Basic Heat Methods
Most cooking is just controlling how hot, how wet, and how fast. These are the everyday heat methods — the ones that do not need a page of their own — with the temperatures that separate them.
Boil
Cooking in rapidly bubbling liquid at about 212°F (100°C). Aggressive — right for pasta and blanching water, wrong for anything you want tender or clear.
Poach
Cooking gently at 160–180°F (71–82°C), the surface barely shivering. For delicate things: eggs, fish, fruit.
Blanch
A brief plunge into boiling water, then an immediate ice “shock” to stop the cooking dead. Sets green colour, loosens skins, tames raw bite.
Steam
Cooked by vapour rather than submerged. Gentle and quick, and it keeps colour and water-soluble nutrients that boiling leaches away.
Bake
Dry oven heat for structured batters and doughs — where the heat sets a structure rather than just cooking a surface.
Roast
Dry oven heat, usually hotter and uncovered, for meat and vegetables. Browning is the point, so the air must be dry and the pan uncrowded.
Grill
High direct heat from below, often above 500°F (260°C), with charcoal, wood or gas — char and smoke are part of the flavour.
Broil
High direct radiant heat from above, from around 400°F (200°C) up. Fast top browning, very little added fat.
Char
A deliberately blackened or browned exterior from intense direct heat — controlled, for flavour, not the accidental burn.
Toast
Dry browning of bread, nuts or whole spices. A minute of it wakes up aromas that were asleep in the raw ingredient.
