Cooking Fundamentals

Recipes fail because they assume technique. The instruction says “sauté until golden” — but if you don’t understand the Maillard reaction, don’t know when your pan is ready, or crowd the surface with too much food, you get grey, steamed, limp vegetables. The failure isn’t the recipe; it’s the missing foundation beneath the recipe.

Cooking has a grammar. Learn the grammar and recipes become suggestions. Improvisation becomes possible. New dishes become variations on understood patterns rather than arbitrary sequences of steps.

Heat is the fundamental transformation. Food changes when energy moves into it. The mechanisms:

Conduction: Direct contact with a hot surface. Pan-frying, griddling. The surface temperature determines browning — too low and food releases moisture before browning; too high and the surface burns before the interior cooks.

Convection: Hot fluid (air or water) circulating around food. Boiling, steaming, roasting in an oven. Convection transfers heat more slowly than conduction but cooks more evenly.

Radiation: Energy transfer through electromagnetic waves. Broiling, grilling over coals. Radiation cooks from outside only; the interior cooks by conduction from the surface.

Understanding heat transfer helps you troubleshoot. Food browning on the outside but raw inside? The heat is too high or too direct. Food releasing liquid and steaming instead of browning? The pan was too cold or too crowded.

The Maillard reaction is the browning of proteins and sugars that creates complex flavors and appetizing color. It starts around 280°F (140°C) and accelerates up to about 355°F (180°C). Above that, carbonization (burning) takes over.

Surface moisture prevents Maillard browning — water evaporates at 212°F (100°C), absorbing energy that could drive the reaction higher. Pat meat dry before searing. Don’t crowd the pan; crowded food steams in its own released moisture.

The reaction requires time. A steak seared 60 seconds per side in a screaming-hot pan gets less browning than a steak seared 90 seconds in a moderately hot pan. Quick high heat burns surface spots before browning spreads evenly.

Caramelization is the browning of sugars alone, without proteins. It starts around 320°F (160°C) and creates nutty, sweet, bitter-complex flavors. Onions caramelize — the sugars concentrate as moisture evaporates, then brown. This takes 30-45 minutes over moderate heat; rushing with high heat creates burnt bitter spots alongside raw sections.

The gradient matters: lowest heat for gentle softening without browning, moderate heat for caramelization, high heat for quick browning with minimal softening. Different goals require different approaches.

Salt does more than add saltiness. Sodium ions interact with proteins, affecting texture and moisture. Salt draws moisture to the surface of meat — initially it pools, but given time (40+ minutes) it reabsorbs, tenderizing the interior. This is dry brining.

Season throughout cooking, not just at the end. Salt in the cooking water for pasta and vegetables seasons from within; surface salt alone creates uneven flavor. Taste as you go; add salt in stages. The goal isn’t to make food salty — it’s to make flavors more themselves.

Fat carries flavor. Many flavor compounds are fat-soluble; oil distributes them across the palate and helps them linger. Fat also moderates heat — oil in a pan heats food more evenly than a dry surface. Butter burns around 350°F (175°C); clarified butter around 450°F (230°C); neutral oils around 400-450°F (205-230°C). Match fat to cooking temperature.

Acidity balances richness. Lemon juice, vinegar, wine brighten heavy dishes. The effect isn’t to make food sour but to create contrast. Without acid, rich dishes taste flat. Add acid in small amounts and taste. Stop when the dish feels balanced — when you can’t identify it as sour, but removing it would make the dish feel dull.

Mise en place (everything in place) is the practice of preparing all ingredients before cooking starts. It’s not about appearing professional — it’s about cognitive load. Mid-cooking is too late to dice the garlic. The pan is ready now. Having everything prepped, measured, and organized lets you respond to the cooking rather than scrambling.

The deeper point: cooking well requires presence. You’re watching, smelling, adjusting. If you’re also reading instructions and measuring spices, you miss the moment when the onions should come off heat. Preparation buys attention. Attention is the ingredient that separates competent from good.

Technique precedes recipe. A cook who understands heat, browning, and seasoning can make dinner from a random assortment of ingredients. A cook who follows recipes without understanding may succeed with that recipe and fail with the next.

The fundamentals are few. Heat control. Maillard reaction. Salt and acid. Mise en place. Master these and the rest becomes variation.

Go Deeper

Books

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat — The title names the four elements; the book teaches them with clarity and joy.
The Food Lab by J. Kenji López-Alt — Science-driven technique for home cooking. The why behind the how.
On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee — Reference encyclopedia of kitchen science. Dense, comprehensive.

Essays

Kenji López-Alt’s Serious Eats articles — Rigorous experiments on specific techniques. Free and excellent.