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“Remember to account for the reduction of liquids when seasoning a dish—a perfectly seasoned stew will likely taste too salty after several hours of simmering. Your best bet is to season with a light hand during the cooking process and then adjust the seasoning just before serving.”
― America's Test Kitchen, The Science of Good Cooking: Master 50 Simple Concepts to Enjoy a Lifetime of Success in the Kitchen

“The moisture in food begins to freeze at temperatures below 32 degrees, and whether that moisture is in fruit, ice cream, or meat, it will form ice crystals. These crystals rupture cell walls and internal cell organelles in fresh foods, like fruits or vegetables, which release enzymes from their locked compartments. When thawed, these enzymes cause produce to develop off-flavors and turn brown and soggy.”
― America's Test Kitchen, The Science of Good Cooking: Master 50 Simple Concepts to Enjoy a Lifetime of Success in the Kitchen

“Since the temperature of meat will continue to rise as it rests, an effect called carryover cooking, meat should be removed from the oven, grill, or pan when it’s 5 to 10 degrees below the desired serving temperature. Carryover cooking doesn’t apply to poultry and fish (they don’t retain heat as well as the dense muscle structure in meat), so they should be cooked to the desired serving temperatures.”
― America's Test Kitchen, The Science of Good Cooking: Master 50 Simple Concepts to Enjoy a Lifetime of Success in the Kitchen

“Even your oven isn’t as reliable as you think. How do we know this? We have more than two dozen ovens in our test kitchen and we keep an oven thermometer in each oven to tell us if they are properly calibrated. That is, are they reaching and holding the temperature set on the dial? With heavy use, we find that our ovens generally slip out of calibration in just a few months, so we get them serviced. The process will happen more slowly at home, but the odds are pretty good that your oven is not at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, even though that’s what the dial says.”
― America's Test Kitchen, The Science of Good Cooking: Master 50 Simple Concepts to Enjoy a Lifetime of Success in the Kitchen

“And memorize this now: 1 tablespoon equals 3 teaspoons. Forget this fact and you will invariably make mistakes when trying to scale recipes up or down. It also helps to remember that 4 tablespoons equal ¼ cup.”
― America's Test Kitchen, The Science of Good Cooking: Master 50 Simple Concepts to Enjoy a Lifetime of Success in the Kitchen

“Recipes written for home cooks rely on volume (teaspoons, tablespoons, cups) for measurement. Recipes written for professionals generally list ingredients by weight. That’s because weight involves no chance for operator error. Assuming the scale has been properly calibrated, 8 ounces of flour is 8 ounces of flour no matter how the flour is handled.”
― America's Test Kitchen, The Science of Good Cooking: Master 50 Simple Concepts to Enjoy a Lifetime of Success in the Kitchen

“What separates success from failure in the kitchen? It’s the ability to think on your feet, to make adjustments as you cook. And, despite what you might think, a lifetime of experience isn’t a prerequisite for being a good cook (although it does help). Knowledge, however, is essential. The successful home cook understands the fundamental principles of good cooking and is able to apply them on the fly, almost without thinking.”
― America's Test Kitchen, The Science of Good Cooking: Master 50 Simple Concepts to Enjoy a Lifetime of Success in the Kitchen

“Some people like spicy foods and others don’t, but there is a right way to sauté, there is a best way to cook a pot roast, and there are measurable scientific principles involved in producing perfectly beaten, stable egg whites.”
― America's Test Kitchen, The Science of Good Cooking: Master 50 Simple Concepts to Enjoy a Lifetime of Success in the Kitchen

“When you understand the language of science, cooking becomes clearer and you naturally make better choices in the kitchen.”
― America's Test Kitchen, The Science of Good Cooking: Master 50 Simple Concepts to Enjoy a Lifetime of Success in the Kitchen

“As an egg ages, the cordlike strands that center the yolk weaken. If this happens, the yolk can end up close to the outer wall of the hard-cooked egg, making it likely you will tear the white when removing the yolk. Of course, this is not a concern in recipes like egg salad that call for dicing the hard-cooked eggs.”
― America's Test Kitchen, The Science of Good Cooking: Master 50 Simple Concepts to Enjoy a Lifetime of Success in the Kitchen

“Bone-in hams with natural juices are the least processed of all the options at the supermarket. Boneless hams may seem like a good choice, but they contain several muscles that have been pressed together to look like ham and all that manipulation compromises the muscle structure, making them less able to hold on to natural juices. And while “water-addedâ€� ham might sound juicier, these hams taste awful and shed all that extra water in the oven. We do like the convenience of a spiral-cut ham, which makes serving a cinch.”
― America's Test Kitchen, The Science of Good Cooking: Master 50 Simple Concepts to Enjoy a Lifetime of Success in the Kitchen

“A whole rib roast (aka prime rib) consists of ribs 6 through 12. Butchers tend to cut the roast in two. We prefer the cut further back on the cow, which is closest to the loin and less fatty. This cut is referred to as the first cut, the loin end, or sometimes the small end because the meat and ribs get larger as they move up toward the shoulder. When ordering a three-rib roast, ask for the first three ribs from the loin end—ribs 10 through 12.”
― America's Test Kitchen, The Science of Good Cooking: Master 50 Simple Concepts to Enjoy a Lifetime of Success in the Kitchen

“Weighing each roast before and after confirmed our tastersâ€� impressions. The roast in the 250-degree oven lost 9.4 percent of its original weight. The roast cooked at 450 degrees shed 24.2 percent of its original weight, almost three times more than the slow-roasted beef. Put another way: The slow-roasted beef lost only 9 ounces of moisture during the roasting process while the high-temperature roasted beef lost 25 ounces. Since we had trimmed both roasts of exterior fat, these numbers represented moisture lost from the meat itself—no wonder the slow-roasted beef tasted so much juicier.”
― America's Test Kitchen, The Science of Good Cooking: Master 50 Simple Concepts to Enjoy a Lifetime of Success in the Kitchen

“We often store chicken breasts in the freezer. But then we read that storing chicken breasts in the freezer for longer than two months negatively affects tenderness. Ever the skeptics, we wanted to see for ourselves if this was true. So we bought six whole chicken breasts and split each one down the center. We immediately tested one breast from each chicken using a Warner-Bratzler shear device that measures tenderness by quantifying the force required to cut meat. We wrapped and froze the other breasts at 0 degrees (the temperature of the average home freezer). We tested three of the previously frozen breasts for tenderness after two months and the remaining three after three months. Our results confirmed it: Two-month-old chicken was nearly as tender as fresh chicken, while three-month-old chicken was about 15 percent tougher. We recommend freezing chicken wrapped in plastic and sealed in an airtight zipper-lock bag for no longer than two months.”
― America's Test Kitchen, The Science of Good Cooking: Master 50 Simple Concepts to Enjoy a Lifetime of Success in the Kitchen