AmazingRibs.com is supported by our Pitmaster Club. Also, when you buy with links on our site we may earn a finder’s fee. Click to see how we test and review products.

Myth: Stabbing Meat with a Thermometer, Fork, or Knife Will Drain it of Vital Juices

Share on:

Yet another myth: Using a thermometer will cause your meat to bleed out, and you must never use a fork to turn your meat. But cutting into your meat will help you tell when it is done.

There is no seal or moisture barrier on the surface of your meat. Water gets out by dripping and evaporating all through the cook. Searing meat is done to develop complex flavors, not to seal it. So poking a hole in it doesn’t destroy its integrity. Meat is not a balloon. It won’t go pfffffft and deflate.

An eight ounce steak is 75% water. That’s six ounces of water. That’s about 36 teaspoons. If you stick a thermometer probe into the meat at most you’ll lose 1/4 teaspoon. Let’s say you treat it like a pin cushion and you lose a whole teaspoon. There’s 35 left! And if you use a good modern digital thermometer the probe is so thin there’s no way you’ll lose that much. So stop worrying about it.

Same thing for using a fork to turn the meat. Obviously tongs or spatulas are better for turning than a fork, but if you don’t treat it like a voodoo doll, the juice loss will never be noticed.

The fastest way to lose moisture is to overcook the meat. Even 5°F can make a huge difference. For proper meat temps, read this guide.

Even slicing it to check doneness is not going to cause a major hemorrhage, although this is faaaar more traumatic than a thermometer or a fork turn or two. But the problem with using a knife is that the color you see can fool you. On a steak, for instance, many proteins contain iron ions, hemes, that change color when exposed to oxygen. So when you cut into that steak and think it looks perfect, after a few minutes it will turn redder. Worse, that light you have on your deck is not a perfectly color balanced white light. Incandescent lights are yellowish and looking at the color of meat bathed in a yellow glow can seriously fool you. The best way to tell if a steak is ready is with a good digital thermometer. Nothing else works.

Related articles

Published On: 8/29/2013 Last Modified: 2/13/2024

Share on:
  • Meathead, BBQ Hall of Famer - Founder and publisher of AmazingRibs.com, Meathead is known as the site's Hedonism Evangelist and BBQ Whisperer. He is also the author of the New York Times Best Seller "Meathead, The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling", named one of the "100 Best Cookbooks of All Time" by Southern Living.

 

High quality websites are expensive to run. If you help us, we’ll pay you back bigtime with an ad-free experience and a lot of freebies!

Millions come to AmazingRibs.com every month for high quality tested recipes, tips on technique, science, mythbusting, product reviews, and inspiration. But it is expensive to run a website with more than 2,000 pages and we don’t have a big corporate partner to subsidize us.

Our most important source of sustenance is people who join our Pitmaster Club. But please don’t think of it as a donation. Members get MANY great benefits. We block all third-party ads, we give members free ebooks, magazines, interviews, webinars, more recipes, a monthly sweepstakes with prizes worth up to $2,000, discounts on products, and best of all a community of like-minded cooks free of flame wars. Click below to see all the benefits, take a free 30 day trial, and help keep this site alive.


Post comments and questions below

grouchy?

1) Please try the search box at the top of every page before you ask for help.

2) Try to post your question to the appropriate page.

3) Tell us everything we need to know to help such as the type of cooker and thermometer. Dial thermometers are often off by as much as 50°F so if you are not using a good digital thermometer we probably can’t help you with time and temp questions. Please read this article about thermometers.

4) If you are a member of the Pitmaster Club, your comments login is probably different.

5) Posts with links in them may not appear immediately.

Moderators

  Max

Click to comment or ask a question...

Spotlight

These are not paid ads, they are a curated selection of products we love.

All of the products below have been tested and are highly recommended. Click here to read more about our review process.

Use Our Links To Help Keep Us Alive

Many merchants pay us a small referral fee when you click our “buy now” links. This has zero impact on the price you pay but helps support the site.