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Sources and method

Where the numbers come from.

One fact, one record, many pages. Every temperature, cut name and wood note on this site renders from a version-controlled record. Every record names its source and the date we read it. Nothing is typed from memory, and nothing is copied off a graphic.

Safety

USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, and FDA for seafood. These are the floors. Where any other number is lower, the federal minimum governs.

Cuts and doneness

The Beef Checkoff, the National Pork Board and the American Lamb Board for cut names and their published doneness scales. Texas A&M Meat Science for barbecue mechanics.

Craft

Tenderness windows, wood character and the stall are barbecue convention. They are labelled craft wherever they appear and never presented as safety.

Food sources
SourceTypePage updatedRead
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: Safe Minimum Internal Temperature ChartFederal agency2025-04-142026-09-02
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: Beef From Farm to TableFederal agency2024-12-042026-09-02
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: Fresh Pork From Farm to TableFederal agency2024-12-102026-09-02
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: Lamb From Farm to TableFederal agencynot shown2026-09-02
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: Chicken from Farm to TableFederal agency2024-09-302026-09-02
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: Goat From Farm to TableFederal agency2024-12-112026-09-02
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: Smoking Meat and PoultryFederal agency2024-08-132026-09-02
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: Doneness Versus SafetyFederal agency2024-07-102026-09-02
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: Food ThermometersFederal agency2025-03-212026-09-02
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: Danger Zone (40 F - 140 F)Federal agency2023-06-282026-09-02
U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Selecting and Serving Fresh and Frozen Seafood SafelyFederal agency2024-03-052026-09-02
Cattlemen's Beef Board and National Cattlemen's Beef Association (Beef Checkoff): Beef. It's What's For Dinner: Cuts and primal pagesIndustry bodynot shown2026-09-02
Cattlemen's Beef Board and National Cattlemen's Beef Association (Beef Checkoff): Determining DonenessIndustry bodynot shown2026-09-02
National Pork Board (Pork Checkoff): Pork CutsIndustry bodynot shown2026-09-02
National Pork Board (Pork Checkoff): Smoking PorkIndustry bodynot shown2026-09-02
American Lamb Board: Learn About the Different Cuts of LambIndustry bodynot shown2026-09-02
American Lamb Board: Lamb Cooking Time & Temperature (PDF)Industry bodynot shown2026-09-02
Texas A&M University, Department of Animal Science, Meat Science Section: Texas Barbecue: How to Cook and Smoke BarbecueUniversitynot shown2026-09-02
Texas A&M University, Department of Animal Science, Meat Science Section: Texas Barbecue: Barbecue ScienceUniversitynot shown2026-09-02
Texas A&M University, Department of Animal Science, Meat Science Section: Texas Barbecue: Meat Selection for BarbecuingUniversitynot shown2026-09-02
AmazingRibs.com (Meathead), reporting experiments by Prof. Greg Blonder, Boston University: What Causes The BBQ Stall: It's Not What You ThinkPractitioner report2026-07-202026-09-02
How a record works

Three temperature kinds, never merged

A safety minimum is a federal floor. A culinary preference is how you like a steak, and it can sit below the floor, in which case the page says so next to the number. A tenderness target is where a collagen cut turns soft, always above the floor, and always labelled craft. The site will not print a preference table without the minimum beside it; the code that renders one returns both together.

Craft figures without an authoritative source stay marked as convention. Twenty-odd records are in that state today, and they say so. When two sources disagree, the record keeps both and says which one governs.

The same records build the field guide PDF and the reference layer of the Pit Master Log app. Published by Anvil Road LLC. Corrections: support.

Program and provider documentation