Patent ID: 8455027

Claim:
A method of accurately determining the degree of doneness of meat during a cooking process comprising the steps of: inserting a thermo-probe into meat to be cooked, placing the meat into a cooking environment, delivering heat to the meat to initiate and sustain the cooking process, monitoring the internal temperature of the meat during the cooking process to produce temperature data, transmitting the temperature data to a computing device capable of computing the arithmetic integral of an arithmetic function based on the temperature vs. time data during the cooking process, calculating the arithmetic integral of an arithmetic function based on the temperature vs. time data on a continuous basis to produce an energy impulse value (EI), comparing the calculated EI value to a pre-determined scale of EI values representing EI values for differing degrees of doneness, and generating a signal when the calculated EI value approximates the pre-determined EI value for a desired degree of doneness such that the cooking process should be stopped, wherein said step of calculating the arithmetic integral of the temperature vs. time data is performed using the equation EI=∫(T d (t) 2 +T d (t))·dt when T(t)>=T t (t), where T d (t)=T(t)−T t (t), and T(t) represents the temperature measured within the meat as it is being cooked, and T t (t) represents a threshold temperature.