How long a joint needs, and the temperature to pull it at
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The reference tables and worked examples further down this page are free for everyone.
Minutes per kilo is a decent way to plan lunch and a poor way to decide whether meat is cooked. The same joint takes different times depending on its shape, how cold it was when it went in, whether the oven runs hot, and how often you opened the door. A £15 probe thermometer settles all of that.
Use the time to know when to start checking. Use the internal temperature to know when to stop.
| Meat | Pull from oven at | After resting |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken and turkey | 72 °C | 74 °C+ |
| Pork | 60 °C | 63 °C |
| Beef, rare | 48 °C | 52 °C |
| Beef, medium rare | 52 °C | 57 °C |
| Beef, medium | 57 °C | 63 °C |
| Beef, well done | 66 °C | 71 °C |
| Lamb, medium rare | 52 °C | 57 °C |
| Slow-cooked shoulder or brisket | 90–95 °C | — |
Meat carries on cooking after it leaves the oven — carryover of about 3–5 °C on a joint, more on something very large. That is why every figure above is lower than the temperature you actually want to eat at.
A joint cut straight out of the oven loses its juices onto the board. Ten to twenty minutes under loose foil lets the muscle relax and reabsorb them, and the carryover finishes the cooking. A big turkey can rest for 45 minutes and still be hot enough.
Into the thickest part, away from bone — bone conducts heat and reads high. On a chicken that means the inner thigh, not the breast; the thigh is the last part to come up to temperature, so it is the part that decides.
Pork shoulder and brisket are not judged by doneness in the usual sense. They need to reach roughly 90–95 °C and stay there long enough for the connective tissue to break down, which is why they read "overcooked" on a steak scale and are exactly right on their own. Judge those by feel: the probe should slide in with almost no resistance.
Roasting times are given per kilo for a reason: a joint twice the size does not take twice as long to be safe, but it does take longer. Enter the weight and the cut, and check the internal temperature at the end — the thermometer is the only thing that actually knows.
