title: Studying the Thenar Eminence of Amateur cooKs (STEAK) study: a double-blinded, cross-sectional study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the reliability of using the thenar eminence to determine steak doneness.
  
  
  METHODS
  Double-blinded, cross-sectional study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Various home kitchens in Melbourne, Australia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Amateur/home cooks.
  
  
  METHODS
  The accuracy of the finger test (the tenseness of the thenar eminence in different hand positions) for determining how well a random beef steak has been cooked (rare v medium-rare v medium v well-done). We also examined whether participants improved with practice and whether the accuracy of the finger test was correlated with age, sex, cooking experience or self-rated steak-cooking ability.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty-six participants completed the study, and showed that they could accurately determine the doneness of a steak with the finger test better than chance (χ2[1, n = 156] = 9.88; P < 0.01). Their overall accuracy, however, was low (36%). There was no correlation between accuracy in application of the finger test with the other collected participant and steak variables.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The finger test can be used by amateur cooks to determine beef steak doneness. However, the low overall accuracy of the test suggests that more invasive tests are to be recommended for determining steak doneness for its health benefits.
authors.affiliation: Monash University, Melbourne, VIC toby.vinycomb@monash.edu.
authors.forename: Toby I
authors.initials: TI
authors.lastname: Vinycomb
authors.affiliation: Austin Hospital, Melbourne, VIC.
authors.forename: Amanda M-Y
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: Peninsula Health, Melbourne, VIC.
authors.forename: Manu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bhatnagar
authors.affiliation: Latrobe Regional Hospital, Traralgon, VIC.
authors.forename: Joon Ming
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Wong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D001315:Australia; D002417:Cattle; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003296:Cooking / Q000379:methods*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008461:Meat Products / Q000592:standards*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013649:Taste; D055815:Young Adult