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Cooking Temperatures?


xortch

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I am trying to figure out what low, medium, and high mean in actual temperature ranges. I have not been able to find it out online or anywhere. If anyone could post what those ranges are that would be great.

"No butter... What the hell do they think bernaise is? It's like, egg yolks and butter!" -- Anthony Bourdain

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I assume you mean low, medium, and high as referenced in recipes and sort of replicated on the knobs on most stoves.

As for the stoves, I've found that they vary wildly and the only thing you can do is practice with the stove you have to get a feel for what setting delivers what heat. To me, the most common problem is burners that won't go low enough.

As for the recipes, I usually think this way. Low heat will just barely keep a pot at a simmer. Medium will keep it boiling more briskly, and high is what you use to boil water or heat a pan for frying or searing. The stove setting has to be adjusted (except for high uses) based on the size of the pot, i.e. a larger pot takes more heat to maintain a simmer or boil.

How that relates to actual temperatures, I'm not sure. All settings will burn your fingers if you touch them!

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I assume you mean low, medium, and high as referenced in recipes and sort of replicated on the knobs on most stoves.

Yeah I'm trying to get a feel for what how hot it should be on my stove when a recipie calls for medium heat. I swear if I put my stove on medium it will burn most things, so I am learning to adjust. But sometimes its hard. I guess I just need to keep experimenting, and eventually I will learn what things need to be at.

"No butter... What the hell do they think bernaise is? It's like, egg yolks and butter!" -- Anthony Bourdain

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There are just too many variable to make even general assumptions. Even burners on the same range will heat up differently.

Trial and error is the only way to learn.

For the purpose of having some kind of starting point you might consider "high" to be for browning, or bringing something up to heat quickly, similar to a 450-500 degree oven. "medium" would be general purpose cooking, like a 350 degree oven, and "low" is to maintian a temperature over a long period, (simmering for liquids), like a 225 degree oven temperature.

SB :wink:

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...

Yeah I'm trying to get a feel for what how hot it should be on my stove when a recipie calls for medium heat. I swear if I put my stove on medium it will burn most things, so I am learning to adjust. But sometimes its hard. I guess I just need to keep experimenting, and eventually I will learn what things need to be at.

For years I searched for this perfect "spot" so I could set my burner to match whatever the recipe called for. Let me tell you, it will never happen. It does not just depend on the burner but on the vessel as well. A burner that will maintain a simmer at one setting on the dial for one pan will need to be adjusted higher or lower for another pan, depending on its composition. As everyone else has said, you will learn from experience with your burners and your pans.

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

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One thing I've always wanted to do is buy an infrared thermometer, so I can measure the actual temperature of the pan surface. If I could do that, I'd cook various things over and over in the same pan at different knob settings to get the best results, and match the corresponding pan temperatures with low, medium, high, and the in-betweens; that way, I'll have some way to compare between pans. Then I'd make a table matching pans and cooking heat to knob settings, and pin it on the fridge to reference.

Am I crazy or obsessed? (choose one) :wacko:

Actually, I guess this doesn't take into account the pan surface (non-stick vs. bare metal), or the ability of the pan to retain heat (a cast iron skillet will stay at "medium" when you fill it with cold food, while a thin aluminum pan will drop greatly in temperature before coming back up).

-- There are infinite variations on food restrictions. --

Crooked Kitchen - my food blog

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One thing I've always wanted to do is buy an infrared thermometer, so I can measure the actual temperature of the pan surface. If I could do that, I'd cook various things over and over in the same pan at different knob settings to get the best results, and match the corresponding pan temperatures with low, medium, high, and the in-betweens; that way, I'll have some way to compare between pans. Then I'd make a table matching pans and cooking heat to knob settings, and pin it on the fridge to reference.

Am I crazy or obsessed? (choose one) :wacko:

why do we have to choose?

hahaha

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Consider getting a flame tamer. My stove has a "simmer" burner and I still often have to use s flame tamer for simmering some things if they are delicate or if the pot has a small bottom surface, etc.

"Half of cooking is thinking about cooking." ---Michael Roberts

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For

"I am trying to figure out what low, medium, and high mean in actual temperature ranges. I have not been able to find it out online or anywhere. If anyone could post what those ranges are that would be great."

For an oven, "low, medium, and high" might mean something in a temperature range. E.g., a "low" oven might be at 225 F, medium might be at 350 F, and high might be 475 F or above.

But, for a stove-top burner, at least a common one without a thermostat control, the real measure of "low, medium, and high" would be in power, not temperature. I explain: The usual units of power are Watts, BTUs per hour, horsepower, etc. For a stove-top burner, we would expect to have its power level measured in Watts or BTUs per hour.

To convert, one BTU (British thermal unit) is 1055 Joules, and a Watt is one Joule per second. So, one Watt running for one hour would be one Joule per second for 3600 seconds or 3600 Joules or

3600/1055 = 3.412

BTUs per hour.

Then, to scale up to something more practical, an electric burner that draws 1000 Watts would have a power of

1000*3600/1055 = 3,412

BTUs per hour. Generally that would be considered "medium".

