saw it (still do in fact!). The funny thing was, apart from the pyrolytic cleaning she didn't even realise it had those functions....she thought it was just a standard oven. :laugh:
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I usually cook meat at around 170-180C fan, except for lamb. I can't stand fatty lamb, so I cook that in a very hot oven (230C fan) for the first 20 minutes, reducing to moderate (160C fan) for the rest of the cooking time at 20 mins per lb plus 20 mins. Most of the fat just melts away and the meat is very moist. I always put some liquid in with the meat though, as in my recipe for arni psito me patates https://www.cookingbites.com/thread...c-and-lemon-sauce-arni-psito-me-patates.7116/
 
MrsDangermouse said:
For most "normal" roasts I'll usually cook at 180C (fan oven) for roughly 20 mins per lb - no matter what the meat. If I'm doing something that needs slow cooking then I'll start with a hot blast for 15-30 mins then turn the temperature down to something around 100-150C for the rest of the time.

Just before Christmas I was researching this topic: looking at the different time and temperature methods of cooking the turkey. What I found is that there are as many ways to cook a turkey as there are websites on the internet! The one I originally setlled on was 35 minutes per kilo, with the initial 30 minutes at 200C and the rest of the time at 160C. For our 7 kilo bird that would have meant a total cooking time of 4hrs 12mins.

But when we picked up the turkey, the farmer included some instructions that he said he'd had good comments on the previous year so in a fit of adventurousness we followed them instead: 24 mins per kilo (for a 7lb bird) with the initial 30 mins at 230C with the bird breast-down, and the rest of the time the right way up at 190C - for a total cooking time of 2hrs 54mins.

And as usual, no matter what recipe I follow, the turkey was ready half an hour early :eek: They do say that Norfolk Black turkeys cook quicker than other turkeys, or maybe my oven runs hot (but I've checked it with an oven thermometer and it seems to be well calibrated). But that's why for special occasions if I'm doing a large roast that I really want to make sure is perfect, I start checking with the meat thermometer at least 30 mins before the end of the expected cooking time.


My mum has an oven like that, it also has a steam function and pyrolytic cleaning. I had severe oven-envy when I first saw it (still do in fact!). The funny thing was, apart from the pyrolytic cleaning she didn't even realise it had those functions....she thought it was just a standard oven. :laugh:
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The Cannon gas/microwave I had way back in the 1990s had a cleaning function. It used a far higher temperature than the oven itself. After about 15 minutes you were left with a pile of ash. My current oven is a pain to clean. I may get it done professionally.
 
Elawin said:
The Cannon gas/microwave I had way back in the 1990s had a cleaning function. It used a far higher temperature than the oven itself. After about 15 minutes you were left with a pile of ash. My current oven is a pain to clean. I may get it done professionally.
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That sounds a similar to pyrolytic cleaning - its much more effective than the normal self-cleaning ovens and as you say all you are left with is a small pile of ash.

I loathe cleaning the oven - really wish I'd spent a bit more and got a better one when we replaced it a few years ago. I had the oven professionally cleaned just before Christmas - it came out looking almost new again :happy: I can get almost the same results with Oven Pride but it takes forever and its a horrid job so I'd rather pay the £55 once a year and get someone else to do it for me. :okay:
 
MrsDangermouse said:
That sounds a similar to pyrolytic cleaning - its much more effective than the normal self-cleaning ovens and as you say all you are left with is a small pile of ash.

I loathe cleaning the oven - really wish I'd spent a bit more and got a better one when we replaced it a few years ago. I had the oven professionally cleaned just before Christmas - it came out looking almost new again :happy: I can get almost the same results with Oven Pride but it takes forever and its a horrid job so I'd rather pay the £55 once a year and get someone else to do it for me. :okay:
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Its undoubtedly worth it to pay for professional cleaning. I do the same.
 
morning glory said:
Its undoubtedly worth it to pay for professional cleaning. I do the same.
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Absolutely! I have better (and much more fun!) things to do. :chef::spaghetti::popcorn::bookworm::headphone::chocegg:

Its worth finding a good company and sticking with them though...the first time I had the oven cleaned they did a great job on the cleaning but when they put the fan back together it made a really annoying buzzing sound. That'd would have been ok if they'd come back to fix it when I told them, but they basically ignored me so that put be off oven cleaning companies for a couple of years...until the oven just got toooooo dirty. The new company I found seem great..and no annoying buzzing oven any more :okay:
 
The fan in my oven made an awful racket when the oven was new. Even next door could hear it! Not good, when I mainly use my oven in the early hours to benefit from Economy 7. Whirlpool sent an engineer out pretty promptly. Apparently one of the spacers had been left off. Once he fitted the new spacer, there was no more banging!
 
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