Originally Posted By fredk
Too funny Bob.

Chess. My objection is to the absolute mantras one finds on bbq sites: "You can't..."

Sorry Fred but i stick with "you can't" because no human can.
If we could tell temps by looking at meat, we wouldn't have built probes.

However, your earlier comments echo my sentiments:
Quote:
Correct, but they can tell how done a piece of meat is.

We just have to quantify "done" and "what meat".

I can cook a brisket for 72 hours at 400F and be able to say "hey, i KNOW it's done".
What i'm saying is that no bbq pro ever knows unless they use a probe, what the internal temp is even though they could say the meat is "done". Done to what extent?

Even on the bbq pro shows, some will say "oh i think it went a bit long" or "this needs more time but we only have 10 minutes to plating", etc. while others are sticking the probes in all the time.

Now for type of meat, sure, i don't think anyone needs a probe for a regular frying steak or even tenderloins (although the latter usually are thick enough to use a probe effectively). I go by general time and temp and judge the thickness for doneness, but only with steak.

I agree with michael_d that for birds and pork, i want to know exactly when i've hit the safe temp and keep the meat from going much beyond. Both can start to get dry, especially pork.
For big cuts like brisket and pulled pork, again an absolute must or a person is just guessing. A few times i figured our pulled pork was done, 5 pounder, 250F average most of the day, 8 hours i figured it should be ready... the thing took 11 hours to hit temp!

Fish, nah.
Cook till lightly flaky.

Experience may decrease the odds of guessing wrong, but a probe is right 100% of the time!
I bought a rather high quality probe some time ago (+/-0.5 degrees).
Yay science!

"Those who preach the myths of audio are ignorant of truth."