First determine your goal: rare, medium or well done
Rare steak = 130 degrees or less and has a cool red center
Medium rare steak = 140 degrees warm red center
Medium steak = 150 degrees with a hot pink center
Medium Well = 160-degrees with a pink and gray center
Well done steak = gray all the way through.
RARE - has lost no juice - 100% juice
Medium Rare - has lost 25% of its juice - 75% juice
Medium - has lost about 50% - 50% juice
well done steak has NO juice.
There are 3 ways to tell when steaks are done:
1. Thermometer, which doesn't always work correctly with small steaks on a hot grill
2. The hand and touch method: loose hand = rare, tight hand = medium, fist = well done
3. Watch the flow of the juices As a steak cooks, the juices inside the cells heat up and begin to move around.
When the juices get to 140-degrees, the cells bust and the juices flow out of the steak.
This is called this bleeding.
When a steak begins to bleed it is medium rare.
As temperature inside the steak heats up, it continues to bleed and it goes to medium, then well done.
If you want your steaks medium, just cook your steaks 'til they start to bleed and move them to a cooler part of the grill and let them sit for another couple minutes so more juice can leave.
For a well done steak, just let the steak sit and bleed all the way out until there is no juice left.