About CookTheGuide
Recipes tell you what to do. We explain why.
CookTheGuide is a cooking guidance site: one place to read how cooking works, use tools that do the kitchen maths, and check the numbers that matter. It is built to grow, page by page.
Our mission
Make cooking knowledge easy to find and easy to trust
Good cooking advice is scattered across recipe intros, old textbooks and videos. The same question gets five different answers, and few of them say where the answer comes from.
CookTheGuide gathers that knowledge into guides that explain the reason behind each step, so a cook can adapt when the recipe, the oven or the ingredient is different. Alongside the guides sit tools and charts, because some questions are better answered by a number than by a paragraph.
[YOUR STORY — who started CookTheGuide, when, and what prompted it. Two or three sentences.]
What you'll find
Three ways to get an answer
Guides
Techniques, ingredients, baking, food safety, equipment and world cuisines, written to be read once and used for years.
Tools
Converters, scalers and timers for home cooking, study and service. They work in the browser, with nothing to install.
Charts
Temperatures, times and ratios shown at a glance, each with its source named beside it.
How we write
Four rules every page follows
- 01
Explain the reason
Every instruction comes with why it works, so you can adjust it with confidence.
- 02
Name the source
Safety figures come from published food-safety authorities and are cited on the page. Approximate values are marked as approximate.
- 03
Use plain language
Kitchen terms are defined the first time they appear. Metric and US measures sit side by side.
- 04
Keep pages current
Each guide shows when it was last reviewed, and corrections are made in the open.
Who it's for
Home cooks
Who want dinner to work tonight and to understand it a little better each time.
Students
In culinary school or teaching themselves, who need the fundamentals in one organised place.
Working kitchens
Who need a quick conversion, a scaled batch or a temperature check in the middle of prep.
The people
Who writes and checks the guides
Questions about CookTheGuide
- No. CookTheGuide has no brand affiliations, sponsored content or advertising. It is an independent reference site. Paid or sponsored event listings (on the Events page) are clearly labelled. All other content is editorially independent.
- Guides are added in the order readers request them, weighted by how many people ask for the same topic. Use the contact link below to suggest a guide, a glossary term or a data set. The editorial standard applied is set out on this page.
- No. CookTheGuide is general cooking guidance for home cooks, students and working kitchens. For professional food-safety certification, see the UK FSA business guidance or the ServSafe program in the US. Every safety figure on CookTheGuide names its official source.
- Each guide shows a "last reviewed" date. When an official authority updates a temperature recommendation or storage guideline, we update the relevant guide and data chart and note the change. The USDA FSIS and UK Food Standards Agency are the primary references.
Found a mistake, or want a topic covered?
Corrections and suggestions shape what gets written next.