Alexander B.
Rivera oven" has a fan and an extra heat source near the fan and uses
Thermodynamics T1:00-4:00PM
The Thermodynamics of Cooking and How Different Cooking
Methods Work
"If you saw a heat wave, would you wave back?" Steven Wright
By Meathead Goldwyn
You may have thought you left physics and chemistry behind
when you left school, but if you want to eat well, you need to
understand that cooking is all about physics and chemistry, with
a little magic mixed in. Here are some foundation concepts every
outdoor cook needs to know.
What is cooking? Foods are composed mainly of water, fat,
protein, and carbohydrates. Cooking is the process of changing
the chemistry of food usually by transferring energy in the form
of heat to the food long enough so that it is safe and digestible,
and achieves the desired flavor, texture, tenderness, juiciness,
appearance, and nutrition.
The three ways heat cooks food. Food gets hot when molecules
vibrate so fast that their temperature rises. when cooking
outdoors, heat is transferred to food by three methods. Which
one you use is crucial. These processes have been described this
way:
Conduction is when your lover's body is pressed against yours.
Convection is when your lover blows in your ear.
Radiation is when you feel the heat of your lover's body under
the covers without touching.
Let's be a bit more precise:
1) Conduction is when heat is transferred to the food by direct
contact with the heat source. Cooking a hot dog in a pan is
conduction. Heat from the burner is transferred to the pan
whose molecules vibrate, and pass the vibe on to the wiener. As
the surface of the meat gets hotter than the interior, the heat
transfers to the center through the moisture and fats. That's also
conduction. Grill marks are a good example of conduction. Heat
is transferred to the grill grates and the hot metal brands the
meat.
2) Convection is when heat is carried to the food by a fluid such
as air, water, or oil. Cooking a hot dog in your kitchen oven
where it is surrounded by hot air is convection cooking. So is
boiling it in water, or deep frying it in oil (you really need to try a
deep fried hot dog once). If you get one side of your grill hot and
put the food on the other side, it is cooked by natural convection
airflow. Most gas grills cook by convection. A conventional indoor
oven uses natural convection airflow to cook, but a "convection
forced airflow. A convection oven cooks 25% to 30% faster. It's
like wind chill in reverse. The moving warm air transfers more
energy that stagnant warm air. In either case, airflow only cooks
the exterior of the meat, the interior of the meat is cooked by
conduction as the heat travels through it.
3) Radiation is the transfer of heat by direct exposure to a source
of light energy. Put a hot dog on a coat hangar and hold it to the
side of a campfire and you are cooking by radiation. This is how
most charcoal grills cook.
To be complete, I need to mention that indoors there are two
other methods heat is applied for food:
4) Excitation is how microwave ovens work. Microwaves are
radio waves that penetrate the food and vibrate the molecules
inside the hot dog until it gets hot without heating the air around
it. Water in the food heats first in the microwave. Technically,
this is a form of radiation. As yet, I haven't seen a grill that cooks
with microwaves.
5) Induction is the latest technique for stove tops. A copper coil is
placed under a smooth cooktop and an alternating current is sent
through the coil creating a rapidly changing electromagnetic
field. Electrons in steel or cast iron pots on the cooktop above
the electromagnet are jostled by the rapidly changing
magnetism, but they resist and the resistance heats the pot. The
pot then transfers the heat to the food without the cooktop or
the air around it getting hot. Induction is the most efficient way
to convert energy to heat on a cooktop, and it very responsive to
the control knob, but it does not work with aluminum, glass, or
copper pots.
The difference between heat and temperature
Put an empty frying pan and pot of water in a 200F oven for an
hour. Open the door and stick your hand in the warm air of the
oven and count how long you can hold your hand in there.
Perhaps a minute? Then plunge one hand in the 200F water and
place the other hand on the frying pan. After you get back from
the hospital, ponder the fact that not everything that is 200F
transfers energy at the same rate.
Cooking by convection air in a hot oven is a lot slower than by
conduction from a pan because steel is 8,000 times more dense
(it has more molecules in a cubic inch) than air which conducts
heat at 1/50 the rate of steel. You can speed the process a bit by
adding a fan to the oven and moving the air around as is done in
a "convection oven", but all ovens are really convection ovens.
Water is more dense than air and it holds more energy so it
cooks faster than in the oven, and oil cooks faster still.
