Every number my mother
kept in her hands.
A chicken breast that is wet in the middle. Skin that shatters. Pork with a blush, not grey.
Most food is not ruined by a bad recipe. It is ruined by heat, too much of it, too early, for too long. This is the book of the weights, the temperatures and the timings my mother had in her hands, for meat, fish, eggs, rice, noodles, soup and vegetables, and every one of them can be checked with a thermometer, a scale and a clock.
Pay once. Open it in a minute.
You pay
Through Gumroad’s checkout. I never see your card number, and there is no account to make.
The book opens
On the very next screen, about a minute later. Phone, tablet, computer, or the television if it has a browser.
It stays in your email
The same link comes to your inbox, so you can open it again at the stove. Nothing ships.
Same mistake, three coats. Same fix.
Every chapter is the weight, the temperature and the time, and then how to tell without any of them. Here are the three the channel gets asked about most.
The water never boils
Boil, take it off the flame, count thirty, and the pot settles where a chicken breast stays wet. The twenty-three minutes, the one number that makes it safe, and the sixty-second butter finish.
The crisp-skin law
A thigh goes into a cold, dry pan, skin down, and only then does the flame come on. Why the fat renders instead of seizing, and how the skin tells you it is ready by letting go.
The number that moved
Whole cuts of pork are safe at a lower number than most kitchens were taught, with a three-minute rest. Where the old all-grey chop came from, and the gentle finish that keeps it wet.
Saw it on the channel? Here is the page.
Every method on the channel is written out in the book, with the number under it and how you know it worked.
Real pages, from the real book.
This is exactly what opens on your phone. The type is set big on purpose, and every page prints on plain paper.
Meat to soup, in the order you need it.
The one idea first, then the scale, then every food in turn, then what to do when it goes wrong, then every number in one table. The five counter cards close the book.
CH. 1The one ideawhy gentle wins · p. 4
CH. 2The one-per-cent kitchensalt, sugar and the scale · p. 5
CH. 3The four tools that matterand the drawer that does not · p. 7
CH. 4Chickenbreast, thigh and the crisp-skin law · p. 8
CH. 5Porkthe same mistake, paid for twice · p. 10
CH. 6Beeffast cuts, slow cuts · p. 12
CH. 7Fishsalt first, dry always · p. 14
CH. 8Eggsfive doneness points, one pot, tamagoyaki · p. 16
CH. 9Ricethe twenty minutes before the heat · p. 18
CH. 10Noodlessoba, udon, somen, the cold shock · p. 20
CH. 11Vegetablesgreen and crisp, or slow and sweet · p. 21
CH. 12Dashi, miso and the five bottlesp. 23
CH. 13Soup and the donabeone pot, whole meals · p. 25
CH. 14Keeping foodthe cold numbers · p. 26
CH. 15When it goes wronga troubleshooting table · p. 27
CH. 16The tablesevery number in one place · p. 28
What a year of ruined suppers actually costs.
Not a promise. Two columns, the same twelve months, a household of four, ordinary supermarket prices. I cannot check your grocery bill, but the shape of it holds in any town.
What too much heat costs now
The same year, at the right number
Figures are illustrative ranges for a household of four and vary by store and city. This is a cooking reference, not professional advice.
Come in. I’m Setsuko.
I learned to cook in a small village in Japan, at my mother’s elbow, in a kitchen where one chicken fed a family for three days and nothing was allowed to go to waste. She never wrote down a single recipe, and for most of my life I believed that meant she cooked without numbers. I was wrong. She had them in her hands.
This book is those numbers. I am not a chef, and I say so on the first page. Where an official safety line exists, I give you the official number and mark it as theirs. Everything else you can check yourself, tonight, with a thermometer, a scale and a clock.
— Setsuko Tanaka
Questions people ask first.
Is this a printed book or a download?
A download. One PDF, 31 pages, on your screen about a minute after you pay. It reads on a phone, a tablet or a computer, and the counter cards on page 31 are built to be printed on plain paper and taped inside a cupboard door.
What measures does it use?
Every temperature in both Fahrenheit and Celsius, every weight in grams with the cup or spoon beside it where that is how people cook. No converting at the stove with wet hands.
Do I need Japanese ingredients or a special pan?
No. Nothing in the book needs a Japanese shop or a machine you do not own. If a pot has a lid, you are equipped. Chapter twelve, on dashi and the five bottles, will make a Japanese shop worth the trip, but nothing depends on it.
Are you a professional chef?
No. I am a home cook who learned at my mother’s elbow. Where an official safety line exists, the temperature for chicken or pork, the rules for keeping food cold, I give the official number and mark it as theirs, never my opinion of it.
I have cooked for forty years. Is this for me?
It is written for exactly that cook. Most of what goes wrong in an experienced kitchen goes wrong for one reason, too much heat applied with too much confidence, and the book is the numbers that stop it.
What if it is not for me?
Write to the address on your receipt and you get your money back, and you keep the file. No form, no reason required.
Turn the heat down. Keep the water in.
16 chapters, 5 counter cards, every number in both scales. One PDF. Yours in a minute.
Setsuko Tanaka is the AI host of this channel, and the images on this page are generated illustrations. Every number in the book can be checked with a thermometer, a scale and a clock; safety temperatures are the USDA’s and are marked as such. This is a cooking reference, not medical or dietary advice.