Cooking

Template:Cuisine Cooking is an act of preparing food for eating. It encompasses a vast range of methods, tools and combinations of ingredients to improve the flavour or digestibility of food. It generally requires the selection, measurement and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure in an effort to achieve the desired result. Constraints on success include the variability of ingredients, ambient conditions, tools, and the skill of the individual cooking.

The diversity of cooking worldwide is a reflection of the myriad nutritional, aesthetic, agricultural, economic, cultural and religious considerations that impact upon it.

Cooking requires applying heat to a food which usually, though not always, chemically transforms it, thus changing its flavor, texture, appearance, and nutritional properties. Cooking proper, as opposed to roasting, requires the boiling of water in a receptable, and was practiced at least since the 10th millennium BC with the introduction of pottery. There is archaeological evidence of roasted foodstuffs, both animal and vegetable, in human (Homo erectus) campsites dating from the earliest known use of fire some 800,000 years ago.Template:Fact

Effects of cooking

Food safety

Template:Mainarticle If heat is used in the preparation of food, this can kill or inactivate potentially harmful organisms including bacteria and viruses. The effect will depend on temperature, cooking time, and technique used. The temperature range from 4°C to 57°C (41°F to 135°F) is the "food danger zone." Between these temperatures bacteria can grow rapidly. Under the correct conditions bacteria can double in number every twenty minutes. The food may not appear any different or spoiled but can be harmful to anyone who eats it. Meat, poultry, dairy products, and other prepared food must be kept outside of the "food danger zone" to remain safe to eat. Refrigeration and freezing do not kill bacteria, but only slow their growth.

Cutting boards are a potential breeding ground for bacteria, and can be quite hazardous unless safety precautions are taken. Plastic cutting boards are less porous than wood and are far less likely to harbor bacteria. Washing and sanitizing cutting boards is highly recommended, especially after use with raw meat, poultry, or seafood. Hot water and soap followed by a rinse with dilute bleach (1 Tbsp/gal water), or a trip through the dishwasher, are effective methods for reducing the risk of illness due to contaminated cooking implements.

Proteins

Much edible animal material is made of proteins, including muscle, offal, and egg white. Almost all vegetable matter also includes proteins although generally in smaller amounts. They may also be a source of essential amino acids. When proteins are heated to near boiling point they become de-natured and change texture. In many cases this causes the structure of the material to become softer or more friable - meat becomes cooked. In some cases proteins can form more rigid structures such as the production of stable foams using egg whites. These are believed to be formed through the partial unravelling of the albumen protein molecules in response to beating with a whisk. The formation of a relatively rigid but flexible matrix from egg white provides an important component of much cake cookery and also underpins many desserts based on meringue.

Fat

Fats and oils come from both animal and plant sources. In cooking, fats provide tastes and textures but probably the most significant attribute is the wide range of cooking temperatures that can be provided by using a fat as the principal cooking medium rather than water. Commonly used fats and oils include butter, olive oil, sunflower oil, lard, beef fat - both dripping or tallow, rapeseed oil or Canola, and peanut oil. The inclusion of fats tend to add flavour to cooked food even though the taste of the oil on its own is often unpleasant. This fact has encouraged the popularity of high fat foods many of which are classified as junk food such as hamburgers or convenience fried cereal snacks. Fats can also be blended with cereal flours to make a range of doughs and pastries. Roux made with heated fat and flour can also absorb large volumes of water-based liquids, including milk and water itself to form smooth sauces. This relies on the properties of starches to create simpler mucilaginous saccharides during cooking, which causes the familiar thickening of sauces.

Oils are commonly emulsified with water-based fluids such as vinegar or lemon juice to make mayonnaises. In this the fatty content of egg yolk is used as the emulsification agent.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates used in cooking include a variety of sugars and starches including cereal flour, rice, arrowroot, and potato. Long chain sugars such as starch tend to break down into more simple sugars when cooked or made more acidic, such as with lemon juice or vinegar. Simple sugars can form syrups. If sugars are heated so that all water of crystallisation is driven off, then caramelisation starts with the sugar undergoing thermal decomposition with the formation of carbon and other breakdown products producing caramel.

Cooking techniques

Some major hot cooking techniques:

1. Baking
   1. Baking Blind
   2. Broiling
   3. FlashBake
2. Boiling
   1. Blanching
   2. Braising
   3. Coddling
   4. Double steaming
   5. Infusion
   6. Poaching
   7. Pressure cooking
   8. Simmering
   9. Steaming
   10. Steeping
   11. Stewing
   12. Vacuum flask cooking
3. Frying
   1. Deep frying
   2. Hot salt frying
   3. Hot sand frying
   4. Pan frying
   5. Pressure frying
   6. Sautéing
   7. Stir frying
4. Microwaving
5. Roasting
   1. Barbecuing
   2. Grilling
   3. Rotisserie
   4. Searing
6. Smoking

Other preparation techniques

Some cool techniques

1. Brining
2. Drying
3. Grinding (e.g. sesame seeds to produce tahini), chopping, slicing finely, grating, etc..
4. Julienning
5. Marinating
6. Mincing
7. Pickling
8. Salting
9. Seasoning
10. Sprouting
11. Sugaring

Science of cooking

The application of scientific knowledge to cooking and gastronomy has become known as molecular gastronomy. This is a subdiscipline of food science. Important contributions have been made by scientists, chefs and authors such as Herve This (chemist), Nicholas Kurti (physicist), Peter Barham (physicist), Harold McGee (author), Shirley Corriher (biochemist, author), Heston Blumenthal (chef), Ferran Adria (chef) and Pierre Gagnaire (chef)

See also

Template:Wikibooks Template:Portal Specific techniques and ingredients are often regional. See Cuisine for information about the many regional and ethnic food traditions. Please see food writing for some authors of books on cookery, food, and the history of food.

1. Cooking weights and measures (includes conversions and equivalencies common in cooking)
2. International food terms - useful when reading about food and recipes from different countries
3. Food and cooking hygiene
4. Dishwashing
5. Food preservation
6. Food writing
7. List of cookbooks The standard book for basic cooking, "learn how to cook", etc.
8. List of food preparation utensils including saucepans, frying pans, woks and many others.
9. Cuisine
10. Recipe, List of recipes
11. Nutrition
12. List of cocktails
13. Staple (cooking)
14. Culinary profession
15. Maillard reaction

External links

1. Culinary history timeline
2. The Reluctant Gourmet Home cooking techniques
3. Chefs.com Culinary resource portal
4. Comprehensive list of books about the Science of cooking
5. Cooking Techniques from all around the world
6. Cooking For Engineers a website devoted to teaching people how to cook through science and analytical thinking
7. Visual Step-by-Step Recipes a community of cooking enthusiasts who post cooking tutorials with step-by-step pictures
8. Casual Cooking a small group of people who love to share their recipes and experiences in cooking, they don't claim to be experts but they do claim to love food!
9. WholeKitchenShopping a popular website to buy discounted cooking supplies