Foods & cuts · Beef

Picanha, whole

The rump cap cooked whole, on its fat. The cut readers ask about most across butchery systems, and the one where BBQHQ's own cautious answer turned out to be wrong.

What it is

Form: Whole muscle
Typical weight: 1.0–1.5 kg
Typical thickness: 40–70 mm
Cut: Picanha

Why it behaves as it does

The fat cap is the point: it needs long enough over moderate heat to render, and it will flare if it drips onto direct flame. BBQHQ holds no retrieved duration source for it at all — only the cut specification — so the timing is a tracked gap rather than an estimate.

When is it done?

Food-safety endpoint

Food Standards Agency
The Food Standards Agency states that whole cuts of red meat such as steaks can be served pink, rare or bloody and will be safe to eat as long as the surface has been adequately seared. It gives no internal temperature for this case, so there is no figure here to cook to — the searing of the surface is the condition.
The rule and its source
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the Food Standards Agency states that whole cuts of red meat such as steaks may be served pink, rare or bloody, on the condition that the surface has been adequately seared. No internal temperature is given for this case.
Well established
- Food Standards Agency — States this directly
  “red meat such as steaks can be served pink, rare or bloody and will be safe to eat as long as the surface has been adequately seared”
  What it covers:
  The document states its own reach: 'Applies to England, Northern Ireland and Wales'. Food Standards Scotland publishes separately and, as recorded separately, does not make this statement.
  The permission is CONDITIONAL and the condition is the whole rule: the surface must have been adequately seared, because on a whole cut the contamination is on the surface. A reading that drops the condition has changed the guidance into something else.
  Shape:
  No figure is given, and none is implied. This is a statement about a FORM rather than a temperature, which is why BBQHQ had to be able to record a rule about form at all before this could be held without inventing a number to hang it on.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-14
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service
In the United States, whole cuts of beef, pork, lamb and veal — steaks, chops and roasts — should reach 145 °F (63 °C), followed by a rest of at least three minutes before carving or eating.
- 63 °C (145 °F) — measured at the centre of the thickest part, away from bone and fat.
The rule and its source
In the United States, whole cuts of beef, pork, lamb and veal have a safe minimum internal temperature of 145 °F (63 °C), followed by a rest of at least three minutes.
Well established
- United States Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service — States this directly
  “Cook raw beef, pork, lamb and veal steaks, chops, and roasts to a minimum internal temperature of 145 °F ... allow meat to rest for at least three minutes”
  Form:
  Whole cuts only. Ground meats are covered by a separate, higher figure.
  The three-minute rest is part of the safety requirement, not only a quality step.
  How it was measured:
  As measured with a food thermometer before removing from the heat source.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
Health Canada
In Canada, beef, veal and lamb pieces and whole cuts are given a safety figure for each doneness level: 63 °C (145 °F) medium-rare, 71 °C (160 °F) medium and 77 °C (170 °F) well done. Mechanically tenderized beef and veal should reach 63 °C and be turned at least twice during cooking.
- 63 °C (145 °F) — measured at the centre of the thickest part.
- 71 °C (160 °F) — measured at the centre of the thickest part.
- 77 °C (171 °F) — measured at the centre of the thickest part.
The rule and its source
In Canada, beef, veal and lamb pieces and whole cuts are given three safety figures by doneness: 63 °C medium-rare, 71 °C medium and 77 °C well done. Mechanically tenderized beef and veal are given 63 °C and must be turned at least twice during cooking.
Well established
- Health Canada — States this directly
  “Pieces and whole cuts, for example, steaks and roasts medium-rare 63 145 medium 71 160 well done 77 170”
  Shape:
  A safety chart that speaks in doneness, which is unusual and useful. Most authorities give one safety figure and leave doneness to the cook; Canada publishes the ladder, so a Canadian reader choosing medium-rare is choosing inside official guidance rather than against it.
  The mechanically tenderized row carries a handling instruction rather than only a temperature, which matches BBQHQ's existing claim that tenderised meat behaves like mince.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-15
Tenderised meat is grouped with minced meat rather than with whole cuts, and must be cooked through when barbecued.
Well supported
- New Zealand Food Safety / Ministry for Primary Industries — States this directly
  New Zealand Food Safety advises that chicken, tenderised meat and minced meat products need to be barbecued until they are cooked through, over 75 °C all the way through.
  Form:
  Groups tenderised meat with mince rather than with whole cuts — direct support for treating mechanical tenderisation as an interior-contamination form.
  Stated specifically in the context of barbecuing.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
Food Standards Australia New Zealand
Use separate equipment for raw and cooked meat, and never put cooked meat back on a tray or plate that held it raw. Throw away leftovers unless there is refrigeration available to cool them quickly.
The rule and its source
At a barbecue, raw and cooked meat must be kept apart: separate equipment, and cooked meat never returned to the tray that held it raw.
Well established
- Food Standards Australia New Zealand — States this directly
  “never place cooked meat back on the trays that held the raw meat”
  The single most common barbecue food-safety failure, and one that no cooking temperature prevents.
  Where it applies:
  Australia and New Zealand.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
Food Standards Agency
Wash a thermometer stem in hot soapy water before and after each use, and do not put the head in water.
The rule and its source
A thermometer stem should be washed in hot soapy water before and after each use, and the head should not be put in water.
Well established
- Clemson Cooperative Extension — States this directly
  “Make sure to clean the stem of your food thermometer with hot soapy water before and after each use. Do not immerse the head in water.”
  Before and after, not just after. a probe that went into an undercooked bird and then into the next one is a cross-contamination route BBQHQ's food-safety model already recognises between surfaces and hands, and has never described for the instrument that touches every piece of meat on the grate.
  The head exclusion is an equipment instruction rather than a hygiene one — electronics — and is recorded here because it is in the same sentence and separating them would misquote the source.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-21

