cooking

Cooking, cookery, or culinary arts is the art, science, and craft of using

heat

to prepare food for consumption. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely, from grilling food over an open

fire

to using

electric stove

s, to

baking

in various types of

oven

s, reflecting local conditions.

Types of cooking also depend on the skill levels and training of the cooks. Cooking is done both by people in their own dwellings and by professional cooks and

chef

s in

restaurant

s and other food establishments.

Preparing food with heat or fire is an activity unique to

human

s. It may have started around 2 million years ago, though archaeological evidence for the same does not predate more than 1 million years.

The expansion of

agriculture

,

commerce

,

trade

, and

transport

ation between

civilization

s in different regions offered cooks many new ingredients. New inventions and technologies, such as the invention of

pottery

for holding and boiling of

water

, expanded cooking techniques. Some modern cooks apply advanced scientific techniques to food preparation to further enhance the

flavor

of the dish served.

History

Phylogenetic analysis

suggests that human ancestors may have invented cooking as far back as 1.8 million to 2.3 million years ago. Re-analysis of burnt bone fragments and plant ashes from the Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa has provided evidence supporting control of fire by early humans by 1 million years ago. There is evidence that ''

Homo erectus

'' were cooking their food as early as 500,000 years ago. Evidence for the controlled use of fire by ''Homo erectus'' beginning some 400,000 years ago has wide scholarly support. Archaeological evidence from 300,000 years ago, in the form of ancient hearths, earth ovens, burnt animal bones, and

flint

, are found across Europe and the Middle East.

Anthropologist

s think that widespread cooking fires began about 250,000 years ago when

hearth

s first appeared.

Recently, the earliest hearths have been reported to be at least 790,000 years old.

Communication between the Old World and the New World in the Columbian Exchange influenced the history of cooking. The movement of foods across the Atlantic from the New World, such as

potato

es,

tomato

es,

maize

,

bean

s,

bell pepper

,

chili pepper

,

vanilla

,

pumpkin

,

cassava

,

avocado

,

peanut

,

pecan

,

cashew

,

pineapple

,

blueberry

,

sunflower

,

chocolate

,

gourd

s, and

squash

, had a profound effect on Old World cooking. The movement of foods across the Atlantic from the Old World, such as

cattle

,

sheep

,

pig

s,

wheat

, oats,

barley

,

rice

,

apple

s,

pear

s,

pea

s,

chickpea

s, green beans,

mustard

, and

carrot

s, similarly changed New World cooking.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, food was a classic marker of identity in Europe. In the nineteenth-century "Age of Nationalism" cuisine became a defining symbol of national identity.

The Industrial Revolution brought mass-production, mass-marketing, and standardization of food. Factories processed, preserved, canned, and packaged a wide variety of foods, and processed cereals quickly became a defining feature of the American breakfast. In the 1920s, freezing methods,

cafeteria

s, and fast food restaurants emerged.

Ingredients

Most ingredients in cooking are derived from

living organisms

. Vegetables, fruits, grains and nuts as well as herbs and spices come from plants, while meat, eggs, and dairy products come from animals. Mushrooms and the yeast used in baking are kinds of

fungi

. Cooks also use

water

and

mineral

s such as

salt

. Cooks can also use

wine

or spirits.

Naturally occurring ingredients contain various amounts of molecules called ''proteins'', ''carbohydrates'' and ''

fat

s''. They also contain water and minerals. Cooking involves a manipulation of the chemical properties of these molecules.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates include the common sugar,

sucrose

(table sugar), a disaccharide, and such simple sugars as

glucose

(made by enzymatic splitting of sucrose) and

fructose

(from fruit), and starches from sources such as cereal flour, rice, arrowroot and potato.

The interaction of heat and carbohydrate is complex. Long-chain sugars such as starch tend to break down into more digestible simpler sugars. If the sugars are heated so that all water of crystallisation is driven off, caramelization starts, with the sugar undergoing thermal decomposition with the formation of

carbon

, and other breakdown products producing caramel. Similarly, the heating of sugars and proteins causes the Maillard reaction, a basic flavor-enhancing technique.

