A medium well done steak should be 140-145 degrees internal temperature. I like my steak medium which is around 130 degrees.

Leaving your dog in the car on a summer day can cook them just like a steak. So, unless you are into authentic Vietnamese dining, DON’T COOK YOUR DOG!

Let me prove my point …

The other day I posted a short PSA about leaving your pets in the car. I had a few comments and some professional advice. In one of my replies I compared the interior temperature of my light colored vehicle quickly became dangerous in just 10 minutes. I likened it to the recommended internal temperature of a steak. At 140 degrees we’re talking MEDIUM WELL DONE!

That got me thinking … you can imagine where this is headed.

I took a completely frozen steak from the chest freezer, opened the bag, sprinkled a little salt and pepper and closed the bag again.I placed it up on a cooking cooling rack and set it on the center armrest of my vehicle. At the time, the outside temperature was 84. The sun was now shining. At no time did the sun shine directly on the armrest.

Within an hour, the steak went from frozen solid to 87 degrees. Then my experiment went a bit wonky because it became very overcast for the rest of the day. Even still, after 3 hours of mostly overcast, I removed the steak from the bag and it had a very respectable internal temperature of 126 degrees !

The steak has no grill marks so it looks a little less "restaurant worthy" than my usual cooking but I can tell you it is delicious. I will run this test again on a sunny day and start with a thawed steak. My expectation is it will cook completely within 60-90 minutes.

Don’t let this happen to you family pets !