Internal temperatures for meat, chicken and Christmas ham: chart

Chicken should reach 70 °C (158 °F) inside, and a whole chicken 80 °C (176 °F) at the bone. Minced meat should reach 70 °C, and a Swedish Christmas ham is perfect at 72 °C (162 °F). Whole cuts of beef and lamb can be pink: beef fillet and roast beef are medium at 56-58 °C (133-136 °F). Pork fillet is juicy at 60-62 °C and well done at 65-70 °C. The tables below give the temperature for each cut. The figures come from the Swedish meat and poultry industry bodies and the Swedish Food Agency.

Internal temperature chart

Beef, lamb and pork are Svenskt Kött’s figures, chicken and turkey Svensk Fågel’s, and minced meat the Swedish Food Agency’s. Measure in the thickest part of the meat, and keep the tip of the thermometer off the bone.

Beef

Whole cuts of beef can be pink inside. Bacteria sit on the surface and die when it is seared. Chuck and other cuts with a lot of connective tissue only turn tender with long, slow cooking, well above 70 °C.

Pork

Svenskt Kött gives 70 °C as a general guide for pork. The Swedish Food Agency says that for whole cuts of pork it is enough to cook the surface, while minced pork must be cooked through. Pork neck can go to 85 °C, where it turns tender and falls apart.

Lamb

What temperature should chicken be?

Chicken breast and thigh fillets should reach 70 °C (158 °F). A whole chicken should reach 80 °C (176 °F) next to the bone. Chicken must be cooked through: the meat should not be translucent and the juices should run clear, not pink. Campylobacter, the most common bacterium in chicken, dies almost at once at 70 °C.

A turkey is done at 70 °C at the thigh bone. Svensk Fågel suggests taking it out at 65-67 °C (149-153 °F) and resting it for at least 30 minutes, as the temperature keeps rising.

Duck breast is often served pink, at 55-60 °C. The Swedish Food Agency cannot promise that a brief heating to 60 °C is enough against campylobacter, so to be safe, cook duck to 70 °C.

Swedish Christmas ham

A julskinka is done at 70-75 °C. At 70 °C (158 °F) it is really juicy, at 72 °C (162 °F) perfect and at 75 °C (167 °F) well cooked. This holds for a boiled ham and one cooked in the oven: put the thermometer in the thickest part and take the ham out when it reaches the temperature you want.

Minced meat must reach 70 °C

In a whole cut the bacteria sit on the surface. Mincing mixes them into all of the meat, so mince has to get hot all the way through. The Swedish Food Agency says minced meat must reach 70 °C (158 °F) to be cooked through. That goes for burgers, meatballs and meatloaf made from any kind of mince.

Do not go by colour alone. Mince can turn brown and look done before it is hot enough. Cooked mince has clear juices with no pink.

Salmon and other fish

Fish is often cooked only to 55 °C (131 °F) or lower so it does not dry out. The Swedish Food Agency judges that this carries no risk from bacteria, since fish does not normally carry bacteria that cause food poisoning.

Pregnant: what internal temperature?

If you are pregnant, heat whole cuts of lamb, pork, beef and game to at least 60-65 °C (140-149 °F), so the meat is pink (medium) with no trace of blood. That protects against the toxoplasma parasite. To eat meat rarer, freeze it for at least three days first. Minced meat and chicken should always reach 70 °C.

Meat keeps getting hotter as it rests

Take the meat out a couple of degrees before the target. A thin cut rises 1-2 degrees after cooking. A large roast rises more: Svenskt Kött gives 2-4 degrees on one page and 3-5 on another. Rest a roast for 10-20 minutes before carving, so more of the juices stay in.

Celsius to Fahrenheit for meat

The formula is °F = °C × 9/5 + 32. For other values use the Celsius to Fahrenheit converter. Oven settings are in the guide to oven temperatures.

Storing food

A fridge should be at 4 °C (39 °F). Food then keeps about twice as long as at 8 °C. Do not leave chilled food out for more than four hours at up to 20 °C, and less when it is warmer. Leftovers that are reheated should reach 70 °C or more.

Sources (all in Swedish): Svenskt Kött, internal temperatures for beef, pork and lamb, temperatures and resting and boiled Christmas ham; Svensk Fågel, safe chicken tips and Christmas recipes (turkey); the Swedish Food Agency (Livsmedelsverket), safe grilling, toxoplasma, answer on campylobacter in duck, storing chilled food and Kontrollwiki, temperature (the agency’s handbook for food inspectors, the source for the lines on pork, duck, fish and reheating). Fahrenheit is converted with the site’s own formula. English cut names are the nearest equivalents of the Swedish cuts.