Why is my food burning on the outside but raw in the middle?

Because heat is arriving at the surface faster than it can conduct into the centre. Cooking is limited by conduction, and conduction through food is slow — so the fix is almost always lower heat for longer, or a change of method.

The most common cause is simply a pan or oven set too high. The surface reaches browning and then charring temperatures within minutes, while the centre is still climbing. Thick cuts, bone-in meat, dense root vegetables and anything cooked straight from the fridge are all especially prone, because the temperature gradient from surface to centre is large.

Thickness matters more than weight. A thick chicken breast and a thin one of the same mass behave completely differently, which is why butterflying or pounding a piece of meat to even thickness solves the problem outright in many cases.

Starting temperature is the second underestimated factor. Food taken straight from the fridge has a cold core that has to be brought up through the whole cooking time. Letting it stand at room temperature for twenty to thirty minutes before cooking narrows the gap considerably.

For thick items, two-stage cooking is the reliable approach. Either sear first and finish in a moderate oven, or cook gently to temperature first and brown at the end — the second is more forgiving and gives more even results. In an oven, a lower temperature for longer will always produce a more even result than a high temperature for a short time.

Check your oven as well. Domestic ovens frequently run 10–20°C away from their dial setting, and a cheap oven thermometer will tell you in one session whether yours does.

A probe thermometer removes the guesswork entirely.