An

emulsion

of starch with fat or water can, when gently heated, provide thickening to the dish being cooked. In European cooking, a mixture of butter and flour called a

roux

is used to thicken liquids to make stews or sauces. In Asian cooking, a similar effect is obtained from a mixture of rice or corn starch and water. These techniques rely on the properties of starches to create simpler mucilaginous saccharides during cooking, which causes the familiar thickening of

sauce

s. This thickening will break down, however, under additional heat.

Fats

Types of fat include vegetable oils, animal products such as butter and lard, as well as fats from grains, including

maize

and

flax

oils. Fats are used in a number of ways in cooking and baking. To prepare

stir fries

,

grilled cheese

or

pancake

s, the pan or griddle is often coated with fat or oil. Fats are also used as an ingredient in baked goods such as cookies, cakes and pies. Fats can reach temperatures higher than the boiling point of water, and are often used to conduct high heat to other ingredients, such as in frying, deep frying or sautéing. Fats are used to add flavor to food (e.g., butter or bacon fat), prevent food from sticking to pans and create a desirable texture.

Proteins

Edible animal material, including

muscle

,

offal

, milk, eggs and egg whites, contains substantial amounts of protein. Almost all vegetable matter (in particular

legume

s and

seed

s) also includes proteins, although generally in smaller amounts. Mushrooms have high protein content. Any of these may be sources of essential amino acids. When

protein

s are heated they become denatured (unfolded) and change texture. In many cases, this causes the structure of the material to become softer or more friable – meat becomes ''cooked'' and is more friable and less flexible. In some cases, proteins can form more rigid structures, such as the coagulation of albumen in egg whites. The formation of a relatively rigid but flexible matrix from egg white provides an important component in baking cakes, and also underpins many desserts based on meringue.

Water

Cooking often involves water and water-based liquids. These can be added in order to immerse the substances being cooked (this is typically done with water, stock or wine). Alternatively, the foods themselves can release water. A favorite method of adding flavor to dishes is to save the liquid for use in other recipes. Liquids are so important to cooking that the name of the cooking method used is often based on how the liquid is combined with the food, as in

steaming

,

simmering

, boiling, braising and blanching. Heating liquid in an open container results in rapidly increased

evaporation

, which

concentrate

s the remaining

flavor

and ingredients – this is a critical component of both stewing and sauce making.

Vitamins and minerals

Vitamins and minerals are required for normal

metabolism

but which the body cannot manufacture itself and which must therefore come from external sources. Vitamins come from several sources including fresh fruit and vegetables (

Vitamin C

), carrots, liver (

Vitamin A

), cereal bran, bread, liver (B vitamins), fish liver oil (Vitamin D) and fresh green vegetables (Vitamin K). Many minerals are also essential in small quantities including iron,

calcium

,

magnesium

, sodium chloride and

sulfur

; and in very small quantities copper,

zinc

and

selenium

. The micronutrients, minerals, and vitamins in fruit and vegetables may be destroyed or eluted by cooking. Vitamin C is especially prone to oxidation during cooking and may be completely destroyed by protracted cooking. The bioavailability of some vitamins such as

thiamin

, vitamin B6,

niacin

, folate, and carotenoids are increased with cooking by being freed from the food microstructure. Blanching or steaming vegetables is a way of minimizing vitamin and mineral loss in cooking.

Methods

There are very many methods of cooking, most of which have been known since antiquity. These include baking, roasting, frying, grilling, barbecuing, smoking, boiling, steaming and braising. A more recent innovation is microwaving. Various methods use differing levels of heat and moisture and vary in cooking time. The method chosen greatly affects the end result because some foods are more appropriate to some methods than others. Some major hot cooking techniques include:

;Roasting
:Roasting – Barbecuing –

Grilling

/ Broiling – Rotisserie – Searing
;Baking
:Baking – Blind Baking, Baking Blind – Flashbaking
;Boiling
:Boiling in cooking, Boiling – Blanching (cooking), Blanching – Braising – Coddling – Double steaming – Infusion – Poaching (cooking), Poaching – Pressure cooking – Simmering – Smothering (food), Smothering – Steaming – Steeping – Stewing – Stone boiling – Vacuum flask cooking
;Frying
:Frying, Fry – Air fryer, Air frying — Deep frying – Gentle frying - Hot salt frying – Hot sand frying – Pan frying – Pressure frying – Sautéing – Shallow frying – Stir frying — Vacuum fryer, Vacuum frying
;Steaming
:Steaming works by boiling water continuously, causing it to vaporise into steam; the steam then carries heat to the nearby food, thus cooking the food. By many it is considered a healthy form of cooking, holding nutrients within the vegetable or meat being cooked.
: En papillote – The food is put into a pouch and then baked, allowing its own moisture to steam the food.
;Smoking
:Smoking (cooking), Smoking is the process of flavoring, cooking, or preserving food by exposing it to smoke from burning or smoldering material, most often wood.

Health and safety

Security while cooking

A lot of hazards may happen while cooking such as

* Unseen slippery surfaces (such as from oil stains or water droplets)
* Cuts (1 percent of injuries in United States related to knives, ended in hospital admissions. In overall 400 000 injuries from knives are recorded in the US
* Burns

To prevent those injuries there are protections such as cooking clothing, anti-slip shoes and more.

Food safety

Cooking can prevent many foodborne illnesses that would otherwise occur if the food is eaten raw. When heat is used in the preparation of food, it can kill or inactivate harmful organisms, such as bacteria and viruses, as well as various parasites such as tapeworms and ''Toxoplasma gondii''. Food poisoning and other illness from uncooked or poorly prepared food may be caused by bacteria such as Escherichia coli O157:H7, pathogenic strains of ''Escherichia coli'', ''Salmonella typhimurium'' and ''Campylobacter'', viruses such as noroviruses, and protozoa such as ''Entamoeba histolytica''. Bacteria, viruses and parasites may be introduced through salad, meat that is uncooked or done Doneness, rare, and unboiled water.

The Sterilization (microbiology), sterilizing effect of cooking depends on temperature, cooking time, and technique used. Some food spoilage bacteria such as ''Clostridium botulinum'' or ''Bacillus cereus'' can form spores that survive boiling, which then germinate and regrow after the food has cooled. This makes it unsafe to reheat cooked food more than once.

Cooking increases the digestibility of many foods which are inedible or poisonous when raw. For example, raw cereal grains are hard to digest, while kidney beans are toxic when raw or improperly cooked due to the presence of phytohaemagglutinin, which is inactivated by cooking for at least ten minutes at .

Food safety depends on the safe preparation, handling, and storage of food. Food spoilage bacteria proliferate in the "Danger zone (food safety), Danger zone" temperature range from , food therefore should not be stored in this temperature range. Hand washing, Washing of hands and surfaces, especially when handling different meats, and keeping raw food separate from cooked food to avoid cross-contamination, are good practices in food preparation. Foods prepared on plastic cutting boards may be less likely to harbor bacteria than wooden ones. Washing and Disinfection, disinfecting cutting boards, especially after use with raw meat, poultry, or seafood, reduces the risk of contamination.

Effects on nutritional content of food

Proponents of raw foodism argue that cooking food increases the risk of some of the detrimental effects on food or health. They point out that during cooking of vegetables and fruit containing vitamin C, the vitamin elutes into the cooking water and becomes degraded through oxidation. Peeling vegetables can also substantially reduce the vitamin C content, especially in the case of potatoes where most vitamin C is in the skin. However, research has shown that in the specific case of carotenoids a greater proportion is absorbed from cooked vegetables than from raw vegetables.

German research in 2003 showed significant benefits in reducing breast cancer risk when large amounts of raw vegetable matter are included in the diet. The authors attribute some of this effect to heat-labile phytonutrients. Sulforaphane, a glucosinolate breakdown product, which may be found in vegetables such as broccoli, has been shown to be protective against prostate cancer, however, much of it is destroyed when the vegetable is boiled.

