Most cooking failures aren't recipe failures - they're timing failures. Rice that turned to glue, a steak that came out grey through the middle, tea so bitter the cup tastes of tannins. The recipe was probably fine. The clock won. What follows is a scannable reference of cooking timings worth memorizing, with the one-line why attached so you can adapt when conditions deviate. This is a guide, not a recipe; for food safety - meat internal temperatures specifically - defer to the cited authority and a thermometer over any clock.

Eggs

The classic case for the egg timer on this site. Starting from cold water with a covered pot brought to a boil and held: a soft egg is roughly 4 minutes from boil for a runny yolk, 6 minutes for a jammy centre, 9-10 minutes for a fully set hard-boiled. Starting from already-boiling water, drop a minute off each - the egg starts cooking the moment it hits 100°C. Stop the cook with cold water the second the timer goes; an egg keeps cooking from residual heat for another minute or two, which is the difference between jammy and chalky. For poaching, a fresh medium egg in barely-simmering water (90°C, not a rolling boil) takes about 3 minutes for a soft white around a runny yolk.

Pasta and rice

Pasta cooks faster than the package says. Use the package time minus 1 minute for al dente - Italians eat their pasta firmer than the boxes assume - and pull a strand a minute before that to taste. Long shapes (spaghetti, linguine) usually run 8-10 minutes; short shapes (penne, fusilli) 9-12. Salt the water until it tastes faintly of the sea: pasta water is the only chance to season the pasta itself.

Rice splits cleanly into two methods. Absorption (lid on, no peeking): white long-grain rice 18 minutes at a low simmer plus 10 minutes off heat covered, basmati 12 minutes plus 10 covered, brown rice 35-40 minutes plus 10 covered. The off-heat rest is the part most home cooks skip and shouldn't - it's where the steam evens out and the bottom unsticks. Boiling-method rice (excess water, drained like pasta) tastes fluffier but takes the same total time; pick whichever you trust your stove to land.

Tea

Steeping is the most over-cooked thing in most kitchens. Rough guide by leaf, with the tea timer on hand for one-tap steeping:

Green: 1-3 minutes at 70-80°C. Past 4 minutes most green teas release tannins fast and the cup turns sharp.
White: 4-6 minutes at 80°C. Forgiving leaf, longer is fine.
Oolong: 3-5 minutes at 90°C. Re-steep the leaves; second infusion is often better than the first.
Black: 3-5 minutes at 100°C. Strong leaves like Assam tolerate the full five; lighter Darjeelings prefer three.
Herbal / tisanes: 5-10 minutes at 100°C. Not real tea, no tannins to worry about, brew until it smells right.

The temperature numbers matter as much as the time. Boiling water on a green tea will scorch the leaves regardless of how short the steep is.

Meat - by temperature, not just time

This is the section to cite a thermometer instead of a clock. Minute counts vary with cut thickness, starting temperature, pan choice, oven calibration, and altitude - internal temperature doesn't. The USDA FSIS minimum safe temperatures (sourced below):

Poultry, all cuts: 74°C / 165°F.
Ground meat (beef, pork, lamb): 71°C / 160°F.
Whole-cut beef, pork, veal, lamb: 63°C / 145°F, then rest at least 3 minutes.
Fish and shellfish: 63°C / 145°F (or until opaque and flaking).
Eggs and egg dishes: cook until both yolk and white are firm.

Then rest the meat. Small steaks 5 minutes; a roast chicken or pork loin 10 minutes; a large beef roast 15-20. Resting lets muscle fibres relax and reabsorb juices that would otherwise pool on the cutting board. The cheat-sheet here is "thermometer in, thermometer out, rest"

not "X minutes per pound", which is a poor predictor on any cut thicker than a centimetre.

Dough - rising

Bread rise is a curve, not a clock. At a comfortable room temperature (~22°C), a dough with commercial yeast roughly doubles in 60-90 minutes for the first rise and 30-60 minutes for the second. A cold-fermented dough (in the fridge overnight) takes 12-16 hours and develops more flavour. A natural starter at room temperature is slower again - 4-8 hours - and unforgiving of guesses, because each starter ferments at its own rate.

The principle worth memorizing: dough is done when it's roughly doubled in volume and a gently poked dent springs back slowly, not instantly and not at all. Time is the proxy; volume is the actual signal. Cold kitchen, slower rise; warm summer kitchen, much faster.

Coffee - brewing

Coffee timings are short and unforgiving. Pour-over: 3-4 minutes total for a single cup, including bloom. French press: 4 minutes, press, pour. Espresso: 25-30 seconds for a double shot, after which it tastes ashy. AeroPress: about 90 seconds steep before pressing.

The principle is that extraction is roast plus grind plus water temperature plus time - a single variable rarely fixes a bad cup. Holding time constant on a too-fine grind tastes overextracted (bitter, hollow); holding it constant on a too-coarse grind tastes underextracted (sour, weak). Adjust the grind first, time second.

The principle behind all this

Time is downstream of conditions. Start temperature, ingredient mass, pot size, surface area, altitude, ingredient age - every one of these shifts the right number on the timer. A cheat sheet works because it encodes the typical condition: a fridge-cold steak in a hot pan at sea level, a room-temperature dough in a 22°C kitchen, a fresh kettle of soft water on a fresh leaf. The reader's job is to know when conditions deviate and to nudge the time accordingly. A standalone cheat sheet on the wall beats a 12-tab browser session, the same way a fixed timer beats open-ended cooking - both encode a decision so the kitchen runs on muscle memory instead of negotiation. And like the science of timeboxing note for desk work, the goal isn't the clock - it's removing one source of friction so the rest of the work can land.

Cooking timer cheat sheet