- Cooking has always been a part of our life weather centuries back or in modern days. As the passage of time many types of cooking methods has been used. Food has always been cooked by the application of heat, which may be either moist or dry. While it is true that the art of cooking includes the preparation of material that is served or eaten raw, cooking itself is impossible without heat; indeed, the part of cooking that requires the most skill and experience is that in which heat is involved. Without doubt, the first step in gaining a mastery of cookery is to become familiar with the different methods and processes, the ways in which they are applied.
- There are numerous ways of cooking food such as boiling, stewing, steaming, dry steaming; brazing, fricasseeing, roasting, baking, broiling, pan broiling, frying, and sautéing .These methods further can be divided into three groups such as cooking with dry heat, moist heat and hot fat. Each of these methods uses heat to affect foods in a different way. All cooking techniques, from grilling to steaming, can be grouped under one of these three methods. Understanding and mastering the different types of cooking methods is essential to becoming a great chef.
- Dry heat cooking works without the presence of any moisture, broth, or water. Instead, it relies on the circulation of hot air or contact with fat to transfer heat to food. Temperatures of 300 degrees or hotter are used to create browning, a reaction where the amino acids and sugars in food turn brown and create a distinct aroma and flavor. Examples of cooking with dry heating are Broiling, Grilling, Baking, Roasting, and Sautéing. All these methods has almost same way of preparing food my transferring extremely high heat on food which cause browning very quickly which gives it a crispy texture and seal all the juices and flavors in it , food usually gets heat from a radiant located above or lower. Browning can occur very quickly with this method, it is less time consuming and gives much accurate results Baking and roasting both use indirect heat to surround foods and cook from all sides. And baking is used when making bread, rolls, and cakes. Technically, these cooking methods are the same, but baking is usually performed at lower temperatures than roasting. Whereas, Sautéing is performed over hot, shallow pan and uses a small amount of fat to coat food for even browning. Chefs usually sauté different cuts of meats and vegetables to use as flavorful base for other dishes.
- However, moist heat cooking relies on the presence of liquid or steam to cook foods. This method can be used to make healthy dishes without any added fat or oil. It’s also a great way to tenderize the tough fibers in certain cuts of meat and fibrous vegetables and legumes; moist heat cooking softens the food until it reaches the perfect tenderness. Examples include poaching, simmering, etc. It’s a delicate way of cooking which also seals all the flavors without need of any fat. In modern days chef usually use combination of these methods to produce something more creative
- As the demand in market is increasing here is need of institute those give people awareness about the field of culinary. There are many institutes those are educating people about these modern cooking methods such as in Pakistan the college of tourism and hotel management COTHM is playing a big role. COTHM has many branches all over Pakistan those are applying these methods into action and giving people a platform to polish their skills on international level and giving them push towards great career ahead of them.Same in this way many school and colleges are giving different digrees related to the art of cooking which is opening the new door for our youth to learn and work under some of the best chefs. These institute not only allow them to learn cooking but also groom them for their better future.
Contributed by: Khansa Sarwar