12 Ingredients That Should Reach Room Temperature Before Cooking

If you are an avid baker, you've probably gone through your share of recipes that suggest leaving certain ingredients out at room temperature before working with them. While this little step may seem pointless, it is a rookie baking mistake that can completely change the texture of your baked goods. During my time at culinary school and working as a pastry chef, the first thing I remember learning is the importance of letting ingredients reach room temperature. Not doing so could lead to dense cakes and chunky frostings, and well, they can be extremely off-putting. But ingredients for baked goods aren't the only ones that should reach room temperature before cooking. You might be surprised to learn all the savory ingredients that benefit from a period on the counter too.

Of course, this doesn't mean you should be leaving these ingredients out for prolonged periods of time, which could lead to them reaching the temperature danger zone of 40 to 140 degrees F, according to the USDA. But just a little time at room temperature will go a long way in helping to provide better results with these 12 ingredients.

Although eggs should be stored in the refrigerator, many baking recipes still need them to be at room temperature. There is no reason to worry though, as the USDA states that you can leave eggs out for up to 2 hours. For most baking recipes, leaving them out for just 20 to 30 minutes can make a massive difference.

Dessert recipes often need room-temperature eggs because they are less viscous when they aren't cold. Egg whites give volume to recipes, and having a lower viscosity at room temperature allows them to whip better, resulting in an airy mixture. This is especially necessary for cake recipes that need a light and spongy texture, like a chiffon or a dacquoise cake. Moreover, using cold egg whites is one of the many mistakes you could be making with your meringue, resulting in flat meringue cookies or macarons.

Egg yolks being at room temperature is just as essential, as it helps them mix more evenly into batters. Plus, cold egg yolks can also solidify some of the butter, resulting in a dense and clumpy dessert. Here, just remember to separate your egg whites and yolks while the eggs are still cold if a recipe needs them to be used separately, as warmer egg yolks can break more easily.

If you've ever tried to make buttercream frosting before, you probably know that butter should be at room temperature before working with it. There's a lot that can go wrong in a dessert recipe by using cold butter, like chunks of undistributed pieces, or a dense and crumbly dessert. It all really boils down to one main factor: Butter whips better when it's at room temperature.

Most beginner-friendly dessert recipes use the creaming method, where butter and sugar are whipped together to create a light and airy base for the rest of the ingredients. When butter is soft, the sugar can mix with it more easily, creating larger and more uniform air pockets. These air pockets eventually give your cakes and frostings their quintessential fluffy texture. Moreover, while it is important to let butter reach room temperature before baking, it is also crucial to keep a check on how soft your butter gets, as extremely soft butter won't be able to hold any air.

Usually, when butter is left at room temperature for about an hour, it can easily reach a temperature between 65 to 70 degrees F and can be pressed slightly. This is the perfect stage to start working with it for any recipe that uses the creaming method. If you forget to leave your butter out beforehand, you can also try some hacks that can help soften butter at the last moment.

While room temperature poultry might not be crucial for every recipe, when it comes to cooking whole birds or thicker cuts, it is highly recommended. The USDA strictly suggests not to leave poultry out for longer than 2 hours, and no longer than 1 hour if the temperature is above 90 degrees F. But, letting your raw poultry reach room temperature even for those one or two hours can make a major difference in the final outcome.

Poultry should reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees F before it can be consumed. The problem with using cold poultry straight out of the refrigerator is that when you cook it, it may take a lot longer for it to reach the required internal temperature. Moreover, using poultry that isn't at room temperature may also result in the surface overcooking and drying out, with the inside still being raw, due to temperature shock.

Bear in mind, that leaving ground poultry out before cooking is not necessary. In fact, it's best to keep it refrigerated until you intend to cook it.

Most recipes for baked goods require milk to be at room temperature, as it helps with better emulsification. You see, milk is often added to recipes like cakes towards the end, along with the dry ingredients. By the time the milk is supposed to be added to any recipe, butter, sugar, and eggs are already whipped together to form a light and airy base.

