What do you want? From result to technique

Juicy, tender, crisp and thick textures; browned flavor, flavor all the way through, released aroma.

How do you get the result you want?

A recipe answers the question "how do I make this?". This section asks it the other way round: what do you want? Three things move through food in the kitchen: heat, salt and water, and aroma. Five things change: muscle protein, connective tissue (collagen), the sugar and protein on the surface (the Maillard reaction), starch, and a drying surface. Every result you want depends on one of these processes, and each one has an obstacle. Once you know the obstacle, you can choose the method yourself.

The results fall into two groups. Texture is how food feels in the mouth. Flavor is its taste and aroma.

Texture

Result	Obstacle	Usul (technique)
Juicy	Heated protein squeezing out water	Heat control, Salt
Tender	Muscle fiber and connective tissue	Long cooking, Knife
Crisp	Water on the surface	Frying, Searing, Oven cooking
Thick and bound	Fat separating from water, starch forming lumps	Thickening

Flavor

Result	Obstacle	Usul (technique)
Browned flavor	Water and low heat	Searing, Oven cooking
Flavor all the way through	Thickness	Salt, Low heat in oil, Boiling and steeping
Released aroma	Aroma dissolving poorly in water	Aromatic base

Balancing taste is not in these tables, because it is covered in "What do you add when a dish tastes wrong?".

How does meat stay juicy?

Obstacle: Heated muscle protein contracts and squeezes out its water. The higher the internal temperature, the more water meat loses. In one beef study, meat finished at 70 °C (158 °F) lost more water than meat finished at 60 °C (140 °F).^[1][2] That is why the most important number for juicy meat is the internal temperature.

Your eyes cannot see the temperature inside meat; a thermometer can. That is why you check thick meat with a thermometer and take it off the heat at the target temperature.
Poultry must reach 74 °C (165 °F) and ground meat 71 °C (160 °F). These limits are for safety and are never lowered for juiciness. But every degree past them costs water. That is why meat comes off the heat as soon as it reaches the limit.
Over high heat, the outer layer gets much hotter than the inside and dries out. That is why thick meat is browned over high heat first and finished over low heat or in the oven.
Hot meat cut right away runs its juice onto the board. That is why meat rests for a few minutes before you cut it.
Meat salted with 1% of its weight 12–48 hours before cooking loses less water in the pan. That is why chicken and thick cuts can be salted ahead.
Eggs follow the same rule. Overheated egg contracts and weeps water. That is why an omelet comes off the heat while the top is still moist.

Conflict: Juicy meat and tender meat do not always come from the same method. See the next heading.

If it goes wrong: Chicken dried out

Examples on this site: Omelet

How does meat become tender?

Obstacle: Toughness comes from two places: the muscle fiber and the connective tissue (collagen) that wraps it.

Cuts with little connective tissue (chicken breast, tenderloin, meatballs) are tender when cooked briefly. In these cuts, long fibers make the meat chewy. A slice cut across the grain leaves the fibers short and easy to chew. That is why meat is sliced across the grain.
Cuts with a lot of connective tissue (shank, short ribs, neck, brisket) are tough when cooked briefly. Collagen denatures and shrinks at about 53–63 °C (127–145 °F), then turns into gelatin over hours. Higher heat shortens the time.^[1][3] Liquid at a gentle simmer is close to boiling. That is why shank and brisket turn tender in a few hours in a covered pot with a little liquid over low heat.

Conflict: High heat dissolves collagen faster, but the muscle fiber loses more water. That is why tender cuts dry out when cooked long, and tough cuts turn tender when cooked long. Long-cooked meat is served with its own liquid and sauce.

If it goes wrong: Meat stayed tough

How does food get crisp?

Obstacle: Crispness comes from a dry, browned surface. A wet surface cannot rise above 100 °C (212 °F), and browning becomes noticeable from about 140 °C (284 °F). That is why food does not brown or crisp until the water on its surface is gone.

Wet meat first spends its time in the pan boiling off water. That is why you pat meat dry with paper towels before cooking.
A crowded pan loses heat, and the water released by the meat cannot evaporate. That is why you cook meat in batches.
Salt draws water out of chicken skin, and the dry air of the fridge takes it away. That is why skin salted a day ahead and left uncovered in the fridge roasts crisper.
In schnitzel and fried calamari, the crisp part is the coating. Coating in cold oil soaks up oil. That is why nothing goes into the oil before it reaches 175–190 °C (350–375 °F).

Second obstacle, waiting: A dry surface softens and loses its crispness as it takes up moisture.^[4] Hot food softens in its own steam in a closed container, and cooled food softens from the moisture in the air. That is why crisp food is served right away, never covered, with the sauce underneath.

