Common Cooking Methods

The term cooking is the art of preparing food with the aid of heat for eating. It encompasses a vast range of methods, tools and combinations of ingredients to improve the flavor or digestibility of food.

Cooking requires applying heat to a food, which usually, though not always, chemically transforms it, thus changing its flavor, texture, appearance and nutritional properties.

My focus today will be to share with you some (but certainly not all) of the various “cooking” methods used around the world today.

BAKING: the technique of cooking food in an oven by dry heat applied evenly throughout the oven or only from the bottom element.

1. Blind-baking…sometimes called “pre-baking” which refers to the process of baking a piecrust or other pastry without the filling.

2. Broiling…is a process of cooking food with high heat applied directly to the food, most commonly from above.

BOILING: the technique of cooking food in boiling water or other water-based liquid such as stock or milk. Simmering is gentle boiling while in poaching; the liquid moves but scarcely bubbles.

1. Blanching…describes a process of food preparation wherein the food substance, usually a vegetable or fruit, is plunged into boiling water, removed after a brief, timed interval and finally plunged into iced water or placed under cold running water (shocked) to halt the cooking process.

2. Braising…is cooking with “moist heat,” typically in a covered pot with a small amount of liquid, which results in a particular flavor. Braising relies on heat, time, and moisture to successfully break down tough connective tissue and collagens in meat. It is an ideal way to cook tougher meat.

3. Coddling…to heat in water just below the boiling point. The eggs added to a Caesar salad should ideally be coddled. However, coddled eggs are not fully cooked and still present salmonella risk.

4. Poaching…is the process of gently simmering food in liquid, generally water, stock or wine.

5. Pressure Cooking…is a method of cooking in a sealed vessel that does not permit air or liquids to escape below a preset pressure.

6. Simmering…is a technique in which foods are cooked in hot liquids kept at or just barely below the boiling point of water. To keep a pot simmering, one brings it to a boil and then adjusts the heat downward until just before the formation of steam bubbles stops completely.

7. Steaming…is a method of cooking using steam. It is a preferred method for health conscious individuals because no cooking oil is needed, thus resulting in lower fat content. Steaming also results in a more nutritious food than boiling because fewer nutrients are destroyed or leached away into the water. Steaming works by first boiling water, causing it to evaporate into steam, the steam then carries heat to the food, thus cooking the food without placing it in water.

8. Steeping…usually means to either soak in liquid until saturated with a soluble ingredient as in a teabag or soaking to remove an ingredient such as salt from a smoked ham.

9. Stewing…is to prepare vegetables or meat by simmering in liquid. Unlike braising, the ingredients are generally diced. A stew may be either simmered in a pot on the stovetop or cooked in a covered casserole in the oven. Stewing is suitable for the least tender cuts of meat that become tender and juicy with the slow moist heat method. This makes it popular in low-cost cooking. Cuts having a certain amount of marbling and gelatinous connective tissue give moist, juicy stews, while lean meat may easily become dry.

FRYING: the technique of cooking food in fat or oil.

1. Deep Frying…is a cooking method whereby food is submerged in hot oil or fat. Because of the high temperature involved and the high heat transfer rate, it is extremely fast. Although submersion in liquid oil is involved, no water is used and so deep-frying is best classified as a dry cooking method.

2. Hot Salt Frying…is a technique used by street side food vendors in China. Coarse sea salt is placed in a large wok and heated to high temperatures. Dry food items, such as eggs in shell, are buried in the hot salt and occasionally turned with a spatula.

3. Hot Sand Frying…is a common technique for street side food vendors in China and India to cook chestnuts and peanuts. A large wok is filled with black sand and heated to high temperatures. Nuts are buried in the hot sand and occasionally turned with a spatula, and then the sand and nuts are separated through a wire-mesh screen.

4. Pan Frying…is a form of frying characterized by the use of less cooking oil than deep frying, with enough oil to, at most, cover the food to be cooked only half way. As a form of frying, pan-frying relies on oil as the heat transfer medium and on correct temperature to retain moisture in the food. Because of the partial coverage, the food must be flipped at least once to cook both sides.

5. Pressure Frying…is mostly done in industrial kitchens with specialized equipment made for pressure frying. It is NOT safe in a household pressure cooker.

6. Sautéing…is a method of cooking food using a small amount of fat in a shallow pan over relatively high heat. Sauter means “to jump” in French, and the food being sautéed is kept moving, not unlike the stir-fry technique using a wok. Food that is sautéed is usually cooked for a relatively short period of time over high heat in order to brown the food, while preserving its color, moisture and flavor. This is very common with more tender cuts of meat, e.g. tenderloin and filet mignon. Sautéing differs from searing in that the sautéed food is thoroughly cooked in the process.

7. Stir Frying…is an English umbrella term used to describe two fast Chinese cooking techniques: chăo and bào. The two techniques differ in their speed of execution, the amounts of heat used, and the amount of tossing done to cook the food in the wok.

8. Microwaving…uses microwave radiation primarily to cook or heat food.

ROASTING: is a cooking method that utilizes dry heat, whether an open flame, oven or other heat source. Roasting usually causes carmelization of the surface of the food, which is considered a flavor enhancement. Meats and most root and bulb vegetables an be roasted. Any piece of meat, especially red meat, that has been cooked in this fashion is called a roast. Vegetables and poultry prepared in this way are referred to as roasted. Some foods such as coffee and chocolate are always roasted.

1. Barbecuing…is a method for cooking food, often meat, with the heat and hot gases of a fire, smoking wood, or hot coals of charcoal. Barbecue is usually cooked in an outdoor environment.

2. Grilling…in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries, grilling refers to cooking food directly under a source of direct, dry heat; however there exists a device known as a verticle griller, which cooks meat on both sides. In the USA this would be referred to as broiling. On the other hand, in the United States, grilling refers to cooking food directly over a source of direct, dry heat.

3. Rotisserie…is a style of roasting where meat is skewered on a spit and revolves over a flame or other heat source. The rotation cooks the meat evenly in its own juices and allows easy access for continuous basting if desired.

4. Searing…is a technique used in grilling, roasting, braising, sauteing, etc. that cooks the surface of the food (usually meat, poultry or fish) at a high temperature so that a carmelized crust forms. A similar technique, browning, is typically used to sear or brown all sides of a particular piece of meat, poultry, fish, etc. before finishing it in the oven. It is commonly believed that this acts to lock in the moisture or “seal in the juices” of the food. However, it has been scientifically shown that searing results in a greater net loss of moisture versus cooking to the same internal temperature without first searing.

SMOKING: is the process of flavoring, cooking, or preserving food by exposing it to the smoke from burning or smoldering plant materials, most often wood. Meats and fish are the most common smoked foods, though cheeses, vegetables and ingredients used to make beverages such as Scotch whiskey and lapsang souchong tea are also smoked.

Always Enjoy!