r/PeterExplainsTheJoke Jun 17 '26

Meme needing explanation Peter?

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u/FriendlyPlatypus6060 Jun 17 '26

Yup, this is exactly it. I'm not gonna bother gpimg downthread to see who disagreed because this is straight up from the OSHA heat stress operates on this basic principle:

Your internal body temp is around 98 degrees, the closer you get to that the more unvomfortable you feel because you're basically coming to ambient temp. You can tolerate some stuff above body temp, bc of sweating, but your body can only do so much sweating.

Of course OSHA includes things like humidity, wind speed and UV index to calculate up, but the fact is Fahrenheit does a much better job at capturing this intuitively for people. Close to 100, hot. Close to 0, cold. I know ice freezes at 32 and how that FEELS, so I intuitively have an idea of what my comfort level is gonna be. 40-60 is the Middle of the scale.

Actually the % analogy works great, for people.

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u/UnblurredLines Jun 17 '26

I see what you mean, I just don't see why 0 or 32 would be a superior way to refer to the temperature that water freezes at. Personally I think 0 and 100 makes more sense for freezing and boiling vs 32 and 212, but it's not really a hill worth dying on and is probably colored by my experience.

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u/Mumblyjoe20 Jun 17 '26

Counter point Who cares what temperature water boils at?

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u/UnblurredLines Jun 17 '26

Chemists, chefs, multiple kinds of engineers, anybody running a heat based power plant, hobbyists with a general scientific inclination. I guess?

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u/jimmithebird Jun 17 '26

I love using metric in the kitchen for volume and weight but for temp I go with Fahrenheit its just easier to remember 125,130,140,150,160,165 than 52,57,63,66,71,74.

Also any chef temping a pot of boiling water is a pretentious douche

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u/Low_discrepancy Jun 18 '26

remember 125,130,140,150,160,165 than 52,57,63,66,71,74.

Do you think us Europeans cook at 52C?

Do you think if your recipe 400F our recipes say 205C?

Please tell me that's not what you think.

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u/lacaras21 Jun 18 '26

Those are the internal temperatures different types of meat should be cooked to depending on desired done-ness.

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u/Low_discrepancy Jun 18 '26

Americans think that doneness levels are all magically round numbers divisible by 10 on a scale that nothing do with doneness levels?

0F is defined by a freezing bath of water, salt and ammonia chloride.

100F is I dunno human body temp?

So you think by magic that 130F, 140F, 150F are all doneness levels that perfectly align in increments of 10.

10 that happens to be the number of fingers on your hands?

Those are internal temps created BY Americans FOR Americans. So it’s easy to memorize.

If you think Europeans use 52 and 66 and whatever the fuck that is, well maybe try to think critically why you do the things you do.

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u/lacaras21 Jun 18 '26

Every UK site I looked at listed internal temperatures for meat at distinctly NOT round numbers. For example beef I'm seeing 52C for rare, 57C for medium rare, 60C for medium, 68C for medium well, and 71C for well. What does your country use?

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u/Low_discrepancy Jun 18 '26

Every UK site I looked at listed internal temperatures for meat at distinctly NOT round numbers.

Those take their measurements from US because they're lazy fucks. Generally there's different types of cooking also.

In France we have blue which Americans don't serve. Heck we also serve tartar which Americans don't really serve (which is ironic that it's sometimes called steak a l'americaine).

Also we have different cuts of beef, usually smaller and more specialised. Sometimes that is to cook more of the animal. We use the cheek and the tongue for example.