This site uses only a few technical cookies necessary for its operation. By continuing to browse, you accept their use.
To find out more...
To find out more...
The thermometer is your friend
There are many recipes or foods that require a (very) precise cooking temperature: foie gras, sugar for caramel, meats and fish, and not forgetting pastries. For these few examples, getting the cooking temperature wrong can spoil the whole recipe or dish: undercooked, it's no good or misses the mark; overcooked, it can become hard, dry or inedible.
It's not easy to judge cooking or temperature by eye, but fortunately you have an indispensable friend in the form of a thermometer.
It's not easy to judge cooking or temperature by eye, but fortunately you have an indispensable friend in the form of a thermometer.
4,778 5/5 (4 reviews)
Keywords for this post:CookingPastryBakeryTemperatureBakingThermometerElectronicLast modified on: April 10th 2025
The thermometer is your friend
A catering professional has a keen eye, he or she is able to see or sense if the cooking is finished, or if it needs to be continued, simply by virtue of his or her long experience. It's always amazing to see a rotisserie chef, or a rotisserie cooker, who can manage a 1-square-meter griddle, and who is able to start cooking 5 or 6 pieces of meat at the same time, or more, and to know when to stop the "blue", the "rare" and the "medium" at the right moment.
Obviously, this is something we amateurs are hardly capable of. It's not so easy to cook fish properly, and nothing is better than a perfectly cooked fish fillet: neither too much (it dries out and hardens), nor too little (it's not sushi, being "pearly" when cooked isn't always enough).
You might think that it's only a question of time: if you put your tournedos on the stove for x minutes, it will be cooked to perfection, or if you put your roast in the oven for y minutes, it will be too. But no, it doesn't work like that, because the heat source is highly variable: you put your frying pan on the fire, and it takes a certain amount of time to reach the right temperature, depending on your setting; your meat may have just come out of the fridge, so it's cold, which means it will take longer to cook, whereas meat at the right temperature will cook faster, in short... It's almost mission impossible.
So, should we give up? No, in fact, technology can come to our rescue in a very simple way: since cooking means reaching a certain temperature, and this temperature can be measured with a thermometer, we can rest easy enough on that.
Returning to the story of the undercooked fish, it's enough to know that fish is (generally) perfectly cooked if it reaches 60°C at the core. To cook your fish successfully, put it in the oven or on the stove, stick a thermometer probe in it and wait for it to reach the famous 60°C, then remove from the heat and serve within 3 to 5 minutes. You'll be amazed at the results.
It works for just about any type of cooking, and above all, it's completely environmentally friendly: is my oven/oven hot? Is my meat or fish at room temperature or not? Is the thickness of my foie gras even? Is my sugar "grand cassé" rather than blond caramel? None of this matters, only the core temperature of your dish.
If you're going down this road, you'll need a good thermometer: opt for an electronic one that goes up to 300°C, with an oven-safe stainless steel probe (some kitchen ovens now include a probe), and if possible a temperature alarm: it beeps loudly when the indicated temperature is reached, allowing you to do something else while cooking. It's not cheap, but it's a good investment, and once you've tried it, you'll see that it's a life-changing device.
To sum up: when cooking, only the core temperature counts, and the thermometer is ideal for that.
Obviously, this is something we amateurs are hardly capable of. It's not so easy to cook fish properly, and nothing is better than a perfectly cooked fish fillet: neither too much (it dries out and hardens), nor too little (it's not sushi, being "pearly" when cooked isn't always enough).
You might think that it's only a question of time: if you put your tournedos on the stove for x minutes, it will be cooked to perfection, or if you put your roast in the oven for y minutes, it will be too. But no, it doesn't work like that, because the heat source is highly variable: you put your frying pan on the fire, and it takes a certain amount of time to reach the right temperature, depending on your setting; your meat may have just come out of the fridge, so it's cold, which means it will take longer to cook, whereas meat at the right temperature will cook faster, in short... It's almost mission impossible.
So, should we give up? No, in fact, technology can come to our rescue in a very simple way: since cooking means reaching a certain temperature, and this temperature can be measured with a thermometer, we can rest easy enough on that.
Returning to the story of the undercooked fish, it's enough to know that fish is (generally) perfectly cooked if it reaches 60°C at the core. To cook your fish successfully, put it in the oven or on the stove, stick a thermometer probe in it and wait for it to reach the famous 60°C, then remove from the heat and serve within 3 to 5 minutes. You'll be amazed at the results.
It works for just about any type of cooking, and above all, it's completely environmentally friendly: is my oven/oven hot? Is my meat or fish at room temperature or not? Is the thickness of my foie gras even? Is my sugar "grand cassé" rather than blond caramel? None of this matters, only the core temperature of your dish.
If you're going down this road, you'll need a good thermometer: opt for an electronic one that goes up to 300°C, with an oven-safe stainless steel probe (some kitchen ovens now include a probe), and if possible a temperature alarm: it beeps loudly when the indicated temperature is reached, allowing you to do something else while cooking. It's not cheap, but it's a good investment, and once you've tried it, you'll see that it's a life-changing device.
To sum up: when cooking, only the core temperature counts, and the thermometer is ideal for that.
Lasts posts
Getting out of the fridge early
Very often when you're cooking, you need to take food or preparations out of the fridge, to use them in the recipe in progress. There's nothing tricky about this: you just take them out of the fridge and use them, usually immediately, in the recipe. But is this really a good method?November 24th 20256385
Who's making the croissants?
When you look at a bakery from the outside, you naturally think that in the bakery, the bakers make the bread, and in the laboratory, the pastry chefs make the cakes. It's very often like that, with each of these professions having quite different ways of working, but sometimes there's also one...November 23th 2025686
Oven height
When we put a dish or cake in the oven, we naturally tend to put it on the middle shelf, and that's what we usually do. But in some cases, this position and height can be a little tricky, so let's find out why.October 8th 20252,2055
The importance of sieving
In recipes that use a fine powder (flour, powdered sugar, etc.), you'll often see the advice to sift before using it. To sift is to pass the powder in question through a sieve (a very fine strainer) before incorporating it into your recipe. It's often advice, but is it really useful?September 3rd 20257,2063
The grease spray
As soon as you have something in a recipe that sticks to the mold, the question always arises as to how difficult it is to remove from the mold. There's nothing more frustrating than breaking your cake when unmolding it, because part of it has stuck in the mold. The classic way to avoid this is...August 26th 20256,7245
Other pages you may also like
The first breads of humanity?
I have already told you in a previous article the beautiful story of the croissants, but do you know what it is about the bread, who "invented" it, where and when? Well, you can imagine that recent discoveries, in 2018, have profoundly changed the history of bread.February 16th 201914 K5
The time of the jams
We are well into summer as I write this, and this is the time when most of the fruit is giving or about to give in full. And for many of us, it will also be the time for jams and jellies, one of the best ways to preserve fruit for the next winter.July 12th 202127 K4.5
A few tips for effective kneading at home
When you have to knead dough for bread or some other recipe, you may well use a food processor or the type of machine known as a stand mixer. The best-known brands are Kenwood and KitchenAid. They are useful tools, but here are a few tips to help you get the best out of them.June 23th 2021283 K 23.8
Baking cakes
Where we see that to put a cake in the oven, once the dough is finished and in its mould, there is no hurry and that the cold is your friend.June 28th 201945 K4.1
What happens to the bread when you make it?
This bread that we eat every day, and that our baker makes for us, what happens during its manufacture so that it becomes bread? I will try to answer this question, and to summarize the complex alchemy that takes place.May 28th 202115 K4.9
Post a comment or question
Follow this page
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.