How cooking works

When you cook, food doesn’t turn out the way it does by accident.

If food burns, sticks, browns, turns out too hard, or ends up too soft, there’s a reason for it.

And it’s not that you don’t have a feel for it or any talent.

Here are some of the things behind it.

Why does temperature matter when you’re cooking? How hot is hot? Does the order matter? What makes a good pan? Do I need to buy a lot of tools?

There are no tricks, no secrets, and you don’t need to buy everything.

There are a few basic things that, once you understand them, cooking feels less intimidating. Sometimes it’s exactly the small detail that doesn’t even seem important that determines the result.

We don’t promise that you’ll become a good cook if you read everything here.

But understanding isn’t enough. You have to try it in practice, over and over (and it’s inevitable that the result will often turn out bad) to really get a feel for it.

And once that happens, cooking gets easier.