Meat Cooking Times

Knowing the appropriate meat cooking times is important because you cannot always determine when a piece of meat is "done" by simply looking at it.

One of the main reasons the we cook meats is for the taste. Most meats taste better when cooked and seasoned than they do without either. But another reason for cooking foods is to destroy bacteria, salmonella, e-coli, and other harmful substances that may be in the meat. Many times, illnesses caused by these bacteria and pathogens, are due to undercooked meats.

Why You Shouldn't Cook Meat By Time

The key to determining the correct meat cooking times is to arrive at a solution that will both destroy the pathogens and bacteria in the raw meat and at the same time not cook it so long that it loses a pleasurable texture and taste. For example, pathogens in beef such as Salmonella and E-coli die when the beef is cooked to 160 degrees F for a specified amount of time. And when cooked to 160 degrees, ground beef is still tasty.

With Vegetables, cooking time is usually not an issue because normally, you can eat them raw. And whey you cook vegetables, you are mainly cooking for texture. But cooking for meat is different for the reasons mentioned above. A chicken breast cooked for 10 minutes in an oven at 350 degrees F at house #1 will not necessarily have the same internal temperature as a chicken breast cooked for 10 minutes at 350 degrees F at house #2. Why? There are many reasons.

• How high above sea level are you? The higher you are above sea level, the more time it takes for meat to cook.
• Was the oven preheated before you put the meat in? If not, the meat will take longer to cook through.
• Does your oven have a "heat leak"? If the seals on your oven are warn, heat may be escaping from the oven. If so, food will take longer to cook.
• Is your oven thermometer correct? Oven thermometers lose their accuracy over time and have to be reset. You may not be cooking at the temperature that you think you are.

Foods cooked to the proper temperature will kill any bacteria that may be present. Here are some of the meat cooking times for common meats that we eat each day:

Reducing Meat Cooking Times

The use of a stovetop or electric pressure cooker can reduce cooking times dramatically, in some cases by as much as 70 percent. Microwaves, formerly used mainly to reheat dishes, are now being used to prepare some main dishes as various add-ons enter the marketplace that allow browning to take place in microwaves.

Convection ovens are also another invention that has greatly reduced cooking times. When you cook in a convection over, you can cook at a significantly lower temperature (e.g., 25 degrees lower) and still cook in only three quarters of the time that you would need in a regular oven.

Cooking Outdoor Utensil
For the camping lover and aficionado, finding the perfect cooking outdoor utensil makes camping just that much more enjoyable.

Camp Outdoor Cooking Equipment
Most places that sell camp outdoor cooking equipment have an excellent lineup of products to select from. The secret, however, is knowing what equipment you need.