Cooking by Ear

(And no, I'm not talking about Mike Tyson.)

I believe the roles of taste, smell, and sight in cooking are fairly well-known. Those three senses provide easy and obvious ways to track the progress of food preparation, i.e., to determine what stage one has reached in cooking and whether the food is "done."

And also touch - though frequently mediated with a spoon.  (For example, one gets feedback about the progress of certain dishes from the physical resistance of the dish when stirred.),

But it occurs to me now that I use hearing as well, for certain dishes.  For example, it has been many years since I've set a timer for my slow-cooked stove-top oatmeal; instead, I listen for a shift in the sound of cooking that tells me the oatmeal is ready.  The ideal moment is indicated by the sound just before the slight crackle that indicates the oatmeal is beginning to stick.  But even when it first starts to crackle, it's fine.  (It's only when I'm absorbed in another project that I sometimes miss it until the fierce crackling as it starts to brown.)

And it's often the sense of sound that tells me a liquid has reached boiling, or that the burner for a simmering pot needs adjustment.

Of course, cooking by ear in this way is only practical when the noise level is low and there are few distractions...