Temperature as important as time

AS someone who attended restaurant school, Regina Schrambling [“Ding! It’s All in the Timing,” Feb 15] ought to know that temperature, not cooking time, determines the doneness of food. So when she advises to boil an egg for 11 minutes or to poach fish for no longer than 10 minutes, she ignores the variables of surface area and cooking temperature.

My advice to home cooks is to buy an even simpler and cheaper tool than a timer: A thin metal cake tester, which costs no more than $4, allows cooks to judge the consistency of cooked foods. Insert the pin into blanched asparagus or carrots; the instant it enters easily, but with the slightest bit of resistance, the vegetables are perfectly tender.

Judge the internal temperature of lamb loin or New York steak by inserting the pin into the thickest part of the meat for a few seconds. Hold the pin to your bottom lip. If it feels lukewarm, the meat has reached medium rare.

Restaurant cooks -- at least good ones -- do use timers every day. How would we know how long to parboil lobsters (2 minutes for claws, 3 1/2 minutes for tails) or bake individual sour plum tarts accompanying duck breast (7 minutes, in my case)? The timer plays an important role, but let’s not forget that all cooking is based on physical and chemical reactions that occur at a given temperature, not a given time.

STEVE COY

Santa Monica