And as for people who cook their beef well-done, well, let’s just say that you have a special place in my heart right next to Star Wars Episode I and that kid who stapled my arm to the table in second grade Conclusion: For most people, 130° to 140°F is best Q: I’ve heard folks say I should never stick a fork in my steak to flip it Any truth in that? Watch a Johnsonville Brat commercial, and you’ll be told that poking with a fork is one of the cardinal sins of sausage cookery, and they’re right: a sausage has an impermeable casing for a reason—to keep all of those rendered fats and juices right in there with the meat Pierce it, create holes, and you’ll see a fountain of golden juices spring forth, like out of a kid after a long car ride A steak, on the other hand, has no such casing to protect it—so, is it OK to poke or not? I cooked two steaks of known weight side by side The first I carefully turned with tongs each time The second, I used a fourchette de cuisine (that’s what French cooks call those two-pronged kitchen forks) completely indiscriminately, mercilessly (though not excessively) poking the steak this way and that as I flipped it Afterward, I weighed both steaks again The result? Exactly the same weight loss Poking with a fork to turn the steak is a completely riskfree move Poking a steak with a fork leads to negligible moisture loss The thing is, with steaks, moisture loss is due to one thing: muscle fibers tightening, due to the application of heat, and squeezing out their liquid Unless you manage to completely pierce or slash those muscle fibers, the moisture they lose is directly proportional to the temperature to which you cook your steak A fork is simply not sharp enough to harm muscle fibers in any significant way Yes, you’ll see a minuscule amount of juices seeping their way out of the fork holes, but it’s a negligible amount Indeed, that’s why the many-bladed tenderizing tool known as a Jaccard is able to tenderize meat without causing it to lose any excess moisture—it separates muscle fibers, but it doesn’t actually cut them or open them up What about that most-shunned of techniques, the old cutand-peek? Surely slashing a cooking steak open with a knife and looking inside is going to have a detrimental effect on it, right? Well, yes and no Yes, a knife actually severs muscle fibers, allowing them to leak their contents to the outside world But the amount of moisture loss is very ... muscle fibers, but it doesn’t actually cut them or open them up What about that most-shunned of techniques, the old cutand-peek? Surely slashing a cooking steak open with a knife and looking... Well, yes and no Yes, a knife actually severs muscle fibers, allowing them to leak their contents to the outside world But the amount of moisture loss is very ... harm muscle fibers in any significant way Yes, you’ll see a minuscule amount of juices seeping their way out of the fork holes, but it’s a negligible amount Indeed, that’s why the many-bladed tenderizing tool known as a Jaccard is able