Meat Temperature Guide
Pick what you're cooking and how you like it, and get the temperature to pull it off the heat, where it rests to, and the food-authority minimum beside it. Type what your probe says and it tells you how far there is to go.
Australian unitsFree, no sign-upReviewed 8 September 2026
What are you cooking?
How do you want it?
Take it off the heat at
52°C
Medium-rare steak & chops rests to about 54°C. Warm pink-red centre, juicy. The steakhouse default.
Below the NSW Food Authority minimum of 63°C for whole cuts of beef, veal, lamb and pork, medium-rare, rested 3 minutes. Cook to the minimum for anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or unwell.
Pull at
52°C
off the heat
Rested
54°C
after 3–5 min
Authority min.
63°C
NSW Food Authority
Rest
3–5 min
tented loosely
Where to probe: Sideways into the centre of the thickest part, away from bone and fat.
Type what the probe says right now and it tells you how far there is to go.
You need a thermometer for this
Every figure on this page is an internal temperature, and no timer, colour or poke test replaces reading it. An instant-read probe under A$40 pays for itself the first time it stops a roast going grey; a leave-in probe with an alarm is the lazier, better option for a big bird.
Instant-read thermometers on Amazon AUMeat temperature chart, Celsius
| Doneness | Pull at | Rested | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue | 42°C | 45°C | Seared outside, cool red centre. Bring the steak to room temperature first. |
| Rare | 48°C | 50°C | Red centre, warm through, very soft to the touch. |
| Medium-rare | 52°C | 54°C | Warm pink-red centre, juicy. The steakhouse default. |
| Medium | 58°C | 60°C | Pink centre, firmer, still juicy. |
| Medium-well | 62°C | 65°C | A blush of pink only. |
| Well done | 68°C | 70°C | No pink. Cook thick cuts slower so the outside is not leather. |
| Doneness | Pull at | Rested | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rare | 53°C | 58°C | Deep pink, very juicy. Lamb and beef both take it well. |
| Medium-rare | 57°C | 62°C | Pink through the middle, the safest crowd-pleaser. |
| Medium | 61°C | 66°C | Light pink centre. Where most Australian roast lamb lands. |
| Medium-well | 65°C | 70°C | Faint pink, firm slices. |
| Well done | 70°C | 75°C | Grey-brown throughout. Slow-roast to keep it from drying out. |
| Doneness | Pull at | Rested | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Juicy, blush pink | 65°C | 69°C | Australian Pork’s target: 65 °C on the probe, just cooked through after a 10-minute rest. |
| Well done | 71°C | 75°C | White all the way through, the way older recipes wanted it. |
| Pulled (shoulder) | 92°C | 92°C | Collagen has melted; the meat shreds with two forks. Time matters more than temperature here. |
| Doneness | Pull at | Rested | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breast | 71°C | 74°C | Pull at 71 °C and it rests to the 74 °C minimum without drying out. |
| Thigh, leg, wing | 75°C | 78°C | Dark meat is nicer a few degrees higher; 80 °C is fine. |
| Whole bird | 72°C | 75°C | Measured at the thigh. The breast will read a little higher. |
| Doneness | Pull at | Rested | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pink | 54°C | 58°C | Rosy and tender, restaurant style. Below the poultry minimum, so a personal call. |
| Medium | 60°C | 64°C | Light pink, still juicy. |
| Cooked through | 71°C | 74°C | Meets the poultry minimum. |
| Doneness | Pull at | Rested | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tuna, seared rare | 45°C | 48°C | Red centre, seared edge. |
| Salmon, medium | 50°C | 54°C | Silky, just set. The way restaurants serve it; below the 63 °C minimum. |
| White fish, just cooked | 58°C | 62°C | Opaque and flaking. Barramundi, snapper, flathead. |
| Food-authority minimum | 63°C | 63°C | Fully opaque, firm. |
| Doneness | Pull at | Rested | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cooked through | 71°C | 73°C | Mince has bacteria mixed all the way through, so there is no rare option. Sausages included. |
| Chicken or turkey mince | 74°C | 76°C | Poultry mince follows the poultry minimum. |
| Doneness | Pull at | Rested | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glazed Christmas ham | 60°C | 62°C | The ham is already cooked; you are warming it and setting the glaze. |
| Fresh (raw) ham | 68°C | 72°C | Uncured, uncooked leg: treat it as a pork roast. |
| Doneness | Pull at | Rested | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rare | 48°C | 52°C | Deep red. Roo is so lean it goes tough past medium, so err low. |
| Medium-rare | 53°C | 57°C | The sweet spot for fillet and steaks. |
| Medium | 58°C | 62°C | As far as it should go; beyond this it dries out fast. |
| Food | Minimum | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken and turkey (whole, pieces, mince) | 74°C | Probe the inner thigh of a whole bird. |
| Minced meat, sausages, rissoles | 71°C | No pink, juices run clear. |
| Beef, veal, lamb, pork: medium-rare | 63°C | Rest at least 3 minutes. |
| Beef, veal, lamb, pork: medium | 71°C | |
| Beef, veal, lamb, pork: well done | 77°C | |
| Fish | 63°C | Opaque, flakes with a fork. |
| Ham, fresh (raw) | 71°C | |
| Ham, pre-cooked (reheating) | 60°C | |
| Leftovers, reheated | 60°C | Steaming hot right through; 75 °C is the usual commercial standard. |
Two numbers for every cut, and why
Every row above carries a pull temperature and a rested temperature, because meat does not stop cooking when it leaves the pan. The outside is far hotter than the middle, and while it sits on the board that heat keeps travelling inward: a steak climbs two or three degrees, a leg of lamb five to eight, a turkey close to ten. Pull at the rested figure and you have overshot by exactly that much. So the thermometer target is always the lower number, and the plate is the higher one. Meat & Livestock Australia puts it as removing beef “3 to 6 °C shy of your doneness goal”; for a big roast, allow more.