As I recall, on common home electric stoves, the largest electric burner has a power of about 12,000 BTUs per hour. For about 60,000 BTUs per hour, can heat a well insulated house. I have a propane burner on the back porch (it's an outdoor puppy only!) that claims to have 170,000 BTUs per hour. That thing will get a Chinese steel wok smoking hot quickly!

But with a burner, what "temperature" is involved? It can vary widely. That is, for power of 3,412 BTUs per hour, the source of the heat can be from a wide range of temperatures.

For example, if have hot water baseboard heat in a house, on a cold day could easily be putting 3,412 BTUs per hour into one room of the house but the baseboard should still be only warm, not hot enough to ignite paper, boil water, or even cause pain. Human skin notices pain at about 144 F. So, can have a lot of power in BTUs per hour but still have temperature under 144 F.

Or, if have a gas burner, then there is some temperature at the hottest point of the flame. Then this burner would never be able to heat anything hotter than that temperature. But, that temperature is likely high enough to have iron glow red and far above any cooking temperatures. In principle, if put a cast iron frying pan on such a burner, then in time might have a frying pan glowing red.

But, in practice, could cook over such a gas flame for decades and never get any pan nearly hot enough to glow red. So, in cooking over such a flame, we don't get our onions, steak, eggs, sausage, bacon, garlic, chicken, fish, etc. anywhere near the highest temperature in the flame. So, the highest temperature in the flame is not very relevant.

The hottest part of such a gas flame would be essentially just as hot for a small flame of just a few Watts as for a roaring flame of 10,000 Watts.

We use a burner at a higher power level mostly because we want to get a pot or pan up to cooking temperature more quickly.

Let's consider boiling water. Suppose we start with 1 liter of water. So, that's about 1000 grams of water. Now, to heat that water by 1 degree C, we have to add 1000 calories (which is the same as 1 Calorie of food energy).

So, suppose we start with water at room temperature of 70 F and want to heat it to boiling. Then, the temperature of the water is

(70 - 32)*5/9 = 21 C

So, to get the water to boiling at 100 C, we have to heat it by 79 C. So, we need 79,000 calories. Well, 1 BTU = 252 calories. So, we need to add

79,000/252 = 313 BTUs

So, a burner with power of 3,412 BTUs per hour would need at least

60*313/3412 = 5.5 minutes

to boil the water.

But, a lot of the heat would go into the room and not just into the water. So, we might need 10 to 20 minutes to boil that water.

If we were trying to boil four liters of water, then we would need roughly four times as long. So, if we were in a hurry, then we would want a burner with more power than 3,412 BTUs per hour, and THAT'S one of the main reasons for having a "high" burner. We are not trying to get the water very hot -- only to boiling -- yet we still want a "high" burner, not for a high temperature but for high power. What the actual temperature is at the hottest point inside the gas flame or the electric heating coil we do not much care.

If we are cooking pancakes in a cast iron skillet, then we notice that pouring in the batter cools the skillet and, then, we need time over the burner to get the skillet hot enough to brown the pancake. It it is 5 AM and we are hungry for breakfast, then we don't want to wait. Well, a burner on "high" will let us need less time to get the the pan and pancake hot enough to brown. The inside of the pancake is still only about 212 F and, thus, not very hot, but, still, we are using a lot of BTUs per hour.

So, mostly a "high" burner is not for getting a pan to a higher temperature but for getting the pan to some temperature we want -- 212 F 350 F, 475 F --- sooner.

Still, yes, there are cases of using a burner to heat the contents of a pot or pan to a specific temperature and just hold the contents at that temperature. So, what about 'simmering'?

Well, once we get the water up to 'simmering' temperature, say, 200 F or so, if we are careful then we can turn the burner down to a "low" setting and have the water just continue to simmer at 200 F. In this case, we are no long heating the water -- it is at 200 F and just staying there. But, our kitchen is at maybe 70 F or 80 F, so a pot with 200 F water will cool slowly due to the cooler kitchen. So, we need for the burner to add heat to the pot at the same rate at which the pot loses heat to the room. This is a tricky adjustment to make. The adjustment is a little easier in a tall pot than in a flat one, and that is likely the reason traditional stock pots are so tall.

This example is basically assuming a covered pot. One reason is that it takes a LOT of energy -- few hundred calories (see a physics book) per gram -- to convert liquid water at 212 F to water vapor (steam) at 212 F. Or, as water evaporates from a liquid to a gas, it absorbs a lot of heat. So, on a hot dry day, pour water on your skin, let it evaporate, and feel cooler. Nature knew this -- that's why we have sweat glands. But, if have a pot of water at or near boiling and have the lid off, then the water will be evaporating, and that evaporation will cool the liquid. Then, we will need much more heat from the burner to keep the pot near boiling. Again, though, we assume that the burner itself can get to a temperature higher than we need for our pot or food so that usually what we really want is more or less power, not more or less temperature of the burner itself.

