Cooking Tips

Adding The Heat

The key to successful beef cookery?  Choose an appropriate method for the cut you've selected.  For tender cuts, dry heat methods such as broiling, roasting, pan-broiling, sautéing/pan-frying, stir frying dish and grilling are best.  Moist heat methods, such as braising and cooking in liquid, are better choices for less tender cuts.  

After selecting a cooking method, follow these helpful guidelines for tender, juicy, flavorful beef dishes.

  High heat can overcook or char the outside of beef cuts while the inside remains underdone.  For tender beef, cooked to the desired doneness, use medium heat with dry cookery methods and low heat for moist cookery methods.

  Use an oven thermometer to check that your oven is accurate.  

  Our cooking times are based on beef taken directly from the refrigerator.

  Cooking times for Select and Choice grades are comparable.

Cooking times for gas and electric ranges are comparable.  However, since individual ranges perform differently, it's important that you become familiar with your own range.  

  Turn steaks and roast with tongs.  Do not use a fork, which pierces the beef and allows flavorful juices to escape.  

  Turn ground beef patties with a spatula.  Do not flatten them, causing flavorful juices to escape and resulting in a dry burger.  

  Grilling times are based on charcoal cooking.  Because gas grill brands vary greatly, it's best to consult your owner's manual for grilling guidelines.

Ground Beef Doneness Tip

Ground beef patties/loaves/meatballs should be cooked to medium doneness (160 degrees F) or until the centers are no longer pink and the juices show no pink color.  The most accurate way to determine the doneness is with an instant-read thermometer. 

Please click here to view the cooking methods chart.