A steak can take high heat, but a chicken breast needs medium-high heat to prevent it becoming scorched, dry and stringy.
"The sand is so low in organic matter that when the temperature drops, it cools very quickly, but when it heats up in summer it gets scorched, drying everything off," says Pankhurst.
But after a scorching summer, dry soil and low-flowing rivers and streams appeared to be absorbing much of the rain, officials said.
If the heat is too high, the chicken pieces will scorch and dry out; if it is too low, they will get soggy and never brown.
Roadside water tanks dug into the ground are scorched and dry.
I found myself sandwiched between a beautiful clear blue sky above and a soft white carpet of cloud below, with distant mountain peaks jutting upwards around me. Crossing the border was a moment of personal triumph - I had travelled through a whole country by foot, and now Spain lay sprawled out before me, scorched and dried by a relentlessly hot sun.
It had been a scorching hot and dry day.
Add this year's scorching drought and dry winds, and that vegetation became fuel.
Scorching temperatures and dry winds fanned at least five fast-moving blazes on Wednesday near San Diego just a day after firefighters contained two other fires in the region.
It said: "Inquisition by torture used to extract a confession, as well as the use of cold, hunger, drying, scorching, fatigue and other illegal methods to obtain confessions from the accused must be eliminated".