What would be the right food and wine to go with

R. Strauss's 'Ein Heldenleben'?

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Expanding on that, it's safe to say that temperature is not the only influencing factor for stovetop cooking. A pan on low heat with nothing in it will eventually reach incredible temperatures. A pot with water in it on high heat won't exceed 212 F until the water's all gone. Moreover, as you increase the surface area of what you're cooking uncovered, the amount of power (wattage, BTU/hour) you have to put into the cooking vessel to maintain a certain temperature will increase. A pan of pasta tossed in sauce will cool much faster than the same pan filled with oatmeal (let's not get into varying thermal conductivities and specific heat of types of food :blink: ).

Change the food in the cooking vessel, and you change the variables involved in determining the optimum knob setting. Makes it a bit hard to get a good hard numerical grasp on things - hence the side of cooking that is an art rather than a science. You just have to get a feeling for what's right.

-- There are infinite variations on food restrictions. --

Crooked Kitchen - my food blog

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Let's consider boiling water.  Suppose we start with 1 liter of water.  So, that's about 1000 grams of water.  Now, to heat that water by 1 degree C, we have to add 1000 calories (which is the same as 1 Calorie of food energy).

A minor correction, the calories on food are actually listed in kcal, kilo calories.

So I should be thinking in terms of what needs to be done to the ingredients such as browning, sauted, etc than specific temperatures. This will always be changing depending on the type of food and the size of the pans, and the stovetop your using? Like so much I am coming to realize with cooking, just try it until you find something that works.

Thanks for all of the info, a very detailed post.

"No butter... What the hell do they think bernaise is? It's like, egg yolks and butter!" -- Anthony Bourdain

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I took "low, medium, and high" to be settings on the knob that controls a stove-top burner. What this knob is really controlling is power, not temperature of the burner itself. E.g., for a gas burner, the temperature at the hottest point in the flame will be about the same whether the flame is low and flickering or high and roaring.

If by "low, medium, and high" you mean the temperatures inside a pot or pan on a stove-top burner, then I would say that roughly "low" was about simmering temperature of water, say, 200 F, "medium" was about the same as a medium oven and hot enough to brown slowly, say, 350 F, and "high" would be smoking temperature of, say, virgin olive oil.

E.g., 350 F is in the usual range for deep frying temperatures able to produce browned hush puppies (YUM -- I wouldn't have anything to do with a woman who could cook hush puppies; too tempting!), donuts, and all the hundreds of other foods that taste too good and are too tempting.

For most of what is going on in a frying pan on a stove-top burner, the temperatures are commonly varying across the pan and its contents and also varying quickly over time.

E.g., suppose we want to take two cans of soup and add some Chinese flavor. So, let's put 1/4 C of peanut oil in a pot and heat it. Maybe we get the oil up to 300 F or so. Then we add 1/4 C minced garlic. The garlic bubbles quickly. The garlic contains a lot of water, and that water will have a tough time being over 212 F without converting to vapor (steam) and rising out of the pot. So, as long as the garlic still has a lot of its water, its temperature will be held down to 212 F. So, we've got a pot with some oil at maybe 300 F or so and some garlic at 212 F or so. Once the water converts to steam, the solid parts of the garlic are free to rise in temperature over 212 F, reach, say, 350 F and start to brown, etc.

[For the rest, we might add 1/4 C of vinegar and about 3 T of dark soy sauce. Then add the soup. Makes the soup taste a lot like Chinese food.]

Similarly, if we are cooking an omelet, we put butter in the pan and melt it without burning it. The pan might be 350 F or so. The butter melts at some temperature under 212 F. Once the butter is melted, the water in the butter starts to separate, rise in temperature to 212 F, and start to boil. This boiling keeps some of the butter from getting hotter than 212 F. Once the boiling stops, the water is gone and the butter temperature can rise quickly to browning temperatures when the milk solids in the butter can brown.

If we start with a pan at 400 F or so, then we can get some of the butter browned while some of the butter is still not melted. That is, different parts of the pan and butter are at very different temperatures.

Typically we do not want browned butter in our omelet, so we should add the butter to the pan while the pan is still fairly cool and apply only "medium" power from the burner.

Once the butter is melted and the bubbling stops, we pour in our eggs. Then we stir rapidly trying to get the liquid eggs heated enough to be lightly but fairly uniformly cooked. During this rapid stirring of the eggs, the temperature of the eggs varies widely from under 212 F in the cooler parts up to near browning temperatures at the surface of the pan.

If the burner is on "high", then we have to stir more quickly or will overcook some parts of the eggs while other parts are still liquid. If the burner is on "low", then we have to wait longer for our omelet. The difference between "high" and "low" on the burner dial is really power, not temperature. But, more power from the burner will make the range of temperatures in the pan wider.

For your

"A minor correction, the calories on food are actually listed in kcal, kilo calories."

we are in agreement. In physics, one 'calorie' is about the energy required to raise one gram of water by 1 degree C. One 'kilo calorie' is 1000 of these calories. For food energy in nutrition, a kilo calorie is commonly called one food Calorie or one Calorie.

I tried to make this point in "1000 calories (which is the same as 1 Calorie of food energy)" which you quoted.

What would be the right food and wine to go with

R. Strauss's 'Ein Heldenleben'?

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