Steak Temperature Chart: Rare, Medium-Rare, Medium and Well-Done

You are cooking for people you like, and you want to put a steak in front of them that is pink in the middle and not gray. The thermometer is the easy part. Knowing when to take the steak off is the part that gets people.

Here are the ranges cooks actually use.

• Rare. 120 to 125 degrees Fahrenheit. Cool red center.
• Medium-rare. 130 to 135 degrees. Warm red center. This is where most of our cuts are at their best.
• Medium. 135 to 145 degrees. Warm pink center.
• Medium-well. 145 to 155 degrees. Faint pink.
• Well-done. 155 degrees and above. No pink.

For food safety, the USDA recommends cooking whole cuts of beef to 145 degrees Fahrenheit and resting for three minutes. Many cooks prefer medium-rare and accept that it sits below that guidance. That is a judgement for your own kitchen, and it is worth making deliberately rather than by accident.

Pull it early, because it keeps cooking

A steak does not stop at the moment it leaves the pan. Heat stored in the outside keeps moving inward while it rests. On a thick steak that carryover is commonly five degrees, sometimes more.

So if you want 133, take it off around 128. If you wait until the thermometer reads your target, you will eat your steak five degrees past it.

The mistake that actually ruins steaks

Ask Gray Shipley what people most often get wrong and he does not say temperature. He says doubt.

“So, I think that's the most common mistake is you're not sure, so you'll cook it a little longer. And you just don't need to.”

Gray Shipley

A thermometer is useful mostly because it replaces that doubt with a number. Check once, trust it, take the steak off.

Then let it rest

“Not as long as I should. Really should go eight to ten minutes. I sometimes barely give it five.”

Gray Shipley

Eight to ten minutes is the honest answer, and Gray is candid that he often gives it five. Five is better than none. Resting lets the juices settle so they stay in the steak instead of running onto the board.

Season simply and let the beef do the work

“You know, a lot of steaks can do fine with just a little salt and pepper. But a good steak doesn't need too much seasoning.”

Gray Shipley

Which steak gives you the most room for error

A thicker steak is more forgiving, because the middle takes longer to catch up with the outside. Thin steaks go from rare to medium in under a minute.

Our steaks arrive frozen, so thaw fully in the refrigerator first, then dry the surface. A wet steak will not brown no matter what the thermometer says, and that is worth understanding before you cook. If you want a worked example on our flagship cut, there is a full Huston ribeye recipe here, and if you are wondering why we ship frozen at all, we explain that too.

One thermometer, one check, and the discipline to take it off early. That is the whole chart.