According to the AmazingRibs.com science advisor, Prof. Greg
Blonder, "Temperature measures the average energy of each
atom. Heat is the total for all atoms. It's like money. If the
average income in the US is $40,000 per family, the total wages
are in the trillions."
Also, radiant heat delivers more energy than convection heat.
Let's say you have two gas grills. On one grill, the two burners on
the right side are on full and two burners on the left are turned
off. The air temp on the left side, the indirect heat side, might be
325F as convection flow of air from the right side circulates over
the left side. Let's put a steak and a big honkin prime rib roast on
the left, indirect side.
On the second grill you have all four burners on medium and the
air temp on the both sides is also 325F. Let's put a steak and a
roast on this grill too. The steak's bottom will brown better on
the second grill because it is above direct radiant heat which is
imparting more energy than the first grill where the heat is from
convection air. But by the time the roast is done, it will be
blacker than a mourning hat.
more charcoals means more heat
On a charcoal grill, you can increase energy simply by increasing
the number of coals. The distance from the energy source is also
an important factor. Energy dissipates as you move away from
the heat source. In a $800 grill made of ceramics the heat source
may be 2' from the cooking surface while on an $89 Weber Kettle
the charcoal is only 4" away, and on a $30 Hibachi the coals may
be as little as 1" away. The walls of a ceramic cooker are thick,
they absorb huge amounts of heat, and then release it evenly
making a very efficient oven with very steady cooking temps and
very low fuel use. Perfect for roasts. But a steak on the cooking
surface will not brown as well as on the Weber or even the
Hibachi because the coals are so far away and because much of
the heat comes from the ceramic side walls and dome, not
glowing radiant hot coals right below the meat.
When is food ready to eat?
Food is ready to eat when it is safe and the target temperature is
reached. A medium rare steak is 130 to 135F in the center
regardless of how thick, how much it weighs, or what
temperature it is cooked at. The single best way to tell if it is time
to eat is with an accurate digital thermometer. You cannot tell by
poking the meat unless you're a pro who has cooked the same
steaks on the same grill for years. The single thing you can do to
improve your cooking is to get a good digital instant read meat
thermometer. The second most important thing you can do is get
a good digital oven thermometer.
OK, some foods are hard to read with thermometers. You don't
need a thermometer to tell when asparagus is ready, and
because of all the bones it is almost impossible to tell when ribs
are ready. But for most meats, there is no substitute for knowing
precisely what temp the food is.
How heat moves within meat
The most important thing to understand is that when you put
food in an enclosed vessel like a grill, smoker, or an oven, the hot
air, which has lots of vibrating molecules, transfers some of its
energy to the exterior of the meat. The energy in the air excites
the molecules on the surface of the meat and then they transfer
heat to the molecules inside it and so on, slowly passing the
energy towards the center of the meat like a wave of heat. It
takes time because meat is about 75% water, and water is a good
insulator, especially when trapped inside muscle. The heat moves
inward because physics dictates the the meat seeks equilibrium
in an effort to make the temperature the same from edge to
edge. So most of the meat is cooked by the meat, not by the air.
edges cook faster
Heat also cooks points and corners more because it can attack on
multiple fronts. That's why the brownies and lasagna in the
corners are crunchier. And bones heat at a different rate than
muscle tissue because they are filled with air or fat, so in most
cases they warm more slowly than the rest of the meat. Click
here to read more about the effect bones have on cooking and
have some myths debunked.
When you remove the meat from the heat, it continues to seek
equilibrium and continues to cook because the heat built up in
the outer layers of the meat continues to be passed down
towards the center while some is escaping into the air and
cooling the exterior. This phenomenon is called carryover
cooking.
A thick piece of meat such as a turkey breast might rise as much
as 10F in about 15 minutes after removing it from the grill
because of carryover. A thinner piece of meat such as a thick
steak might only rise a couple of degrees, and chicken breast may
not rise at all. This is important to know this because 5 to 10F
can make the difference between moist turkey and cardboard, a
medium rare steak and a drier medium steak. To compensate,
use a good digital thermometer and remove thick cuts of meat
about 5F below your target temp.
