The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

HEAT TRANSFER Now that we know exactly what energy is, there’s a second layer of information to conside ...

Steaks searing—heat through conduction. Convection is the transfer of one solid body to another through ...

around at a good clip to promote faster, more even cooking. Similarly, agitating the oil when de ...

Radiation is transfer of energy through space via electromagnetic waves. Don’t worry, that’s not as scary ...

The top of a pizza cooks via radiation. Most of the time, in cooking, all three methods of heat ...

directly above the coals up and over the top of the burger, melting the cheese. Grilled burgers cook through all ...

food when heating it. Just like light or heat, microwaves are a form of electromagnetic radiation. When ...

One 3-quart saucier or saucepan filled with water 1 accurate instant-read thermometer Procedure Turn your ...

are in a cup of air. So, despite the fact that the water is at a lower temperature than the air in the ov ...

{^ Essential kitchen gear^ } There’s a lot of nonsense to wade through out there when trying to s ...

morning, the pot I usually reduced the cream in was being used. Rather than wait for it to free up, I ju ...

tools for. This is, of course, just a more complicated way of saying, “Don’t be stupid.” And that’s good ...

Here are some common metals, along with their properties: Stainless steel is very easy to main ...

quite dense, with a great heat capacity. But copper pans are very expensive. I’d love to have a ...

As far as retaining heat goes, nothing beats a good cast- iron pan. Its specific heat capacity ...

Until a good layer of seasoning has built up, food will stick to it. This goes for even the “preseas ...

density of the material is what makes cast iron so good at retaining a large amount of heat energ ...

Modern cast iron is bumpy like that because it is not polished the way old cast iron was and ret ...

in half as you try to turn it because it seems like it’s actually bonded with the pan? That’s because ...

smoke), or until its surface is distinctly blacker than when you started. An oven will heat the pan more ...