Cooking: Is It Done?

A hot meal, an impressive dessert – it’s always a great feeling when your favorite recipe comes out just right. Whether you’re cooking for yourself or whipping up treats for your family and friends, you can make sure every dish is cooked to perfection, no matter your level of vision. All it takes is a few simple tricks. To get started, let’s take a look at that recipe.

Some recipes explain when a dish is done by describing how it looks – such as, “cook the meat until the juices run clear,” or “bake the cornbread until it’s golden brown.” Following these guidelines can be a challenge with lower vision. But here are some other methods you can use to check whether your snacks and meals are done.

First, let’s focus on the delicious smell of that dish you’re making. Foods tend to have different smells when they’re raw and when they’re cooked. And the “peak smell” describes the scent a food has when it’s done to perfection. Think about onions, which have a sharp scent when you’re chopping them raw, and a savory scent after they’re cooked.

If you’re baking chocolate chip cookies, the peak smell occurs right when they’re ready to come out of the oven. If they cook longer, the aroma starts to become less pleasant. If you’re using your sense of smell, you can definitely tell when something is burnt.

To get even better at using your sense of smell, you can practice. Try smelling things like herbs and spices, coffee, teas and chocolate. And when you’re out and about, notice different smells and try to identify them – whether you’re walking past restaurants or heading into a shop.

When you sit down to a meal, try breathing in the scent of foods and drinks before tasting them. This helps develop your taste buds, and it makes the food or drink taste even better.

Touch is another sense you can use to see if your cooking is done. For many baked items, the tried-and-true method is to insert a toothpick into the center. When you pull it out, you can feel the toothpick to see whether it’s dry – which means the food is fully baked. If you can feel wet batter, your tasty dish needs more time to cook.

If a recipe says to cook something until the top is browned and crispy, here’s a way to check it without relying on vision. Lightly scratch the tines of a fork over the top of your food. When it’s done, it should feel and sound crunchy.

Some foods, like vegetables, get softer as they cook. You can use a fork to pierce them and check for tenderness.

And if you’re cooking fish, it flakes apart when it’s done. To check, insert a fork into the thickest part of the fish, at an angle. Then gently twist it. You can lightly touch the fish near the fork to feel whether it’s separated into flakes.

Some foods, like leftovers, just need to heat up. To check whether they’re warm all the way through, insert the prongs of a long-handled fork into the center. Then touch the prongs carefully to your lips or your fingertips. If the fork is warm, your food is ready.

Another way to check internal temperature is with a food thermometer. These handy devices are especially helpful when cooking meat or poultry. You can find information about large-readout and talking thermometers in the handout in the Resource section.

But even without a thermometer, you can check meat and poultry for doneness with a wood or metal skewer. Simply push the skewer into the thickest part of the meat – such as the center of a roast. If you’re cooking a whole chicken, use the thickest part of the thigh. The skewer slides in smoothly when the meat is fully cooked. If you feel resistance or “bouncing back,” it needs a little more time.

Another test when you’re cooking a whole chicken or turkey is to hold the end of the drumstick and wiggle or twist the leg. It should be loose, and the bone should break away easily from the meat.

Now let’s head to the stovetop, where you can use your sense of touch to tell when liquids have come to a boil. One way is to lightly rest your fingertips on the pot’s handle – you’ll feel it vibrate when the boiling begins.

A quick note – remember that the handle should be to the side of the stove, over the countertop. It might be helpful to carefully find the edge of the countertop nearest the stove, and slowly lift your hand to find the handle.

Another way to know whether something is hot, simmering or boiling is to check for steam. Place your hand high above the pot, and lower it gradually and carefully until you feel your hand getting wet from the rising mist. As the liquid begins to heat, there will be a small amount of steam rising from the surface. When it begins to simmer, you’ll feel it at a higher level – and when it boils, you’ll feel more steam, even higher. Be sure to move your hand slowly and carefully to avoid reaching into a hot spot.

If you’re boiling water in a kettle, you can use a wooden spoon to check the steam instead of placing your hand directly above the spout, where the intense heat can be dangerous. Wearing an oven mitt, reach out with one hand to locate the kettle and the spout. With your other hand, place the bowl of the spoon over the spout for a few seconds, and remove it. Next, feel whether the bowl of the spoon is moist. If it is, the water has come to a boil.

Speaking of kettles, another way you can tell when your cooking is done – or ready for the next step – is to listen for particular sounds. A whistling teakettle can be a great cue – and here are a few more.

When liquid is boiling in a pot, it makes a bubbling sound – and if the pot is covered, the lid bounces and clatters. Things that simmer, like soup, also have a bubbling sound. But simmering is slower and quieter than boiling.

If you’re cooking with fats and oils, you can listen for a sizzling sound when you add your food to the pan. It’s always a good idea to try a small amount first – or you can use a cube of bread to test the heat. The sizzling sound should start as soon as the food is added. When fats and oils make a popping or crackling sound, that’s a signal that the heat needs to be turned down.

If you’re deep-frying foods, like chicken or French fries, you might notice that the spattering sounds stop when your food is ready. But an even better way to make sure it’s done is to use a timer.

Timing is a great way to make sure your favorites always come out right. Experiment with different cooking times to create the perfect boiled egg, for example. Or to see how long it takes to toast each side of your grilled cheese sandwich to perfection.

If you make a list of the foods you love to cook and their standard cooking times, you can repeat them easily.

To keep track of your cooking times and temperatures, you can mark a timer as well as mark your stove dials, to make them easier to read. Check out Hadley’s workshop on “Labels for Everyday Use” for this and other great ideas.

You can also find timers that are marked in braille or in large print. Or you can use the timer on a smart phone or tablet. The Hadley workshops “Telling Time” and “Keeping Score and Time” provide several useful tips.

For more tips and ideas on cooking with low vision – and checking to be sure your food is done – see the resource section of this workshop. Whether you’re dining alone or feeding the family – keeping it simple or going gourmet – these helpful tips will keep you cooking right along.

For even more ideas, be sure to check out the other workshops in this series – such as Hadley’s “Stovetop and Oven” workshop – for some great tips on working safely in the kitchen.

As always, if you need more information or you've got your own tips to share, contact a Hadley learning expert. Of course, as with anything new, give yourself time, patience and practice, and you'll get there.