Most recipes tell you to cook over specific heat levels, such as “medium heat,” but what does that actually mean when every stove (and pan) is different? By testing burners and breaking down the real sensory cues, we’ll explain why dial settings aren’t the point—and how to read your stove like a pro.
When you’ve been writing and testing recipes for as long as I have, you start to notice the lines that make readers squint. “Season to taste” is one. And “medium heat” is another. Every stovetop recipe asks you to set your burner to low, medium, or high (or some combo, like medium-high), but what exactly does that mean? My medium might be your medium-high. Your high might be my scorched-to-a-crisp. Unlike ovens, which are at least standardized in theory, stovetop burners are not. Of course, this is not always the case with ovens, but that is another topic for another time. In general, though, 400°F in my oven is the same as 400°F in yours. Stovetop burners, on the other hand, are a Wild West of heat output, burner size, and mysterious knob markings.
Why Stovetop Heat Settings Aren’t Universal
Even within the same kitchen, burners—whether electric, gas, or induction—can vary in size and power: One runs hot, while the other simmers gently, even if the dials are set to the same notch. On a gas stove, a “high-output” burner might pump out 20,000 BTUs, while the smaller one next to it barely clears 8,000. Electric coils vary in wattage and size, too, and unlike gas, they lag in response when you turn the dial down—once they’re hot, they stay hot. Induction brings yet another set of quirks.
Add the pan to the equation. A thin aluminum skillet heats quickly and cools just as fast, while heavy cast iron takes ages to change temperature. Factor in how much food you’ve put in and how well you preheated. Suddenly, it’s clear that “medium heat” isn’t a single stove setting, but the sum of many moving parts.
Putting it to the Test
In true Serious Eats fashion, I put this question to the test. A few colleagues and I each boiled 2 cups (16 ounces) of room-temperature water (about 70°F) in the same style 2-quart stainless steel saucepan on a total of seven different burners across our home kitchens (some gas, some electric, all varying sizes), each set to high. The fastest burner brought the water to a boil in 2 minutes and 43 seconds. The slowest took nearly eight minutes. That’s a big spread for burners that were all supposedly blasting at “high.”
If you want to calibrate your own stovetop, you can run a similar experiment. Pick a burner, bring a measured amount of room-temperature water to a boil in a pan set over the highest heat setting, and time how long it takes. Repeat the process with the same setup—that is, the exact same amount of water in the same pan—on a different burner. You’ll quickly learn which is your powerhouse and which is better for gentle simmering. It’s a fun calibration trick, but it won’t help you match your friend’s stove, or the recipe writer’s. Recipes just don’t work that way because the writer didn’t test their recipe on your exact stove, and they probably didn’t mention the model they did use.
Just remember that burner size and pan material change the results. A small burner under a wide skillet may struggle, while a large burner under a small pan can create scorching hot spots. A lightweight aluminum pan heats up and cools quickly, while heavy stainless steel or cast iron responds much more slowly. That’s why your numbers will never exactly match someone else’s, and why well-written recipes lean on visual, auditory, and scent cues instead of hard and fast rules.
Why Recipes Still Use “Medium Heat”
This is why good recipes don’t stop at “medium heat.” We add time ranges and, more importantly, sensory cues. Onions should be softened and lightly browned. Oil should shimmer in the pan before you add the chicken. Steaks should sizzle immediately on contact. These cues are the real instructions; the burner setting is just the starting point. Times are often just ballpark estimates to help you get a rough sense of how the recipe should be progressing, but the sensory cues should always take priority. If your onions still aren’t softened and lightly browned in 20 minutes, you need to turn your heat up, no matter what heat setting the recipe says.
How to Read Your Stove Like a Pro
When a recipe instructs you to use “medium heat” or “medium-high heat” or any other heat setting, it’s not really about where your dial is set. What matters is how the pan and food behave when they come into contact. These are the sensory cues recipe developers rely on, and they’re the most reliable way to know if you’re in the correct heat zone:
- Low heat: Butter melts slowly without sizzling, and when food goes in, it barely hisses. Soups hold at a gentle burble.
- Medium heat: The oil shimmers, and the food sizzles softly the moment it touches the pan. Onions start to soften and gradually brown.
- Medium-high heat: The oil moves quickly across the pan and may produce a faint wisp of smoke. Food sizzles briskly on contact and browns quickly.
- High heat: The oil smokes almost immediately, and the food sears with a loud, aggressive crackle, forming a crust before the inside cooks through.
Rule of thumb: If the pan is too quiet, turn the heat up. If the oil is smoking furiously and food is scorching on contact, dial it back.
The Bottom Line
Recipe heat settings mean less about your stove dial and more about what’s actually happening in the pan. “Medium” is shorthand for steady, controlled cooking—fast enough to get results, slow enough not to burn.
Once you learn to rely on visual and other sensory cues, the mystery evaporates: “Medium heat” stops being a vague instruction and becomes something you can recognize on any stove, every time. Recipes point you in the right direction, but the food will always tell you what it needs.
