Checking Doneness in Process of cooking

Kyle

I am struggling a bit with the ability to check temps of steaks for doneness (Rare, Med etc) during the process of cooking.[p]Opening the dome causes a drop in egg temp and it tends to confuse me if I am trying a flip and dwell routine of 3 - 3 - Dwell. [p]Simply continue to open the dome and check often?[p]I have a new thermopen ordered and am anxious for it to arrive.[p]I would appreciate it if someone (smarter than I am) would elaborate on the routine. [p]Thank you in advance.[p]Kyle

BlueSmoke

Kyle,
Don't know about "smarter", but I'm possibly more experienced.
In VERY general terms, higher temps and shorter times yield more rare steaks; lower temps and longer times more well done.
It's part of the art of cooking... you just need to start working out your understanding of the relationship of temperature, time, and meat. I recommend that you do a "3/3/dwell", checking the temp at the end of each "3". Make a note, mental or written, of the temps and (the ultimate test) how the steak turned out. Next cook, adjust time and temp up/down and note these results. Keep doing this till you "have a handle" on things.[p]HTH
Ken

MickeyT

Kyle,[p]You will love your new Thermopen. I use mine all the time. IMHO, you can open the top as necessary on those types of cooks. I will also echo BlueSmokes and check that dude after you have flipped and waited 3.[p]The pen really takes the guess work out.[p]Have fun.[p]Mick

ColoradoCook

Kyle,[p]Experience is the key, follow Ken's advice and you'll be fine. I too have a thermapen and it enables me to take a quick reading. After you have done a dozen steak and burger cooks you'll know the round-about time to check temp and will find yourself opening the dome less. [p]A few bits of advice, if your steaks are 1" or less you won't need a dwell to do med or med rare, just sear for 2 or 3 minutes a side. Dwells are for thick cuts. When it comes to burgers, no dwell is needed for your standard 1/4 lb burger, if you want 1/2 lb burgers then do a 2 to 4 minute dwell. I like putting on precooked bacon (I cook ahead of time and freeze) and cheese the last 1 minute of a dwell.[p]I also like to print off recipes from this forum, I keep these in laminated sheets in a three ring binder. The first 3 to 5 cooks I would write some notes (times, temps, smoking wood, what I would do next, etc.) on these recipe pages for future reference. It has become my BGE cookbook, a lot better than the actual BGE cookbook.[p]I hope this helps,[p]CC