The chef's figure and the food authority's figure
Beside each pull temperature sits the NSW Food Authority minimum for that food, and for whole cuts of beef, lamb and pork the two disagree. A medium-rare steak is 54 °C rested; the authority says 63 °C. Both are right about different things. The inside of an intact muscle is essentially free of bacteria, which live on the surface and are killed the moment it hits a hot pan, and that is why steak has been served pink for as long as there have been steakhouses. The authority figure is written for every eater at once, including pregnant women, small children, the elderly and anyone unwell, and it is the number to cook to when they are at the table. Mince is different: grinding mixes the surface all the way through, so burgers, sausages and rissoles have no rare option and go to 71 °C, and poultry always goes to 74 °C.
Reading a thermometer properly
- Centre of the thickest part. Bone reads hot, fat reads cold, and the outer centimetre is always ahead of the middle. Go in from the side on anything thin.
- Whole birds at the thigh. Inner thigh, near the breast, probe tip not touching bone. The breast will be a few degrees higher; if it races ahead, tent it with foil.
- Two spots on a big roast. Ovens have a hot side. Take the lower reading.
- Check your probe in boiling water. It should read 100 °C at sea level. Cheap probes drift; some can be recalibrated, the rest you correct for.
Resting is part of the cooking
Juices driven to the centre by the heat need a few minutes to settle back through the muscle; carve too early and they end up on the board. Three to five minutes for a steak, ten for a chicken, fifteen to twenty for a roast, and half an hour or more for a turkey, which will still be too hot to carve comfortably at that point. Loose foil keeps the heat in without steaming the crust; a tight wrap softens crackling and skin in minutes. Planning the rest into the schedule is what the roast timer is for.
Sous vide changes the rules
A water bath holds the whole piece at one temperature for hours, and time at temperature pasteurises just as heat does: chicken breast held at 63 °C for long enough is as safe as chicken flashed to 74 °C, and a great deal juicier. That is the appeal of the sous vide circulators we rank. The chart above is for ovens, pans and barbecues, where the temperature is only ever reached at the end.
Meat temperatures — Frequently Asked Questions
What temperature is a medium-rare steak in Celsius?+
Take it off the heat at 52°C and it rests to about 54°C: warm pink-red in the middle. Medium is 58°C off the heat (60°C rested), well done 68°C (70°C). Measure sideways into the centre of the thickest part.
Why are the food-authority temperatures higher than the chart?+
The NSW Food Authority figures (63°C for whole cuts of beef, lamb and pork, 74°C for chicken, 71°C for mince) are written so that anyone, including pregnant women, children, the elderly and the unwell, can eat the food safely. The inside of a whole muscle cut is essentially sterile, which is why searing the outside and serving it pink is common practice, but it is a judgement each cook makes; the minimum is the safe answer.
What temperature should chicken be cooked to?+
74°C at the thickest part, measured at the inner thigh of a whole bird and not touching bone. Pull a breast at 71°C and it rests to 74°C without drying out; thighs and legs are nicer at 78–80°C. No pink, juices running clear, is the rule of thumb when you have no thermometer, but colour is unreliable.
Can pork be pink?+
Australian Pork says yes: cook a roast or a thick chop to 65°C on the probe, rest it 10 minutes and it settles around 69°C, juicy with a blush. The food-authority minimum for pork cooked medium is 71°C, and mince and sausages are always 71°C.
What is carryover cooking and how much do I allow?+
Meat keeps cooking after it leaves the heat as the hot outside equalises with the cooler centre. A steak climbs 2–3°C, a chop 3–5°C, a 2 kg roast 5–8°C and a big turkey up to 10°C. That is why every figure here is given as a pull temperature and a rested temperature: aim the thermometer at the first, carve at the second.
How long should I rest meat?+
Steaks and chops 3–5 minutes, a chicken 10, a roast 15–20, a turkey 30–60. Tent loosely with foil; wrap it tightly and the crust goes soft. Resting lets the juices settle back into the muscle so they stay on the plate instead of the board.
Where do I put the thermometer?+
Into the centre of the thickest part, away from bone, fat and gristle, which all read differently from the meat. For thin cuts go in from the side. For a whole bird, the inner thigh near the breast. Check two spots on a large roast; ovens have hot sides.
What temperature is a glazed Christmas ham?+
A pre-cooked leg ham only needs warming to 60°C in the centre while the glaze sets, which takes about 20 minutes per kilo at 160°C. A fresh (raw) ham is a pork roast and goes to 71°C.
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