Crisp meat you may know: chicken skin, the edges of oven-roasted lamb ribs, the browned edges of kavurma (pan-fried diced meat), schnitzel, fried calamari. If it goes wrong: Meat did not brown, it released water · Fried food soaked up oil

Examples on this site: Fattoush · Gavurdağı Salad

How does a sauce get thick and hold together?

Obstacle: Fat and water do not mix on their own, so a sauce separates. Starch does not bind liquid until it is hot, and it forms lumps if it goes in all at once.

Dry starch dropped into hot liquid swells on the outside and stays dry inside. That is why starch is first mixed into a little cold liquid, and flour is first cooked in fat (a roux, meyane in Turkish).
Starch binds liquid only once it boils. That is why a starch-thickened sauce is heated until it boils. The ratios are in the basic ratios page.
Yogurt curdles in hot liquid. That is why yogurt is first whisked with flour or egg and warmed by adding the hot liquid little by little (tempering).
Starch in pasta water holds the fat and water of a sauce together.^[5] Sauce poured over drained pasta does not cling and runs to the bottom of the plate. That is why pasta is drained 1–2 minutes before the time on the package, finishes in the sauce with a ladle of pasta water, and is served right away. Too little pasta water leaves the sauce greasy; too much makes it watery.

If it goes wrong: Sauce turned lumpy · Yogurt sauce curdled · Mayonnaise broke · The dish is too watery

Examples on this site: Red Lentil Soup

How do you get a browned, roasted flavor?

Obstacle: Browned flavor comes from the Maillard reaction. The reaction speeds up on a dry surface over high heat. Water and low heat slow it down.

Browning needs a dry surface, so the rules for crispness apply here too: pat dry, do not crowd the pan.
Alkaline conditions speed up the Maillard reaction.^[6] That is why a pinch of baking soda makes frying onions brown faster. Too much baking soda leaves a metallic taste and makes the onions fall apart. That is why no more than a pinch goes in.
Sugar caramelizes at about 160–180 °C (320–356 °F). Caramel burns and turns bitter quickly. That is why the heat goes off as soon as the caramel reaches the color you want.

Conflict: The high heat that browns the surface can also dry out the inside. For thick meat, the fix is under Juicy: high heat first, then low heat.

If it goes wrong: Meat did not brown, it released water · Onion or garlic burned

Examples on this site: Gavurdağı Salad

How does a flavor get inside food?

Obstacle: Flavor moves slowly from the outside of an ingredient toward its center. This movement is called diffusion. The time it takes to reach the center grows with the square of the thickness (kitchen math). That is why an ingredient you want flavored all the way through is sliced thin or cut small.

Salt moves slowly. In a salted turkey breast, after 1 hour the salt was only in the outer 5 mm; it reached the center after 24 hours.^[7] That is why thick meat is salted a day before cooking.
A marinade mostly stays on the surface. Salt and acid move into meat. The aroma of garlic, spices and herbs mostly stays near the surface. That is why a long marinade seasons the inside of the meat with salt but does not carry the spice aroma inside.
Heat speeds diffusion, cooling draws liquid in. Flavor spreads faster in hot liquid. An ingredient cooling in its liquid draws that liquid in. That is why Turkish olive oil vegetables (zeytinyağlı) cool in their pot (no more than 2 hours at room temperature, then into the fridge).
Salt also pulls water out. Salt draws the water out of vegetables. In salads that water is either unwanted (shepherd's salad gets its salt last), becomes the dressing (Shirazi), or is drained away (pico de gallo).

How do you give carrots an apple flavor? Carrots are firm and dense, so flavor enters them slowly. That is why the carrots are sliced thin, simmered in apple juice until tender, and left to cool in the same liquid. For a sour note, add a little apple cider vinegar to the liquid. Apple juice boiled down until thick and brushed on the carrots flavors only the surface.

Examples on this site: Shepherd's Salad · Salad-e Shirazi · Pico de Gallo · Rice Pilaf

How do you release the aroma of spices?

Obstacle: Part of what gives spices and chili their aroma and heat dissolves poorly in water and well in fat. Chili flakes steeped in oil released more than twice the capsaicin (the compound that makes chili hot) of flakes steeped in water at the same temperature.^[8] That is why spices go into fat first.

Warm fat takes up aroma faster, but chili flakes and dry spices burn at high heat. That is why spices go into hot, not smoking, fat for a short time. In red lentil soup, the chili flakes go into melted butter after the heat is turned off.
The aroma of dried herbs is locked inside the unbroken leaf. That is why dried herbs are rubbed between your palms as they go in.
Aroma is volatile and fades in a long-simmering dish. That is why fresh herbs go in at the end.

If it goes wrong: Onion or garlic burned

Examples on this site: Red Lentil Soup · Salad-e Shirazi

Sources

Sources for the science numbers. A number is written as a number only when it was read in its source; anything that could not be read is written without a number.