Adding cold milk to this light and airy base will create plenty of mishaps for baked goods. The fat in the butter will clump up, resulting in a lumpy batter, which can ruin the delicate texture of a cake or a cupcake by making it crumbly. Moreover, although eggs won't split due to cold milk, it can still break the emulsion, which can result in an uneven crumb. When a batter appears split, a novice baker's first instinct would be to mix it more evenly. This too can be problematic, as it can result in overmixing, eventually turning your cake extra chewy or rubbery.

The same applies to an American buttercream frosting as well, which is made with just butter, icing sugar, and milk. After beating the butter and sugar into a light and airy mixture, if you add cold milk, it will clump up the butter and result in a dense frosting, which can be very disappointing and unpleasant to eat.

Imagine biting into a delicious peanut butter cupcake, expecting it to be light and airy with an evenly distributed flavor. But sadly, your first bite is a chunk of unmixed peanut butter. That would be off-putting for sure. Well, as you may have guessed, this unpleasant experience is a result of using cold peanut butter. Not just peanut butter though — all nut butters should be at room temperature before using them in baking recipes.

Those of you who don't refrigerate your nut butter are probably a bit confused. The thing is, while it may not be a necessity to refrigerate commercially produced nut butter, when it comes to natural nut butter, it is always ideal to do so. Natural nut butters are often made with just the nut, and maybe some oil for better emulsification. But, as there are no added stabilizers in natural nut butters, it is always better to refrigerate them to improve their shelf life.

So, if you like the flavor of natural nut butter in your dessert, make sure it reaches room temperature before using it. Other than the unpleasant eating experience, chunks of cold, unmixed nut butter can also create other problems in baked goods, like improper fat distribution. This can result in certain extra greasy spots, which may cause desserts to spread a lot more than they should, resulting in a flat appearance and possibly an overbaked and hard texture.

Yogurt, whether plain or Greek, is an essential ingredient used for baking and in savory recipes like curries. It also happens to be another ingredient that should reach room temperature before being used for both purposes. For baking recipes, yogurt is mostly used in place of eggs or along with eggs, as it provides moisture, helps with binding the batter, and also balances the sweetness with its tangy flavor. In curries, yogurt is usually added toward the end to mellow the spice level.

Since yogurt is used in conjunction with eggs in baking recipes, it is added to the batter after creaming the butter and sugar. Like cold milk, cold yogurt too can clump up the fat in the butter and turn the airy base into a dense, chunky mess, resulting in a heavy dessert. Moreover, plenty of cake recipes also use baking soda along with yogurt, as its acidity reacts with the soda, helping with leavening the cake and giving it a spongy texture. Cold yogurt may not react as well with baking soda, ruining the cake's spongy texture.

On the flip side, since yogurt is added to curries in the end, the chances of it splitting are a lot higher if it isn't at room temperature. Leaving yogurt at room temperature even for 30 minutes before adding it to simmering curry will highly reduce the chances of it splitting.

Allowing thick cuts of fish, like salmon, to reach room temperature is very essential for even cooking. When they are cooked directly from their refrigerated state, the chances of the surface overcooking and leaving the inside raw are pretty high. Starting at a higher internal temperature reduces the chances of overcooking or burning the surface while ensuring the internal temperature gets to a safe 145 degrees F.

However, it may not be necessary for thinner cuts to reach room temperature before cooking. This is because their internal temperature isn't much lower than the surface temperature, so the chances of the surface overcooking and leaving the inside raw are often minimal.

Here, before leaving your fish out for it to reach room temperature, it is also important to note that the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services recommends that you not leave fish out for more than 2 hours, and not more than 1 hour if it is exposed to a temperature of 90 degrees F. But, in most cases, 15 to 30 minutes of exposure to room temperature is usually enough. The best part about fish is that if you forget to let a thick cut reach room temperature before cooking, you can always thin it out, which is a great hack to cook the fish more evenly.

Storing chocolate in the refrigerator is usually not recommended, as such low temperatures can effectively ruin its structure and give it a grainy appearance. However, if you live in a hot climate and have no choice but to refrigerate your chocolate, not letting it reach room temperature before using can be a crucial mistake.

When chocolate is used for any baking recipe, it is usually melted. A goof up that often happens with novice bakers while they are working with chocolate is, to melt it more quickly, they might heat it at a very high temperature. This sudden change in temperature can result in the cocoa butter from the chocolate separating and settling on top, which is called fat bloom. This phenomenon gives the chocolate and eventually the dessert, a dull appearance.

