Cooking guidance, explained plainly
Know why it works, then cook anything.
Techniques, ingredients, food safety and kitchen maths in one place — with working tools and clear charts, so you can learn at the stove or plan a full service.
General cooking information, not professional food-safety certification. Every safety figure names its source.
Start where you are in the kitchen
Browse every guide →Toolkit
Tools that do the kitchen maths
Try them here. Each one opens as a full page with more options.
Volume converter
Oven temperature
Ovens vary. An oven thermometer tells you what yours really does. Fan adjustment is a convention (about 20 °C), not an exact rule.
Recipe scaler
Seasoning, cooking time and pan size do not scale in a straight line — use judgement. Eggs and whole items: round to the nearest whole number.
Charts
The numbers worth remembering
Safe minimum internal temperatures
Measured with a probe at the thickest part. Source: USDA.
Smoke points of common fats
Approximate. Values shift with brand, age and refinement.
Degrees Celsius
Latest guides
A library that keeps growing
New pages are added topic by topic. Each guide is written to read once and used for years.
Frequently asked questions about CookTheGuide
- Yes — every guide, tool, chart and glossary entry is free. No account required. All tools run in your browser, so nothing you type is sent anywhere.
- Yes. All safe internal temperatures on CookTheGuide come directly from the USDA Food Safety guidelines and the UK Food Standards Agency. The source is named on every chart and guide.
- CookTheGuide covers six subject areas: Techniques (knife skills, searing, braising), Ingredients (fats, salt, acid), Baking & dough (hydration, proofing, ratios), Food safety (temperatures, storage), Equipment (pans, knives), and World cuisines. Browse the full guide library.
- Once the page has loaded, all six tools — unit converter, oven temperature, recipe scaler, baker's percentage, cups to grams and kitchen timer — work entirely in the browser. No internet connection is needed to use them after the first load.
- Approximate values are compiled from multiple published culinary references including Serious Eats and academic food-science sources. They are always labelled "approximate" or marked with "~" because they vary by brand, processing and measurement method.
Suggest a guide, a tool or a glossary term
What cooking question keeps coming up that you can't find a clear answer to?