Thickness is more important than weight
The temperature of your food moves slowly upward during
cooking, but the thickness of the meat is a major factor in how
long it takes to get the center to the desired temperature. A thin
steak cooks faster than a thick steak. And a 5" thick prime rib
that weighs 8 pounds will be done in the same time as a 5" thick
prime rib that weighs 12 pounds. So any recipe that says "cook
your steak for three minutes per side" without specifying the
thickness of the steak, is seriously flawed. Likewise any recipe
that says "cook your roast 30 minutes per pound" is suspect.
About boiling temps and how they impact cooking
Another important concept to know is that when liquid is heated,
its temp will increase until it hits its boiling temp and not go any
higher. So no matter how high we turn the burners under a pot
of water, the water will not get hotter than 212F (at sea level). If
we have a sauce made with water and olive oil it will heat to the
boiling temp of water until all the water boils off, and then rise to
the boiling temp of the oil, which is usually over 500F depending
on the type of oil. Usually, before oil boils, it starts to smoke, and
then it bursts into flames.
This phenomenon comes into play in many aspects of cooking.
When you simmer or boil a home made barbecue sauce, because
the water cannot exceed 212F, you warm everything evenly
without burning the ingredients (if you stir it so it doesn't stick to
the bottom and dry out). If you simmer potatoes the starches on
the inside get soft and the outside doesn't burn as it might on a
grill.
Steam can form at a lower temperature than 212F as molecules
of water get hot and escape the surface as the water warms.
That's why we see water vapor escaping a pot of water before it
boils. When water boils, the steam can be hotter than 212F if it
comes into contact with the walls of a hot pot or if it is under
pressure, but food submerged in boiling water will cook faster
than food bathed in steam because under water the food's
surface is completely surrounded by hot water molecules and in
steam there is a lot of air mixed in and air does not conduct heat
as well as water.
Because meat is about 75% water, it is useful to think of it as if it
is a saturated sponge. As it heats, water on the surface is
energized and some of it escapes as steam. Even though the
oven may be a lot hotter than 212F, the surface will stick at
close to 212F as more and more water steams away. As the
hotter molecules escape the cooler ones are left behind so the
temperature of the meat is cools until water stops evaporating,
usually because the surface dries out making a crust or bark. At
low cooking temperatures such as 225F, the temperature I
recommend for a lot of my recipes, the rate of evaporation can
be so great that the surface and the interior of the meat can
stick, usually in the 150 to 165F range and remain pretty much
unchanged for hours, totally freaking out the cook. This
phenomenon, called the stall, does not happen if the oven temp
is higher, say 325F, another temperature I recommend
frequently.
The stall has four benefits: (1) It helps create the bark which can
be very tasty, (2) it holds the meat at a temperature where fats
and connective tissues can liquefy, significantly improving
texture, juiciness, and flavor, (3) it gives enzymes a chance to
tenderize the meat, and (4) it permits the meat to heat evenly so
the center and exterior are similar in temperature.
If you soak wood chips in water, as many books recommend, first
of all they won't absorb much (that's why boats are built from
wood), but when you toss them on the coals, the wood stays a
cool 212F until the water boils off. It cannot smoke until it hits a
much higher temp, so soaking wood chips so they will smolder
better is just another old husband's tale. Click here to read more
on soaking wood.
One other thing about the boiling point: It changes as you move
up or down from sea level. At sea level, a pot of water on a flame
has a column of air sitting on top of it that weight 14.7 pounds
per square inch (psi). At 5,000 feet it's only 12.3 psi, so water
vapor has less resistance when it tries to escape. As a result, the
boiling point is lower and leavening gases in breads and cakes
expand more quickly. The impact on grilling or smoking is
minimal, although there can be higher humidity in a smoker
during a long cook and that can cool the meat slowing the
process, but not a lot, and it can be offset because natural
humidity can be lower at altitude. But altitude can have a
profound effect on braising and other wet cooking methods. It
can even impact slow cookers, microwaves, and frying. For more
on the subject, read this by Colorado State University.
boiling water
The magic of infrared
Infrared radiation is the best method for delivering high heat to
food on a grill. Charcoal grills produce a lot of direct scorching
infrared radiation that is converted to heat when it strikes food.
Gas and pellet grills produce mostly convection heat.
