Baking and Temperature

• Recipe baking temperatures for cakes, bars and cookies aim to cook ingredients thoroughly and achieve optimum texture throughout: usually a center that is moist but not soggy and an exterior that is chewy but not hard. A cake or batch of cookies that goes in an oven whose temperature is too low will dry out. It will eventually cook fully without burning, but you will bake the moisture out of the middle before the surface starts to brown.

Meat Roasting and Temperature

• Temperatures for cooking meat serve the dual function of bringing out flavor and heating the cut to a temperature sufficient to kill potentially dangerous food-borne pathogens. If you cook meat in the oven at a lower temperature for longer, you will eventually bring it to a safe temperature. Monitor the temperature with a thermometer while it cooks until it reaches at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit for poultry, 145 F for beef roasts and steaks and 145 F for pork. However, cooking meat slowly for a longer period of time may cause it to dry out or grow tough.

Vegetable Roasting and Temperature

• Vegetables cooked in the oven for short periods at high heat brown quickly and develop chewy, caramelized exteriors. Vegetables cooked in the oven at lower heat for longer periods of time are more moist and their outer layers may not caramelize at all. When cooking vegetables in the oven, you don't have to worry about safe temperatures as much as you do with meat because you can eat most vegetables raw. There's nothing wrong with cooking vegetables longer on low heat unless you have your heart set on a chewier texture.

Casseroles and Temperature

• Most casserole recipes instruct you to precook ingredients such as meats, beans, grains, pastas and vegetables before combining these ingredients and spreading them in a casserole dish. Heating casseroles for longer periods of time on lower heat is relatively foolproof as long as you cover them for most of the cooking period to keep them from drying out. Use a metal stem thermometer to make sure that your casserole reaches a temperature of 165 F in the center, especially if you've used egg as a binder.