If You Don't Have A Meat Thermometer, Reach For This Cake Tool To Test Steak Doneness

In the wide world of single-task kitchen tools — those often made-for-TV gadgets that perform one task other than collecting dust — some are actually more versatile than you'd think. A meat thermometer itself is kind of a good example, being that you can, of course, also use it for fish, poultry, and even candy making. And, on the flip side, absent a proper meat thermometer, you can also swap the tool for a cake tester, a very thin, metal skewer with a heat-resistant end, to check a steak's temperature and guesstimate its doneness in a pinch.

But first, as always, some words of caution. This tip, which we first spied over on the OXO Good Tips blog, actually calls for a part of your body, your literal own flesh and hopefully not blood, to gauge the meat's heat. OXO tapped New York City chef Shane McBride to share the daredevil method. McBride told the blog that it's a fairly common professional technique that he picked up at Manhattan's Gramercy Tavern and Craft restaurant. And it's as simple as piercing the steak with the skewer for long enough for the cake tester to come to temperature (10 seconds or so) before removing and pressing it to a heat-sensitive body part, like your neck, for evaluation. Imagine, with all those food safety concerns you're trying to avoid in the kitchen, this is what the experts are up to.

Although this trick does kind of sound like a sexy move out of a rebel without foie gras-type, bad boy chef film, be cautious if you choose to try it at home. Unlike a cake tester, humans do not have a heat-resistant end. And there are plenty of better ways to check food temperature that do not require sacrificial flesh to achieve. But if we were to play a round of doneness roulette, we would choose an easily covered heat-sensitive area to possibly singe. The inner elbow or wrist, where people typically test baby bottle temps, seem like sensible enough spots.

Once you've selected your potential scald site, the rest is common sense. If the metal is cool to cold, your steak is obviously barely rare. If it's hot, you might be in a decently medium finish territory. And if it's very hot, both the steak, and maybe even your epidermis, are likely cooked.