Tips And Techniques
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Cooking With A Meat Probe

The meat probe - provided for with some of Bertazzoni latest generation ovens - is a very useful device for the control of the internal cooking temperature of any type of meat or fish in the oven. It is a sensor which enables you to measure core temperatures of food, that is in the thickest part of meat or fish, which is difficult to cook, thus helping you to get perfect cooking results. The sensitive part of the meat probe is its point, about 0.59 inch long. The use of a meat probe is connected to the selection of appropriate cooking programs, either manually or automatically. The probe must be pushed into the meat after the preheating phase, when the oven signals that the desired temperature has been reached, by sending the message to insert the probe. At this point, you have to identify the thickest part of the meat or fish and insert the probe so that its tip reaches the desired area. It is important to place it at least 0.8 inch away from any bones and it is preferable to wear an oven glove to perform the operation.
Once the probe is set, cooking stops automatically when the desired temperature has been reached. Another factor to be taken into account when cooking with a probe is that, if you cook thick pieces of meat or fish slices, the right core temperature detected by the probe corresponds to a much higher external temperature, with the consequent risk of burning the outer part of the meat or fish. It is therefore adviseable to set the cooking programme at a slightly lower temperature and just cook your food a little longer.
On the other hand, this type of precise control of cooking allows you to get the maximum taste and consistency out of your meat or fish.
In fact, meat and fish are made of fibers, water, proteins and collagens or hard tissues. Water starts evaporating at a 212°F temperature, while collagens start dissolving at a 131 °F temperature.
The combination of temperature and time allows you to obtain perfect cooking results. When the temperature is below 212°F, water remains inside the food, while a long cooking time above 131 °F causes the hydrolysis of collagens. Thus fibers become tenderer.
Each type of meat and fish requires a specific cooking temperature, whatever degree of cooking is desired (rare, medium, well done, etc.).
For example, a roast beef is cooked to the level of rare, when the meat probe reaches 131°F and cooked to medium at 149 °F. The more core temperatures increase, the more the meat is well done, but to prevent it from getting hard, we suggest that you cook it at a lower temperature, so that it cooks more slowly, without losing too much water, so the cartilages have time to melt and the meat gets very tender.