Cooking

Cooking is the act of using heat to prepare food for eating. The term can also refer to food preparation methods that do not involve heat.

Cooking warms food, and also transforms it at a chemical level. This chemical transformation of flavor, texture, and appearance is one of the great cultural arts, and can be achieved by applying heat by a variety of methods, and also by straight chemical reactions (ceviche, for example, is created by “cooking” fish in the acids found in citrus juice.) Cooking affects both the nutritional properties and safety of food; improperly prepared foods may lose important nutrients or may be riddled with dangerous bacteria. Cooking can be considered a science, as there are basic techniques that will create standard results, or an art, as many chefs—both professional and amateur—express their creativity through this medium. Also, as techniques and ingredients vary from location to location, cooking is also a marker that echoes each individual society’s history, culture, and ethnicity.

The earliest type of cooking was roasting, directly in a fire. There is archaeological evidence of roasted foodstuffs, both animal and vegetable, in human (Homo erectus) campsites dating from the first known use of fire some 800,000 years ago. Many important cookery techniques require boiling of water in a fire-proof pot, a practice that dates back at least since the 10th millennium BC with the introduction of pottery.

Effects of cooking

Food safety

Heat can kill or inactivate organisms including bacteria and viruses. Whether or not heating actually does this depends on just how high the temperature of the food becomes, and how long it is heated. Techniques also come into play.

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.

Food groups and categories

Proteins

Much edible animal material is made of proteins, including muscle, offal, and egg white. Nutritionally, these animal products offer all the essential amino acids needed in our diet. Almost all vegetable matter also includes proteins (although generally in smaller amounts). Vegetables are also a source of essential amino acids, but generally must be eaten in combination to provide the full range 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 unraveling 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 crystallization is driven off, then caramelization starts with the sugar undergoing thermal decomposition with the formation of carbon and other breakdown products producing caramel.

Cooking techniques

For a comprehensive list of cooking techniques click here.

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). Food science has also been brought to the mainstream by popular television chef Alton Brown in his show Good Eats, in which Brown discusses the scientific reasons why different techniques or ingredients beget various results (such as why the molecules in cooking oil create a softer chewier cookie while using butter in the same recipe will create a crisper, firmer one.)