Ask five different people what medium means and you’ll get five different answers. Internal temperature is the only thing that actually settles the argument, because it’s the one measurement that doesn’t depend on the color of your pan, how thick you cut the steak, or how your stove runs compared to someone else’s. Here’s the chart we actually use, along with the details that make it work in practice.
Why Internal Temperature Matters More Than Time
Cooking by minutes assumes every steak is identical, and none of them are. Thickness varies, starting temperature varies depending on whether the steak came straight from the fridge or sat out for thirty minutes, and every stove and grill runs a little differently. A thermometer removes all of that guesswork and tells you exactly where the meat actually is, not where a recipe assumes it should be by now.
The Steak Temperature Chart
- Blue rare: 115 to 120 degrees. Barely warmed through, cool red center, mostly seared crust only.
- Rare: 120 to 125 degrees. Cool red center, soft texture, warm crust.
- Medium rare: 130 to 135 degrees. Warm red center with a hint of pink at the edges, the most commonly ordered temperature in steakhouses.
- Medium: 140 to 145 degrees. Pink center, firmer texture, still juicy.
- Medium well: 150 to 155 degrees. Slight blush of pink in the very center, noticeably firmer.
- Well done: 160 degrees and up. No pink remaining, firmest texture, least juice retained.
Carryover Cooking: Why You Pull Early
A steak keeps cooking after it comes off the heat. Residual heat in the outer layers continues moving toward the center for several minutes, which means the internal temperature will keep climbing five degrees or more after you pull it. If you wait until the thermometer hits your exact target before removing it from the pan or grill, you’ll overshoot every time. Pull it five degrees below where you actually want to land.
Where to Insert the Thermometer
Push the probe into the thickest part of the steak, angled in from the side rather than straight down through the top, and make sure the tip is centered rather than resting near a pocket of fat or close to a bone. Fat and bone both read differently than muscle and will throw off your number if the tip lands too close to either one.
Does the Cut Change the Ideal Temperature?
The chart above holds steady across cuts, but how forgiving a cut is at any given temperature does change. Fattier cuts like ribeye stay juicy even a few degrees past your target because the marbling keeps basting the meat as it renders. Leaner cuts like filet mignon or strip steak have less margin for error and dry out faster past medium, so it’s worth being more precise with the thermometer on those.
How to Make Sure Your Thermometer Is Actually Accurate
A cheap or aging thermometer can be off by several degrees, which throws every number in this chart off along with it. Test yours by dropping the probe into a glass of ice water. It should read 32 degrees. If it’s reading a few degrees high or low, either adjust for that offset in your head every time you cook, or replace the thermometer. This is worth checking once before you ever trust a number it gives you on an actual steak.
What About Frozen or Very Thick Steaks?
A steak cooked from frozen or one that’s unusually thick will have a wider gap between the surface temperature and the center temperature while it cooks, which makes the chart harder to apply using a quick check. For anything over an inch and a half thick, or anything you didn’t fully thaw first, check the temperature earlier and more frequently than you would with a standard steak, and expect the center to lag noticeably behind what the surface looks like. This is also where reverse searing becomes useful, since it lets the whole steak come up to temperature evenly before a fast sear at the end.
A Quick Reference You Can Screenshot
Pull temperatures, accounting for a five degree carryover rise:
- Rare: pull at 115 to 120
- Medium rare: pull at 125 to 130
- Medium: pull at 135 to 140
- Medium well: pull at 145 to 150
- Well done: pull at 155 and up
Common Questions
Is it safe to eat steak at 125 degrees?
Whole cuts of beef, like steak, are safe to eat well below well done temperatures, since bacteria mainly lives on the surface and gets killed off during searing. This is different from ground beef, which needs to be cooked to a higher internal temperature throughout since bacteria can be mixed all through the meat.
Why did my steak overshoot my target temperature?
Most likely you pulled it right at your target instead of five degrees under. Carryover cooking is the usual culprit, especially with thicker steaks, which hold more residual heat and carry over more than thin ones.
Do I still need to rest a steak after pulling it early?
Yes. Resting and carryover cooking are two different things happening at once. Resting redistributes the juice through the meat, while carryover is simply residual heat still moving toward the center. You need both steps regardless of what temperature you pulled it at.
Want a steak cooked to the exact temperature you order, every time? Reserve a table at Steak 38 and let our grill handle the thermometer work for you.