Steak Doneness Temperatures in °C, and How to Order Steak in Spain

The Spanish words, the English words and the numbers

This is the table to keep. The Spanish column is what you will hear from a waiter, or from a butcher telling you how to cook what he has just cut. The temperatures are for beef; pork and chicken are separate subjects.

How to order steak in Spain

The question you will hear is ¿Cómo quiere la carne? or ¿Qué punto?: how would you like it. El punto is the Spanish word for doneness itself, so al punto, “at the point”, is the steak at its proper point. Useful answers:

• Poco hecho, por favor. Rare, please.
• Al punto. Medium-rare.
• Al punto, tirando a poco hecho. Medium-rare, leaning towards rare. The safest thing to say if you fear overcooking.
• Hecho, pero no seco. Done, but not dry: medium.
• Muy hecho. Well done.

There is no everyday Spanish word that splits medium from medium-well; hecho covers both. If you want to see pink, say al punto. The same vocabulary works at the counter when you ask a butcher how long to give a cut. The names of the cuts themselves are in our guide to beef cuts in Spanish.

Where to measure, and when to stop

Push the probe into the centre of the thickest part without touching bone. Then remember that meat goes on cooking after it leaves the fire: the core rises by 3–5 °C (5–9 °F) while it rests. If you want medium-rare, take the steak off at 52 °C (126 °F), not at 57 °C (135 °F). Leaving it on until the thermometer shows the number you want is the most common mistake, and the most expensive.

No thermometer: the finger test

Touch your thumb to each finger of the same hand in turn, and with the index finger of the other hand press the pad at the base of the thumb. That firmness is what the steak should feel like when you press it.

• Thumb to index finger: poco hecho, rare. Soft, gives a lot.
• Thumb to middle finger: al punto, medium-rare. Gives and springs back.
• Thumb to ring finger: hecho, medium. Firm.
• Thumb to little finger: muy hecho, well done. Hard.

It works, but it takes practice. If you are about to grill an expensive cut, buy a probe thermometer: it costs less than the steak you would otherwise spoil.

Three habits to drop

1. Stabbing the meat to see how it is getting on. Every hole is juice lost.
2. Pressing it flat with the spatula. That sizzle is what you were going to eat.
3. Turning it constantly. One turn per side for thin steaks. For thick ones, several short turns are fine, as long as they come from judgement and not from nerves.

Why doneness matters more with mature beef

The steak Spain is known for comes from vaca, a female over 48 months, sold as old cow beef. A mature retinto cow carries fat within the muscle, and that fat softens and starts to render at medium-rare, around 54–57 °C (129–135 °F). That is where the steak tastes of what it is. Past 70 °C (158 °F) that fat has gone and what remains is fibre: an expensive steak eaten as a cheap one.

So doneness is less a matter of taste than of respect for the cut. If somebody at the table wants it well done, that is their right, but do not give them the best steak. Give them a different one. A thick bone-in steak is the hardest to judge, and how to grill a chuletón has the timings by thickness. Ibérico pork may also be served pink, but the table above is for beef.