- Home
- Cooking Timers
- Kitchen Timer
Kitchen Timer
Set a time and press Start. Tap + to add a timer for each pan and name it; the one that rings comes to the front.
10 minutes
Spacestart / pauseRresetFfull screen+ −add or remove a minute0–9type a time
Your timers
Set a time, pick a sound, then choose “Save timer”. Saved timers appear here and start in one tap.
Common food timer settings
| Job | Set the timer for | Start it when |
|---|---|---|
| Soft-boiled egg | 6 min | The egg goes into boiling water |
| Hard-boiled egg | 11 min | The egg goes into boiling water |
| Dried spaghetti | 9–11 min | The water returns to the boil |
| White rice | 18 min, then 10 min rest | The lid goes on at the lowest heat |
| Potatoes in 1-inch cubes | 10–12 min | The water comes to a boil |
| Black tea | 3–5 min | The water hits the leaves |
| Resting a steak | 5 min | It leaves the pan |
| Bread dough, first rise | 60–90 min | The kneaded dough is covered |
Usual starting points for large eggs, long-grain rice and a steak about an inch thick. Packets, pans and burners differ, so set the early end of a range and check the food. The egg, pasta, rice, baking and tea timers have these times built in by type.
How to use it
- Tap a preset from 1 to 60 minutes, or set any time with the hour, minute and second steppers, then press Start.
- Tap + to open another timer in its own tab and give each one a name such as “Rice” or “Chicken”. The tab strip shows the time left on every timer.
- Pick an alarm you will hear from across the room. “Kitchen timer bell” and “Kitchen ding” are both in the sound list. Raise the volume if the extractor fan is running.
- When a timer rings, its tab comes to the front, so the name tells you which pan to go to. Tap +1:00 if the food needs another minute.
- Tap “Save timer” to keep a named time you use every week. Saved timers start in one tap next time.
Why one timer per pan beats one timer per meal
A meal rarely has a single finish time. Rice simmers for 18 minutes and then sits for 10, the chicken wants turning after 7, and the green vegetables go on for the last 3. With one timer you keep resetting it and carrying the other times in your head, and the pan you forget is the one that burns. A separate named countdown for each pan removes the arithmetic. Each one answers a single question, and the name on the tab says which pan it belongs to.
Plan backward from the time you want to eat. Start the dish with the longest total first, counting any rest as part of it, then add a timer for each thing as it goes on the heat. Rests are useful windows. Rice holds for 10 minutes under its lid and a steak wants 5 on the board, which is enough to finish a quick vegetable or reduce a sauce.
Cooking timer settings that suit a kitchen
Kitchens are loud. A fan, a frying pan and a running tap together can cover a quiet beep, so play the alarm once at the volume you have set before you rely on it. Turn on “Keep screen on” when a phone is propped by the stove, because a dark screen is hard to wake with wet or floury hands. Full screen makes the digits readable from the other side of the room.
Recipe and packet times are estimates. A wide pan loses water faster than a deep one, a small burner takes longer to bring a full pot back to the boil, and an oven can run hotter or cooler than its dial. Set the timer for the early end of the range, look at the food when it rings, and add a minute at a time from there.
Common mistakes
- Starting the clock when the pan goes on the stove. Most boiling and simmering times count from when the water is boiling, not from cold.
- Running three timers with no names. When one rings you have to guess which pan it belongs to, and ten seconds of typing prevents that.
- Leaving the rest out of the plan. Rice, roasts and steak keep cooking after the heat is off, and those minutes belong on a timer too.
- Setting the far end of a range and walking away. Food that is one minute under can be fixed; food that is three minutes over cannot.
Questions people ask
Can I run multiple kitchen timers at once?
Yes. Tap + to add another timer in its own tab and name it. Each one counts down independently, and the tab strip shows the time left on all of them.
How do I know which timer is ringing?
The timer that has finished comes to the front with its name showing, so “Potatoes” or “Oven” tells you where to go. The others carry on counting in their tabs.
Is an online kitchen timer loud enough to hear over an extractor fan?
It is as loud as the speaker on your device. Turn up both the timer volume and the device volume, choose “Kitchen timer bell”, and keep the phone or laptop on the counter rather than in another room.
Will the timer keep going if I open a recipe in another tab?
Yes. The countdown keeps correct time in a background tab and after a reload. Switch on “Notify me” to get a notification when it ends while you are reading the recipe.
Can I save the cooking times I use most?
Yes. Set the time, tap “Save timer” and give it a name such as “Porridge 4 min”. It appears as a saved timer that starts in one tap.