Friday 7 October 2011

Outline of food preparation

Food preparation the act of preparing foodstuffs for eating, which generally requires the selection, measurement and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure to achieve a desired result. It includes a vast range of methods, tools, and combinations of ingredients to improve the flavour and digestibility of food. Not all food preparation involves cooking (heating) the food ingredients; there are chemical, biological, and mechanical methods too.




Essence of food preparation


Chef – a person who cooks professionally for other people. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who cooks for a living, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation.
Cooking – act of preparing food for eating. It encompasses a vast range of methods, tools and combinations of ingredients to improve the flavour or digestibility of food. It generally requires the selection, measurement and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure in an effort to achieve the desired result.
Cuisine – specific set of cooking traditions and practices, often associated with a specific culture. It is often named after the region or place where its underlining culture is present. A cuisine is primarily influenced by the ingredients that are available locally or through trade.






Food preparation techniques
Baking bread at the Roscheider Hof Open Air Museum


Cooking techniques


Baking


Baking – the technique of prolonged cooking of food by dry heat acting by convection, normally in an oven, but can also be done in hot ashes or on hot stones.
Baking Blind




Boiling


Boiling – the rapid vaporization of a liquid, which occurs when a liquid is heated to its boiling point, the temperature at which the vapor pressure of the liquid is equal to the pressure exerted on the liquid by the surrounding environmental pressure.
Blanching
Braising
Coddling
Double steaming
Infusion
Poaching
Pressure cooking
Simmering
Steaming
Steeping
Stewing
Vacuum flask cooking




Broiling


Cooking with charcoal on a barbecue grill
Grilling – a form of cooking that involves dry heat applied to the surface of food, commonly from above or below.




Frying


Frying – cooking food in oil or another fat, a technique that originated in ancient Egypt around 2500 BC.
Deep frying
Hot salt frying
Hot sand frying
Pan frying
Pressure frying
Sautéing
Stir frying




Microwaving
Microwave oven – type of oven that heats foods quickly and efficiently using microwaves, but, unlike conventional ovens, does not brown or bake food. This makes them unsuitable for cooking certain foods, or to achieve certain culinary effects. Additional kinds of heat sources can be added to microwave packaging, or into combination microwave ovens, to add these additional effects.




Roasting


Roasting, medieval illuminated manuscript (Tacuina sanitatis casanatensis XIV century)


KitchenAid Stand Mixer in action


Roasting – cooking method that uses dry heat, whether an open flame, oven, or other heat source. Roasting usually causes caramelization or Maillard browning of the surface of the food, which is considered by some as a flavor enhancement.
Barbecuing – method of cooking meat, poultry and occasionally fish with the heat and hot smoke of a fire, smoking wood, or hot coals of charcoal.
Grilling – applying dry heat to the surface of food, by cooking it on a grill, a grill pan, or griddle.
Rotisserie – meat is skewered on a spit - a long solid rod used to hold food while it is being cooked over a fire in a fireplace or over a campfire, or while being roasted in an oven.
Searing – technique used in grilling, baking, braising, roasting, sautéing, etc., in which the surface of the food (usually meat, poultry or fish) is cooked at high temperature so a caramelized crust forms.




Smoking


Smoking – the process of flavoring, cooking, or preserving food by exposing it to the smoke from burning or smoldering plant materials, most often wood.



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