If you remember your high school science, you know that
infrared is a section of the wavelength continuum around us, just
up the road from visible light and down the road from the radio
in your car.
spectrum
glowing_coals_infrared
Max Good, Director of Equipment Reviews at AmazingRibs.com
elaborates: "The sun radiates intense infrared (IR) waves that
travel great distances at the speed of light without dissipating
until they contact solid matter, like your skin, which it warms.
The sun also radiates other waves, like ultraviolet (UV), which
cause sunburn as well as heat. So all IR heat is radiant, but not all
radiant heat is IR."
As another example Good says "Consider the IR heaters in
warehouses or bus stops. They are often suspended from the
ceiling, but one can easily feel the heat waves standing beneath
them. If these same devices were simply conventional gas
burners, most of the heat would rise upward. Convection heat
can be dissipated easily by air currents and distance while IR gets
through."
The AmazingRibs.com science advisor Prof. Greg Blonder adds
"An oven set on broil is a radiant heater, with much of the heat is
in the near IR, the almost visible section of IR. In principle, a pure
IR heater would not be visible to the naked eye, since our eyes
can't respond that far out in the light spectrum. In practice, an IR
heater and charcoal glow a dull red."
In the past few years a number of gas grills have been touting
their superiority because they use infrared heat or they have an
IR sear burner or sizzle zone designed to generate high heat for
getting a dark sear on meat. This is an attempt by gas grill
manufacturers to close the gap with charcoal grills. In an IR gas
grill a plate of special glass, ceramics, or metal absorbs the heat
and light from the flame and re-radiates it to the food in the form
of IR.
Dr. Blonder explains: "The atoms in the plate begin to oscillate.
At low temps almost all of the energy is stored as vibrations in
the plate. As the plate heats up, the rapidly vibrating atoms
cause it to emit IR. Think of it (very loosely) as a teapot on a
stove. At low temps most of the energy is confined the
simmering liquid. At higher temps there is so much vibration that
the water evaporates, forming steam and carrying away energy
as a scalding hot jet." At the top of the page is an IR sizzle burner
under cast iron grill grates on a Napoleon Gas Grill.
Is IR heating better? Dr. Blonder says "IR energy is delivered
faster than convection, but slower than conduction. So it can
brown a little more effectively than a conventional grill but not as
fast as a hot pan or grill grates. There are fewer hot spots from IR
cookers. On the other hand, you can get thermal runaway with
IR. If one section of the meat is dark, it absorbs more IR than the
lighter sections. It browns, becomes darker still, and eventually
burns." And real IR burners are not good at achieving low
temperatures.
I recommend gas grills with IR burner sections, especially them
for getting dark sears on steaks and other meats when the
browning of the surface creates thousands of new flavor
compounds.
How your grills work
The illustration below shows how different outdoor cookers
work.
thermodynamics
1) Direct Heat Charcoal or Wood. Charcoal produces radiant heat
in the bottom. The grates absorb heat and produce conduction
heat on parts of the surface of the food making grill marks. The
lid reflects mostly convection heat. The exterior of the food
absorbs direct heat from below, converts it to conduction heat,
and it moves to the center of the food.
2) Indirect Heat Charcoal or Wood. Charcoal off to the side
produces both convection and radiant heat. The grates absorb
heat and produce conduction heat on surface of the food making
grill marks. The exterior of the food absorbs indirect convection
heat from all sides, converts it to conduction heat, and it moves
to the center of the food.
3) Lid Off Charcoal or Wood. Charcoal produces radiant heat. The
grates absorb heat and produce conduction heat on surface of
the food making grill marks. The exterior of the food absorbs
radiant heat from below only. The bottom of the food converts
the absorbed energy into conduction heat, and it moves to the
center of the food. Without a lid, heat escapes from the food
upward, cooling its top.
4) Flat Top. Gas or charcoal produce radiant heat in the fire box.
Solid griddle under the food absorbs heat and produces
conduction heat on surface of the food. The bottom of the food
absorbs conduction heat, browns where it is in contact with the
surface, and conducts heat towards the top of the food. Without
a lid, heat escapes from the food upward, cooling its top.
5) Direct Heat Gas. Burners produce radiant heat that heats
metal drip protector bars, lava rocks, or ceramic briquets. They
absorb heat and produce radiant and convection heat. The grates
absorb heat and produce conduction heat on surface of the food.
The exterior of the food converts all this incoming energy to
conduction heat, and it moves to the center of the food.
