Want to Cook with More Confidence? Learn to Control This One Thing

Cooking is, at its core, the transfer of energy from heat to food. However, anyone who cooks knows that it's much more complex. One fundamental difference between a passable dish and a great one lies in how you control the temperature. Gentle heat can keep meat juicy and tender, while cranking the heat for too long on certain cuts can make it inedibly tough. A few degrees can mean the difference between jammy or rubbery eggs. It's not just about heat, either. Freezing foods can alter their flavors and textures, and ice baths can preserve the vivid color of vegetables and prevent them from overcooking. 

Great cooks don't leave temperature to chance. They understand how to use it to their advantage to create the textures and flavors they want. Playing with temperature isn't just science—it's the key to unlocking truly delicious meals and delivering consistent results each time, making you a better, stronger cook.   

Editor's Note: This is the fourth in a series of articles sharing essential tips and techniques that have changed how I, the other Serious Eats editors, and our readers cook. The first installment explored game-changing prep tips, the second featured key uses for salt, and the third covered the importance of time. This series is by no means an ultimate collection of essential techniques—just some of the more important ones that separate good cooks from truly great ones.

Understand the Maillard Reaction

The Maillard reaction is a fundamental chemical process in cooking, occurring when heat transforms proteins and sugars to create new flavor compounds, giving foods their distinctive aromas, colors, and flavors. It's why loaves of bread brown, french fries turn golden, and roasted coffee beans smell wonderfully nutty. Understanding how the Maillard reaction works means you can intentionally enhance flavor by creating a deeply savory crust on meat, brown mushrooms to intensify their umami, and char vegetables to unlock their sweet, smoky notes.

Get in Touch With Cold-Start Cooking

Many recipes call for adding meat and seafood to boiling water or a hot pan, but sometimes it pays to start cold. Beginning with minimal heat gives proteins time to cook gently and evenly, so they stay tender instead of seizing up. For example, starting chicken thighs in a cold pan allows the fat to slowly render, producing ultra-crisp skin without burning. Similarly, starting shrimp in cold water heats the shellfish gradually, yielding juicy, delicate meat.

Reverse Sear Steaks and Other Meats

The reverse sear is a Serious Eats classic—and for good reason. Cooking steak in an oven at about 250°F (121°C) heats it slowly and evenly, reducing the risk of overcooking. Quickly finishing the steak in a ripping-hot pan creates a beautiful crust. Since the meat reaches its target temperature gradually, it doesn't need to rest before serving—just slice and enjoy. This foolproof technique reliably delivers medium-rare steak with a nicely browned crust, and it works just as well for pork, lamb, and other proteins.

Rest Your Meat Only Long Enough to Hit Your Target Temp

Contrary to popular belief, resting meat isn’t about preserving juices. Instead, it helps control temperature and manage carryover cooking, which happens when residual heat continues to cook meat as it rests. Resting gives you a better shot at hitting your target temperature without overshooting it. As our editorial director, Daniel, notes in his article, resting is "best understood as a method of temperature control, not juice retention." The rest only needs to last as long as it takes for the internal temperature to creep up to your goal—so let your thermometer, not the clock, tell you when it's time to slice.

Take Advantage of Your Freezer

The freezer can transform ingredients in ways heat simply can't. Repeatedly freezing and thawing pears, for example, yields incredibly juicy fruit with a similar texture to traditional poached pears. Cryo-blanching—rapidly freezing, thawing, and then cooking—vegetables enhances and locks in their vivid color and crisp texture. Freezing even helps with prep: Clams release more easily from their shells, and chilled meats or fish—especially fatty or delicate cuts—become far easier to slice. Just pop the meat or fish in the freezer for 15 to 30 minutes, then get cutting.