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Revision as of 00:13, 10 April 2004
Cooking is the act of preparing food for consumption. The term is often used in the narrower sense of applying heat to chemically transform a food to change its flavor, texture, appearance, or nutritional properties. When humans mastered fire thousands of years ago, cooking became a widespread cultural feature. Cooking often is the method used to improve the flavour of foods using combinations of ingredients to provide the most pleasing taste.
Effects of cooking
Heating can disinfect the food (depending on temperature, cooking time, and technique used), in addition to softening the food by turning collagen into gelatin. 45 to 140°F (or the roughly equivalent range 5 to 60°C) is the "danger zone" in which many food spoilage bacteria thrive, and which must be avoided for safe handling of meat, poultry and dairy products. Refrigeration and freezing do not kill bacteria, but slow their growth.
Living foods diet adherents advise against the use of heat in the preparation of food: they believe that temperatures above 106°F (41°C) destroy essential enzymes in the food, which they believe are necessary for proper digestion and nutrition.
Cooking techniques
Some major hot cooking techniques:
- Microwaving (colloquially known as "nuking")
Other (cool) preparation techniques
- Brining
- Drying
- Grinding (e.g. sesame seeds to produce tahini), chopping, slicing finely, grating, etc..
- Marinating
- Pickling
- Seasoning
- Sprouting
See also
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.
- Cooking weights and measures (includes conversions and equivalencies common in cooking)
- Food and cooking hygiene
- Food preservation
- List of cookbooks
- List of food preparation utensils including saucepans, frying pans, woks and many others.
For recipes, see the list of recipes and the list of cocktails. Also see staple (cooking).