6) Indirect Heat Gas. Burners off to the side produce radiant heat
that heats metal drip protector bars, lava rocks, or ceramic
briquets. They absorb heat and produce radiant and convection
heat. The grates absorb heat and produce conduction heat on
surface of the food. The exterior of the food absorbs indirect
convection from all sides. The exterior of the food converts the
energy to conduction heat and it moves to the center of the
food.
7) Lid Off Gas. Burners produce radiant heat that heats metal
drip protector bars, lava rocks, or ceramic briquets. They absorb
heat and produce radiant and convection heat. The grates absorb
heat and produce conduction heat on surface of the food. The
exterior of the food converts the energy to conduction heat and
it moves towards the top of the food. Without a lid, radiant heat
escapes from the food upward, cooling its top.
8) Infrared Gas. Burners produce radiant heat that in turn heats a
special plate. It absorbs heat and emits it as radiant heat in the
infrared part of the spectrum. Grates absorb heat and produce
conduction heat where they contact the surface of the food. The
bottom of the food absorbs the radiant heat and converts it to
conduction heat and moves it to the center of the food. The top
of the food is heated by indirect convection heat bounced from To make good food outdoors you need to become master of the
the lid. flame and keeper of time. Many grills come with a thermometer,
but they are usually crap. The thermometer on my gas grill is
How a smoker works often off by 50F! You absolutely positively must have a good
oven thermometer.
Smoke is the perfume, the sexy scent that makes us stand
outdoors on cold rainy nights nurturing the rib cage of a hog as if In addition to knowing what temp your cooker is, you need to
we were delivering a child. Smoke is the indescribable difference know what temperature your meat is. Cooking without a meat
between the crockpot pulled pork they serve at the ballpark and thermometer is like driving without a speedometer. You might
the hand crafted sandwich that gets you a standing ovation. think you're under the limit, but try explaining that to the judge.
Smoke is what makes brisket simmered in a flavorful stew run You might think the meat is ready, but try explaining that to your
and hide its head when it encounters the stuff that Texans drive guests when it is dry enough that they ask for a glass of saliva to
50 miles for, just for lunch. help them swallow. Here is a Food Temperature Guide, and
here's everything you need to know about thermometers with
direct vs indirect heat
links to good ones you can buy.
But not just any smoke will do. Nobody wants their turkey tasting
Some of the better digital thermometers have timers. If yours
like cigarettes. So there is an art to getting the right smoke. You
does not, get in the habit of wearing a watch when you cook and
can make superb smoked foods on just about any grill with a
write down what time you put the meat into the heat in a
cover, even a gas grill. But adapting a grill for smoking is like
cooking log. Some of the old timey barbecue artisans say you can
adapting the family car for racing. The better solution is to buy a
learn to cook by sight, smell, and feel. That's just plain BS. Once
race car.
you know how to cook you can rely more and more on your
With a high quality modern barbecue smoker, and a little senses, but until you are ready to call yourself a top chef, get a
practice, you can make food better than the ribs, brisket, and thermometer, wear a watch, and keep a log. I do.
other faves holding in the warming ovens of restaurants. With a
good modern smoker you no longer need to hover over your
machine for five hours, constantly monitoring the temp, fiddling
with the dampers, shoveling coal, adding wood, and spritzing
your meat with a mist of secret moisturizer. With a good smoker
you can get your food on the table on time and without fear that
it is over-cooked (an expensive waste) or under-cooked
(dangerous).

Most smokers have an indirect heat source with a deflector or a

water pan that protects the food from searing infrared radiation
and cooks with convection. They generate smoke by burning
wood. A few use wood for both heat and smoke, but most use
charcoal, gas, or electricity for heat, and wood for smoke.

Master of the flame and keeper of time

Good cooking is finding the proper combination of heat and time.

The higher the heat, the less time needed. Lower the heat, you
need more time. But you just can't set your cooker for Warp 10
on every food. Some demand low and slow. Read more about
cooking temperatures here.

ribeyes on the barbecue grill

Your indoor oven has three basic components to control heat

and time: A heat source, a thermostat, and a timer. Your outdoor
oven, and an oven is exactly what your grill or smoker is, has a
heat source, but only a few have a thermostat or a timer. And
that's why cooking outdoors is much more difficult than indoors.
Tell that to your significant other (and sleep on the couch).