I need to know when steak is medium with out checking the temperature?

Answer 1

Make a fist with your left hand, right fore finger press the fleshy part between your first knuckle and thumb knuckle, same feel on the steak.
Edit: here's another, open your hand flat, press the meaty part of the heel of your hand below the small finger, rare, now the meaty part next to the thumb, medium.

Answer 2

Besides what Steve G said (which is the way I test my grilled steaks), with practice, you should be able to gauge doneness just from the color of the meat. It should be a nice deep reddish brown. Difficult to describe here without colored pictures but try this experiment:

Cook one steak to what you think is medium rare. Cut it open to verify and remember the exterior color of the meat.

Cook another steak to what you think is well done. Do the same.

Now you know that medium will be somewhere in between these two steaks.

Whatever you do, don't pierce the meat while it's cooking to take its temperature. The juices will run out and you will end up with a dry piece of meat.

Answer 3

The hand pressure technique works well, but may vary slightly depending on the density of the cut of meat. For example, filet mignon and rib eyes are naturally more tender than NY strip, flank steak, etc., so they will feel slightly more soft to the touch.

If you're grilling, you may find the cookout calculator at charcoalbob.com helpful. You just enter the cut of steak, thickness, type of grill and doneness of medium and it will calculate the grilling time and give you instructions for how to grill the steaks so that they all come off the grill at the same time, regardless of cut, thickness, doneness, etc.

We like to use the cookout calculator, and then use the hand technique as a backup way to verify that we're getting the desired results.

Answer 4

Cut into the steak & check the color, or cut an end piece off & taste it.

Answer 5

No blood oozing out

Answer 6

You need X ray eyes. My love,a chef, said so.