Doneness is a description of how thoroughly cooked a cut of meat is based on the color, juiciness and internal temperature when served. The best way to check for doneness is to use a instant read thermometer with a skinny probe, to avoid leaking juices.
- Rare: 120° to 130°
- Med Rare: 130° to 145°
- Medium: 145° to 155°
- Toast: 155° and up
Of course, many steakhouse restaurants and steak-lovers divvy up the categories in many ways, but generally, these follow a specific pattern, from "don't even bother with the grill, sunlight is enough" to "call CSI for identification":
- Raw
- Blue Rare
- Rare
- Medium Rare
- Medium
- Medium Well
- Well Done
- Well Well Done
- Encased in Carbonite
Always make sure you place the steak in a place with good heat distribution, otherwise you might end up with a medium well end and a medium rare... other end, which might conceivably be good eats, but is certainly not much fun. Unless you are a gamblin' man, of course.