Where do you put a thermometer in a steak?

Where exactly does the probe go?

Insert it from the side into the center of the thickest part, away from bone and fat. Going in from the side puts the tip in the middle of the steak's thickness, which is hard to hit from the top of a thin steak.

How do you find the true center temperature?

Push the probe past the center, then draw it back slowly while you watch the display. The center is the last part of the steak to heat up, so the reading to trust is the lowest reading. Compare it with the pull temperatures on the doneness chart.

Which thermometer works best for steak?

The easiest fit for most steaks is a digital instant-read, pushed in from the side. Digital instant-reads sense at the tip: thermocouples read in about 2 to 5 seconds with about ¼ inch of the probe in the meat, and thermistors take about 10 seconds and need at least ½ inch. Dial thermometers sense along 2 to 2½ inches of the stem, so a dial can read a thin steak only if you push it in from the side.

For a thick steak in the oven, as in a reverse sear, a leave-in probe thermometer is designed to stay in the food while it cooks, with the probe on a cord to a base unit. An instant-read is not: take the reading, then take it out.

Does poking a steak let the juices run out?

Hardly. A probe or a fork releases almost no extra juice. In side-by-side tests, steaks turned with a fork lost the same moisture as steaks turned with tongs, and probed steaks lost no more than unprobed ones. Check as often as you need to.

How do you check that a thermometer is accurate?

Use ice water. Fill a glass with crushed ice and a little water, hold the probe at least 2 inches in for about 30 seconds, and it should read 32°F (0°C). Boiling water is a weaker check, because water boils at 212°F (100°C) only at sea level and lower at altitude.