The Masthead · About this site

About CookTimePro

A reference site about cooking times, temperatures, and technique, written by one person, sourced from primary food-safety documents, and updated as the science does.

I · What this is

A reference shelf, not a recipe blog

CookTimePro covers 66 ingredients across red meat, poultry, seafood, and vegetables, with 31 cooking methods documented in detail, sous-vide, reverse-searing, pan-frying, smoking, steaming, and the rest. Each ingredient has its own page; each (ingredient, method) pair has its own page beneath that. Three chart pages at the root collect the cross-cutting tables: a portion-size chart, an internal-temperature chart, and a cooking-temperature chart.

The aim is reference material that holds up under a thermometer. You should be able to land here from a search like "how long to sous vide a tenderloin" or "internal temperature for chicken thighs", get a specific number with the reason behind it, and leave with a meal you can repeat next week.

II · Who writes it

A single editor, no kitchen brigade

Everything on this site is written and edited by , a home cook and recipe tester. There is no test kitchen, no brand voice committee, and no AI-generated boilerplate dressed up with a stock byline. The site started as a notebook of cooking times and temperatures kept while testing dinners at home, and it still reads like one, with sources cited.

Camille is a pen name. There is no claimed culinary degree, no restaurant tenure, and no professional certification behind the writing. The authority on this site comes from two places: every food-safety number traces back to a primary source you can verify, and every technique has been cooked at home through the equipment a normal kitchen actually owns, a gas stove, a sheet-pan oven, a charcoal kettle, a small smoker, an air fryer, and a sous-vide circulator.

III · How content is researched

Primary sources, not the second page of Google

Every food-safety claim on this site, a minimum internal temperature, a holding time, a thawing rule, a raw-fish caveat, is checked against a primary source before it ships. The sources are linked at the bottom of each guide so you can verify them yourself.

The standard reference set:

USDA FSIS
Safe minimum internal temperatures for poultry, beef, pork, lamb, ground meat, and egg dishes. The FSIS chart is the shortest answer to "is this done safely."
USDA FSIS Appendix A
The pasteurization tables, temperature plus time. The basis for any sous-vide guidance that pulls a chicken breast at 145°F or a pork chop at 140°F.
FDA Food Code
Cooking and holding rules for retail food. Where the seafood parasite-destruction freezing schedules and the egg-handling temperatures live.
NOAA Fisheries
Species profiles, sustainability status, and handling for domestic seafood. Used wherever a fish page makes a sourcing or substitution claim.
USDA AMS
Grading standards and the Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications, the source of bone-in vs. boneless yield conversions used on the portion-size chart.
USDA MyPlate
Daily serving recommendations and the working definition of a single adult protein portion.

Cooking technique, when to use sous-vide, why a reverse-sear works on a thick steak, how a wet brine differs from a dry one, comes from home testing across that standard equipment list, with the science cross-checked against published kitchen-science references where relevant.

IV · Editorial positions

Where we depart from common wisdom

A reference site has to take positions. Three places we consistently break from the most popular advice, with the reasoning written into each relevant guide:

  • ✓ Chicken breast comes off the heat at 160°F, not 165°F. USDA FSIS lists 165°F as the safe instant-kill temperature, but Appendix A allows lower temperatures with a longer hold, and a chicken breast pulled at 160°F and rested carries through to the safe pasteurization window while losing measurably less moisture.
  • ✓ Salmon is pulled at 125°F, not 145°F. The FDA cooking temperature for fish is a fully-flaked, industrially-safe target. Sushi-grade salmon held at 125°F internal is silky and translucent; the FDA Food Code's parasite-destruction freezing rules cover the safety side.
  • ✓ Ground beef gets a thermometer, every time. Color is not a doneness signal for ground meat, see USDA FSIS on the "premature browning" phenomenon. The only safe call is 160°F instant-read at the thickest point.

V · Updates and corrections

How errors get fixed

Every long-form page on this site carries a "Last reviewed" date in the byline footer. When a primary source publishes a revision , the FDA Food Code updates on a roughly four-year cycle, FSIS guidance gets revised more often, affected pages are rechecked and the date is updated.

If you find a number that disagrees with a source you trust, email the contact address with the page URL and the citation. Corrections that change a safety claim get logged with the revision in the page footer.

VI · Commercial disclosure

How the site is funded

CookTimePro is supported by display advertising. No content on this site is sponsored, no equipment recommendation is paid for, and there are no affiliate links anywhere in the editorial text. If a brand or product appears in a guide, it is because it earned its place on the bench.

The site does not collect email addresses, run pop-up newsletter prompts, or sell user data. See the privacy policy for the full account of what is and isn't tracked.

A Note on Limits

This site is reference material, not medical or dietary advice. Individual nutritional needs and food-safety considerations vary with age, pregnancy, immune status, and underlying conditions, for personalized guidance, talk to a healthcare provider or a registered dietitian. When a recommendation here disagrees with what your doctor told you, follow your doctor.

Sources & further reading