Principle of conduction

In conduction, thermal energy is transferred from one molecule to the nearby molecule by means of a collision. There is no relocation of molecules.
Animation - conduction
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Conduction
During cooking, heat is transferred from the outside to the centre of a solid piece of food by means of conduction, e.g., steak.

Q ____ t

kA T __________ L

Q/t = how fast it is cooked? K ~ steak, pork or chicken A ~ area of the steak T ~ how hot is the pan L ~ how thick is the steak

By The original uploader was Asplace at English Wikipedia [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

Principle of conduction
Food heats up slowly cellular structure of food impedes the movement of heat energy Rate of heat transfer is determined by (i) thickness of the food (ii) overall shape of the food (iii) the temperature of the pan (iv) time it takes

How Much Energy is Needed to heat up the food? Q=mcT

Q: Heat (amount of thermal energy required) m: Mass (g) c: Specific Heat Capacity T: Change in Temperature

Heat Capacity
The energy required to raise the temperature of a specific material. Water has a very high heat capacity, metals generally have a low heat capacity.

Heat Conductance
It defines how well/fast heat flows through the material Some metals (shown in red in the graph) are excellent heat conductors (silver, copper, aluminum), others less so (iron and stainless steel). All other materials (shown in blue) are generellay poor heat conductors.

Heat capacity and heat conductance

http://blog.khymos.org/category/temperature/

Applications

Stone grill
By communitysteps (Lunch Uploaded by Cptnono) [CC-BY2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Teppanyaki
By FASTILY (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.52.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Ever burnt your tongue on a pizza?

By Scott Bauer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Ever burnt your tongue on a pizza? Tomatoes (mostly water) retain heat far better than the crust (many air bubbles, low heat capacity) and cheese topping (cools fast due to radiation from surface).