Culinary doneness — a preference, not a safety figure

medium — 65–70 °C (149–158 °F)

Measure at: The centre of the thickest part, away from the fat cap.

An Australian culinary convention, carried because it is the only sourced doneness temperature BBQHQ holds for beef. It sits above British expectations for the same word, and it is a preference rather than a safety figure.

Where this comes from

Culinary doneness conventions differ by country. MLA gives Australian beef doneness as 60 °C rare, 65–70 °C medium and 75 °C well done, noticeably higher than British convention for the same words.

Limited evidence — treat with caution

Meat & Livestock Australia — States this directly
MLA gives Australian culinary doneness temperatures for beef of 60 °C rare, 65–70 °C medium and 75 °C well done, and advises removing a roast just before the target because it continues to cook while resting.
Culinary preference, not a safety endpoint. MLA is a levy body and is explicitly restricted from the safety domain here.
Noticeably higher than British culinary conventions for the same words — a real difference in what people in different places expect 'medium' to mean.
About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13

Texture endpoint — how you actually know

Fat cap rendered and coloured, meat sliced across the grain

The fat cap has given up its solidity and browned rather than staying white and firm. It needs sustained moderate heat to get there, and it will flare if it drips onto open flame.

How long it takes

Picanha, whole, over fire

Estimated cooking window

Research needed. No live-fire duration source has been retrieved for whole picanha. The oven figure BBQHQ holds is not a substitute, and presenting it as one would be the exact error the reconciliation model exists to prevent. See the open question.

What this rests on

BBQHQ publishes no window — the evidence is not there yet.

Observations: 2
Documents: 2
Publishers timing this cook: 0

Also on this page, supplying endpoints or doneness rather than timings: Meat & Livestock Australia · United States Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service. They are not a second opinion about how long the cook takes.

Why confidence is not higher

The sources describe materially different methods, so they are not combined.
Only one source applies to these conditions.
The endpoint is well established; the timing behind it is not. Cook to the endpoint.
The timing evidence assumes a different jurisdiction's endpoint from the one shown here.

How the sources were combined

THE ONLY TIMING EVIDENCE BBQHQ HOLDS FOR THIS CUT IS FOR AN OVEN, AND IT IS REFUSED. Meat & Livestock Australia gives 20–25 minutes per 500 g at 200 °C for premium beef roasts including rump, and a whole picanha is a rump cut in that weight class. It would have been trivially easy to present that as a barbecue time. It describes a closed domestic oven — different heat transfer, no radiant component from a fire, no cook-controlled airflow — and the observation is recorded as an enclosed-oven cook precisely so that it conflicts with any live-fire figure rather than merging with it. The endpoint and the doneness temperature survive; the duration does not.

What makes the window as wide as it is

Weight varies within the range this covers
Cookers hold temperature imperfectly
Thickness varies between pieces

One open question tracked for this.

When it goes wrong

It came out dry: The meat came out dry — 4 distinguishable causes.
It came out tough: The meat came out tough — 3 distinguishable causes.
Burnt outside, underdone inside: Steak burnt outside and underdone inside — 2 distinguishable causes.
It caused flare-ups: Flare-ups — 2 distinguishable causes.

Afterwards

Cooling, keeping and reheating what is left is general guidance for barbecue leftovers. Neither UK authority publishes anything specific to picanha, whole, and BBQHQ does not invent a distinction they do not make.

Traditions that cook it

Churrasco
Meat roasted over embers on a spit or a grill, emblematic of Rio Grande do Sul. Technically unremarkable and symbolically dense — the anthropology of it is more interesting than the technique, which is the reverse of how barbecue traditions are usually written about.

What we don't know about this

Brazilian institutional sources describing churrasco have been difficult to reach, so BBQHQ can describe this cut without being able to describe the tradition it belongs to.

What we know we’re missing records what was searched for each of these, and what would settle it.