Hence, if you need to store chocolate in the refrigerator due to a hot climate, you should let it reach room temperature for 20-30 minutes before working with it. Letting chocolate reach room temperature will also help it melt more evenly, which is essential for tempering. Tempering involves melting and cooling the chocolate at certain temperatures to reduce the chances of fat blooming, and also give it a shiny and glossy appearance. This is especially important when making chocolate garnishes. So, for a better-looking dessert and a smoother mouthfeel, ensure to let your chocolate reach room temperature. Also try to temper the chocolate, rather than just melting it, for beautiful and glossy chocolate decorations.

Anyone who loves baking bread at home knows that the result of working with cold yeast will be a dense loaf. But wait, should yeast even be refrigerated? Well, yes. Although many people tend to forget to store their yeast in the refrigerator or freezer, it is highly recommended to do so. Moreover, even though some people remember to do so, they often forget to leave it out at room temperature before using it. If you don't allow yeast to come to room temperature before adding it to a bread dough, the chances of it activating and leavening the bread are minimal.

You might be wondering what exactly it means to activate yeast. In short, before making any sort of bread dough, yeast is added to warm water along with sugar, which helps release carbon dioxide. This is what helps bread rise, and also gives it that subtle tangy flavor. Yeast can be tricky to work with, as the water needs to be between 105 to 115 degrees F for dry yeast to activate. If you start with refrigerated or frozen yeast, the low temperature will also lower the temperature of the water, hindering the activation process, and won't give your baked bread its quintessential texture and flavor.

While it's important to store citrus fruits in the refrigerator to extend their shelf life, it is also pretty essential to let them reach room temperature before using. Citrus fruits tend to tighten up at a cold temperature, so you won't be able to extract juices to the fruits' full potential. When left out at room temperature for 15 to 20 minutes, they loosen up and can be squeezed better for a higher yield. Moreover, the essential oils in citrus fruits are also more pronounced when they are at room temperature, which gives them a better aroma and flavor.

Most citrus fruits also zest better when they are at room temperature; it also reduces the chances of zesting the bitter white interior, called the pith, which, let's just say, tastes quite unpleasant. Last but definitely not least, citrus juices are often used in baking recipes for added flavor. Adding them cold might clump up the fats in the butter due to temperature shock, resulting in a dense dessert. So, before using citrus fruits, make sure to leave them out just for a bit for better results.

Cheese connoisseurs often recommend letting cheese reach room temperature before serving it on cheese boards. Even US Dairy recommends letting it sit at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes before serving for the best flavor. But, leaving cheese out at room temperature isn't limited to just serving them on charcuterie boards; it is also quite essential for plenty of recipes, including baking ones.

Consider soft cheeses like cream cheese and mascarpone, which are added to delicate desserts like cheesecakes, tiramisu, and cream cheese frosting. You'd expect these desserts to have a tender, melt-in-your-mouth texture, with an evenly distributed flavor of cheese. If these soft cheeses aren't left out at room temperature before use, the chances of them whipping properly to form a light and airy base are quite low.

Soft cheese, when whipped while still cold, will leave large lumps of it unmixed, which ruins the texture of delicate desserts. As a matter of fact, even before adding soft cheeses like ricotta to your favorite pasta sauce, it is essential to let them reach room temperature first to prevent them from splitting due to high heat and enable even mixing.

There is some debate on the internet on whether or not steak needs to be at room temperature before cooking. However, most experts always recommend doing so. In fact, for a perfect medium-rare cook, it is pretty much essential to let your steak reach room temperature by allowing it to sit out for 30 minutes before cooking it. This is because cooking a cold steak would increase the chances of the inside remaining undercooked.

Moreover, placing a cold steak on a hot pan can also bring down the temperature of the pan itself, which can cause the meat to steam rather than sear. All of this can be problematic when you want a medium-rare steak with a nicely seared surface, so it is always better to plan ahead and let the steak rest at room temperature first. Just make sure you pat it dry before placing it in a hot pan to further reduce the chances of steaming. Plus, it's also a great way to get the perfect sear.