Methods of Cooking

For the beginning cook, the terminology used in the preparation of food can seem daunting. While one may know the basic terms, such as boiling, or frying, there are other cooking methods that may not be so well known for the novice. Here is a breakdown of some of the main preparation methods you will use as a cook, and that will be mentioned in the recipes and articles here on this blog. Some of this is a bit scientific, but it can be interesting to learn about the different methods in detail, and may help your understanding of cooking.

Cookery is the art of preparing food for the table by dressing, or by the application of heat in some manner. A proper source of heat having been secured, the next step is to apply it to the food in some manner. The principal methods commonly employed are roasting, broiling, baking, boiling, stewing, simmering, steaming, and frying.

Roasting is cooking food in its own juices before an open fire.  Broiling, or grilling, is cooking by radiant heat. This method is best adapted to thin pieces of food with a considerable amount of surface. Larger and more compact foods should be roasted or baked. Roasting and broiling are allied in principle. In both, the work is chiefly done by the radiation of heat directly upon the surface of the food, although some heat is communicated by the hot air surrounding the food. The intense heat applied to the food soon sears its outer surfaces, and thus prevents the escape of its juices. Care should be taken to frequently turn the food so that the entire surface can be evenly heated, while the interior of the mass is cooked in its own juices.

Baking is the cooking of food by dry heat in a closed oven. Only foods containing a considerable degree of moisture are adapted for cooking by this method. The hot, dry air which fills the oven absorbs a lot of moisture, and will take from every moist substance to which it has access a quantity of water proportionate to its degree of heat. Foods containing but a small amount of moisture, unless protected in some manner from the action of the heated air, or in some way supplied with moisture during the cooking process, will come from the oven dry, hard, and unpalatable.

Image via WikipediaBoiling is the cooking of food in a boiling liquid. Water is the usual medium employed for this purpose. When water is heated, as its temperature is increased, minute bubbles of air which have been dissolved by it are given off. As the temperature rises, bubbles of steam will begin to form at the bottom of the vessel, and expand as they rise. Water boils when the bubbles thus rise to the surface, and steam is thrown off.

The mechanical action of the water is increased by rapid bubbling, but not the heat; and contrary to what you might think, to boil anything violently does not expedite the cooking process, save that by the mechanical action of the water the food is broken into smaller pieces, which are for this reason more readily softened. But violent boiling occasions an enormous waste of fuel, and by driving away in the steam some of the volatile and savory elements of the food, renders it sometimes less palatable and flavorful, so it is a good ideal not to boil most items at a hard boil.

The liquids mostly employed in the cooking of foods are water and milk. Water is best suited for the cooking of most foods, but for such foods as rice, macaroni, and farina, milk, or at least part milk, is preferable, as it adds to their nutritive value. In using milk for cooking purposes, it should be remembered that being more dense than water, when heated, less steam escapes, and consequently it boils sooner than does water. Then, too, milk being more dense, when it is used alone for cooking, a little larger quantity of fluid will be required than when water is used. (Milk can also curdle when boiled, especially if it is not fresh, or if there is acid present, so use caution when boiling, or add milk towards the end of the cooking process.)

Steaming, as its name implies, is the cooking of food by the use of steam. There are several ways of steaming, the most common of which is by placing the food in a perforated dish over a vessel of boiling water. For foods not needing the solvent powers of water, or which already contain a large amount of moisture, this method is preferable to boiling. Many foods can also retain more nutrients when steamed, as not quite as much of them are lost in the water. Another form of cooking, which is usually termed steaming, is that of placing the food, with or without water, as needed, in a closed vessel which is placed inside another vessel containing boiling water. Such an apparatus is termed a double boiler. Food cooked in its own juices in a covered dish in a hot oven, is sometimes spoken of as being steamed or smothered.

Image via Wikipedia
Stewing is the prolonged cooking of food in a small quantity of liquid, the temperature of which is just below the boiling point. Stewing should not be confounded with simmering, which is slow, steady boiling. The proper temperature for stewing is most easily secured by the use of the double boiler. The water in the outer vessel boils, while that in the inner vessel does not, being kept a little below the temperature of the water from which its heat is obtained, by the constant evaporation at a temperature a little below the boiling point.

Frying, which is the cooking of food in hot fat, is a method not typically recommended for the health-minded. Unlike most other food elements, fat is rendered less digestible by cooking, and also less healthful. Doubtless it is for this reason that nature has provided those foods which require the most prolonged cooking to fit them for use with only a small proportion of fat, and it would seem to indicate that any food to be subjected to a high degree of heat should not be cooked with a lot of fats.