The food lab better home cooking through science ( PDFDrive ) 33

Thetopofapizzacooksviaradiation.
Most of the time, in cooking, all three methods of heat
transfer are used to varying extents.Take a burger on the
grill, for example. The grill grate heats the patty directly
where it is in contact with it through conduction, rapidly
browningitatthosespots.Therestofundersideofthepatty
is cooked via radiation from the coals underneath. Place a
pieceofcheeseontheburgerandpoptheliddownforabit,
andconvectioncurrentswillform,carryingthehotairfrom


directly above the coals up and over the top of the burger,
meltingthecheese.

Grilledburgerscookthroughallthreeformsofenergy
transfer.
You might notice that these three types of heat transfer
heat only onto the surface of foods. In order for food to
cook through to the center, the outer layer must transfer its
heattothenextlayer,andsoon,untiltheverycenterofthe
food begins to warm up. Because of that, the outside of
most cooked foods will almost always be more well done
than the center (there are tricks to minimizing the gradient,
whichwe’llgettointime).
Microwaves are the only other standard method of
energy transfer we commonly use in the kitchen, and they
have the unique ability to penetrate through the exterior of