Since ancient history people have been cooking to make food more palatable and safer to eat. Because of the profusion of raw foods as well as prepared food products, the varied ways of preparing and eating food, the difference in complexity of culinary technique and cultural expression represented through one-pot meals to gourmet banquets, the crucial role of food and cooking in health and longevity, and the intricate ways food and eating are interwoven into the social fabric, cooking offers numerous opportunities for personal and community development far beyond making food more palatable or safer to eat. 
If the food is not cooked properly or it is half cooked, many pathogens and microorganism that are harmful to our health are not destroyed. It is thus very important that food is cooked to at least 140 F for all the pathogens to be killed. Use best oven thermometers to know the exact temperature of the food. The kitchen thermometers are also helpful in knowing whether your food is properly cooked or not.
Tips To Make You a Better Cook
Sanitation is the most overlooked step of good cooking. There are over 70 million cases of food borne illness in the U.S. every year. Two simple steps could prevent many of them. The first step is to wash your hands thoroughly before starting to cook, after eating or using the bathroom, after handling meat or fish, and regularly throughout cooking. The second step is to ensure that counters and work surfaces are clean and sanitized by thoroughly washing and sanitizing as necessary and by heating wet sponges and dishrags in the microwave for 1-2 minutes every 3 days.
Cooking presents numerous opportunities to practice quality control. Look for opportunities to monitor quality when you choose food, when you trim or clean it, during preparation and cooking, and before you bring it to the table. A key method to becoming a better cook is to practice the fundamental techniques of cooking. The faster and more efficiently one can prepare food, the more likely one is to prepare it more frequently, which leads to becoming an even better cook.
Unless you are a very experienced cook, don’t try out new recipes on guests. Published recipes may not be tested adequately. Even if they are, your tastes are likely not the same as the author’s. Less experienced cooks hoard recipes as if they were the crown jewels. But just as a map is not the landscape it represents, a recipe is not the dish it describes how to make. This is not meant to imply that recipes have no value. On the contrary, if you don’t know how to get somewhere, you will want to use a map. But the best cooks and navigators are those who pay attention to the conditions in front of them, especially when they contradict the representation. If a map indicates there is a bridge up ahead, but you see a yellow flashing sign that indicates the bridge is washed out, you don’t want to keep going or you will likely end up in the river.