The culinary triangle is a concept described by French anthropologist

Claude Lévi-Strauss Claude Lévi-Strauss ( ; ; 28 November 1908 – 30 October 2009) was a Belgian-born French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair o ...

involving three types of

cooking Cooking, also known as cookery or professionally as the culinary arts, is the art, science and craft of using heat to make food more palatable, digestible, nutritious, or Food safety, safe. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely, from ...

boiling Boiling or ebullition is the rapid phase transition from liquid to gas or vapor, vapour; the reverse of boiling is condensation. Boiling occurs when a liquid is heated to its boiling point, so that the vapour pressure of the liquid is equal to ...

roasting Roasting is a cooking method that uses dry heat where hot air covers the food, cooking it evenly on all sides with temperatures of at least from an open flame, oven, or other heat source. Roasting can enhance the flavor through caramelizat ...

, and

smoking Smoking is a practice in which a substance is combusted, and the resulting smoke is typically inhaled to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream of a person. Most commonly, the substance used is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant, whi ...

, usually done to

meat Meat is animal Tissue (biology), tissue, often muscle, that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted and farmed other animals for meat since prehistory. The Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of vertebrates, including chickens, sheep, ...

. Boiling meat is seen to be a cultural form of cooking because it uses a receptacle to hold

water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

, therefore it is not completely natural. In most cultures, this form of cooking is usually conducted by women and is served domestically to small closed groups, such as families. Roasting meat is a less refined way of cooking because it does not use a receptacle. It is done by directly exposing the meat to the

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a fuel in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. Flames, the most visible portion of the fire, are produced in the combustion re ...

. The meat is most commonly offered to guests and this type of preparation is associated with men in many cultures. As opposed to boiling, roasted meat can lose some parts during cooking, thus it is also associated with destruction and loss. Smoking meat is also a natural way of cooking. It is also done without a receptacle and in the same way as roasting. It is a slower method of roasting, however, which makes it somewhat like boiling. According to Claude Lévi-Strauss, other cooking methods could be situated within this triangle. For example,

grilling Grilling is a form of cooking that involves heat applied to the surface of food, commonly from above, below or from the side. Grilling usually involves a significant amount of direct, radiant heat, and tends to be used for cooking meat and v ...

meat, by nature of the meat being situated "with lesser distance ..to fire", could be situated "at the apex of the recipe triangle" (above the roasted), while

steamed Steaming is a method of cooking using steam. This is often done with a food steamer, a kitchen appliance made specifically to cook food with steam, but food can also be steamed in a wok. In the American Southwest, steam pits used for cooking ha ...

food, located further from the water than boiled, would be placed "halfway between the boiled and the smoked."Lévi-Strauss, "The culinary triangle", p. 43 (= p. 34 in first edition).

Notes

References

* Originally published as: **

External links

Claude Lévi-Strauss, "The Culinary Triangle", in ''Food and Culture: A Reader'' (2nd ed.)
Available from Google Books.
Cooking Vocabularies and the Culinary Triangle of Lévi-Strauss, by Adrienne Lehrer Anthropological Linguistics © 1972 Anthropological Linguistics

Article discussing the Culinary Triangle (Claude Levi-Strauss: Oysters, Smoked Salmon, and Stilton Cheese) by Edmund Leach

Le triangle culinaire sur ''Palimpsestes''

Le triangle culinaire (1965) sur ''brepolson''

''Lévi-Strauss et la gastronomie, patrimoines mythiques de l’humanité''

Yvonne Verdier, ''Pour une ethnologie culinaire''

Jacques Dournes, ''Modèle structurale et réalité ethnographique''

Philippe Richard, ''À propos de l'origine des manières de table de Claude Lévi-Strauss''
{{Cooking techniques Cooking techniques