Tis the season for flame-cooked victuals, and to ensure that your backyard grub turns out neither over- or undercooked, but just right, every grill master should have a digital meat thermometer. They’re cheap and quickly let you know the exact temperature of your food.
But what if you’re cooking up some delicious cuts of beef and you don’t have a digital thermometer on hand for some reason? Maybe you lost it or the battery crapped out on you at the last minute. How can you ensure that your buddy who requested a medium-rare steak doesn’t get one that’s medium-well without cutting the steak open and letting all that wonderful juice run out?
How to test a steak with your hand
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Finger touching the thumb
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Steak doneness
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Feeling of flesh on hand
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Index / Point
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medium rare
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softer
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Middle
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medium
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soft
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Ring
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medium well
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firmer
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Pinky
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well done
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firmest
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How to Use the Touch Test to Determine a Steak’s Doneness
As your steak cooks on the grill, it gets more firm as it progresses in doneness from rare to well-done. The firmer the steak is to the touch, the more cooked it is.
But how do you know what firmness level corresponds to rare, medium-rare, medium, medium-well, and well-done?
By touching the palm of your hand.
Open the palm of your hand and relax it. With the index finger of your other hand, touch the fleshy part between your thumb and the base of your palm. This is about what a raw steak feels like when you touch it. Unless you’re on some sort of weird raw meat diet or a lion, your steak’s not ready to eat if it feels like that.
As the raw steak cooks, the meat will begin to firm up, and each level of subsequent firmness in the meat will correspond to how firm the fleshy part under your thumb feels as you sequentially touch your thumb to the fingers of your hand:
Press the index finger and thumb of your hand together and touch the fleshy area under your thumb with the index finger of your other hand. It will now feel a bit firmer than it originally did. This is about what a rare steak feels like to the touch.
Press your middle finger and thumb together. Touch the fleshy area beneath your thumb. This what most steaks will feel like when they’re medium-rare.
Medium to Medium-Well Touch
Press your ring finger and thumb together and the fleshy area on your palm will feel like a medium-well steak.
Press your pinky finger and thumb together and the fleshy area will have the firmness of a well-done steak.
Steak Tips – The Finger Test
FAQ
What does rare feel like?
How can you tell if steak is raw?
What is the steak hand test?
The Steak Hand Test, it’s not that difficult to learn the difference between a rare, medium, and well-done piece of meat simply by touch. When raw, meat is very soft, as it cooks it becomes firmer, and luckily, you have a built-in gauge on the palm of your hand.
How do you test a steak for doneness?
It’s the hand test for steak, it’s easy to do and easy to learn. Here’s how to test a steak for doneness using touch… The soft fleshy part of your palm between the thumb and wrist, when relaxed is a perfect example of what a raw steak feels like. When you gently touch the thumb and forefinger together, this is what a rare steak feels like.
How do you know if a steak is done?
As you progress from your index to pinky finger, the flesh becomes less soft and more firm — just as a steak does as it cooks. Once you’ve compared the texture of the steak to the feeling of your hand, use the table below to determine which level of doneness the steak has been cooked to.
How do you know if a steak is rare?
Add a minute or two to the cook time if your steak is more than 1 ½ inches thick. Check for rare steak. If you want your steak to be rare, touch your index finger and thumb together and feel the base of your thumb (about an inch below where it connects to your palm). Notice how it feels and then check your steak.