Cooking Techniques

Heat can be transferred to food in 3 ways… #1) Conduction is the transfer of heat

from something hot to something that is cooler.

The larger the food item, the longer it will take to cook.

Heat can be transferred to food in 3 ways…

#2) Convection the spread of heat by a flow of hot air, steam or liquid

Heat can be transferred to food in 3 ways… #3) Radiation is the transfer of heat

through high energy waves (microwaves).

These microwaves cause the water molecules of a food item to vibrate which causes heat.

There can be many different ways to cook food. Cooking techniques can affect a food’s: Nutritive value (quantity of nutrients) Texture (how it ‘feels’ on your tongue) Colour Aroma (how it smells) Flavour (how it tastes) Appearance (how it looks)

To cook an egg, grill a steak, poach fish, or stew tomatoes you use very different cooking techniques.

Although each technique involves heating food, they all use a different process to make heat transfer possible.

There are two cooking techniques

Moist cooking

Dry cooking

First we’ll take a closer look at moist cooking…

Moist Cooking…

All moist heat cooking methods involve water based liquids as a means of heat transfer.

A few examples of moist heat cooking methods are: Boil (boiled pasta) Simmer (simmer stew) Poach (poach fish) Steam (steamed vegetables) Braise (braised bunny wabbit)

And now….dry cooking

Dry Cooking…

Dry heat cooking methods transfer heat without use of water or steam.

They may rely on hot air, hot fat, radiation, or hot metal.

A few examples of dry heat techniques are: Bake Roast BBQ Broil Grill Sear Fry

List 4 types of foods that you would

Bake…? Broil…? Sear…?

What kind of equipment is required for the cooking methods above?

Other common dry cooking methods… Sautéing is a quick, dry cooking technique

that uses a small amount of fat or oil in a pan (literally means to jump)

Stir-frying similar to above…it’s important to constantly “stir” the food as it cooks.

Blanching (moist cooking)

A quick way to change the flavour and keep the colour in foods.

#1 Completely submerge the food in a boiling liquid and cook it briefly.

#2 Remove food from liquid and plunge it into ice water. This is known as “shocking”.

A blanched food item is only partially cooked, so a second stage of cooking is needed to complete the cooking process.

For example, you might first blanch green beans and then saute them in butter and herbs.

Your server brings you a plate with a tough, grayish-brown piece of meat and limp, colourless vegetables. Explain what went wrong during cooking and why.

In your kitchen lab teams, compose 2 meals that includes three different foods that are prepared with different dry cooking techniques. Explain how each item was prepared.

In your kitchen lab teams, compose 2 meals that includes three different foods that are prepared with different moist cooking techniques. Explain how each item was prepared.