The USDA has studied retention data for 16 vitamins, 8 minerals, and alcohol for approximately 290 foods for various cooking methods.

Carcinogens

In a human epidemiological analysis by Richard Doll and Richard Peto in 1981, diet was estimated to cause a large percentage of cancers. Studies suggest that around 32% of cancer deaths may be avoidable by changes to the diet. Some of these cancers may be caused by carcinogens in food generated during the cooking process, although it is often difficult to identify the specific components in diet that serve to increase cancer risk. Many foods, such as beefsteak and broccoli, contain low concentrations of both carcinogens and anticarcinogens.

Several studies published since 1990 indicate that cooking meat at high temperature creates heterocyclic amines (HCAs), which are thought to increase cancer risk in humans. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute found that human subjects who ate beef rare or medium-rare had less than one third the risk of stomach cancer than those who ate beef medium-well or well-done. While avoiding meat or eating meat raw may be the only ways to avoid HCAs in meat fully, the National Cancer Institute states that cooking meat below creates "negligible amounts" of HCAs. Also, microwaving meat before cooking may reduce HCAs by 90% by reducing the time needed for the meat to be cooked at high heat. Nitrosamines are found in some food, and may be produced by some cooking processes from proteins or from nitrites used as food preservatives; cured meat such as bacon has been found to be carcinogenic, with links to colon cancer. Vitamin C, Ascorbate, which is added to cured meat, however, reduces nitrosamine formation.

Research has shown that grilling, barbecuing and smoking meat and fish increases levels of carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). In Europe, grilled meat and smoked fish generally only contribute a small proportion of dietary PAH intake since they are a minor component of diet – most intake comes from cereals, oils and fats. However, in the US, grilled/barbecued meat is the second highest contributor of the mean daily intake of a known PAH carcinogen benzo(a)pyrene, benzo[a]pyrene at 21% after 'bread, cereal and grain' at 29%.

Baking, grilling or broiling food, especially starchy foods, until a toasted crust is formed generates significant concentrations of acrylamide, a known carcinogen from animal studies; its potential to cause cancer in humans at normal exposures is uncertain. Public health authorities recommend reducing the risk by avoiding overly browning starchy foods or meats when frying, baking, toasting or roasting them.

Other health issues

Cooking dairy products may reduce a protective effect against colon cancer. Researchers at the University of Toronto suggest that ingesting uncooked or unpasteurized dairy products (see also Raw milk) may reduce the risk of colorectal cancer. Mice and rats fed uncooked sucrose, casein, and beef tallow had one-third to one-fifth the incidence of adenoma, microadenomas as the mice and rats fed the same ingredients cooked. This claim, however, is contentious. According to the Food and Drug Administration (United States), Food and Drug Administration of the United States, health benefits claimed by raw milk advocates do not exist. "The small quantities of antibodies in milk are not absorbed in the human intestinal tract," says Barbara Ingham, PhD, associate professor and extension food scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "There is no scientific evidence that raw milk contains an anti-arthritis factor or that it enhances resistance to other diseases."

Heating sugars with proteins or fats can produce advanced glycation end products ("glycotoxins").

Deep fried food in restaurants may contain high level of trans fat, which is known to increase levels of low-density lipoprotein that in turn may increase risk of Coronary disease, heart diseases and other conditions. However, many fast food chains have now switched to trans-fat-free alternatives for deep-frying.

Scientific aspects

The scientific study of cooking has become known as molecular gastronomy. This is a subdiscipline of food science concerning the physical and chemical transformations that occur during cooking.

Important contributions have been made by scientists, chefs and authors such as Hervé This (chemist), Nicholas Kurti (physicist), Peter Barham (physicist), Harold McGee (author), Shirley Corriher (biochemist, author), Robert Wolke (chemist, author. It is different for the application of scientific knowledge to cooking, that is "molecular cooking"( (for the technique) or "molecular cuisine" (for a culinary style), for which chefs such as Raymond Blanc, Philippe and Christian Conticini, Ferran Adria, Heston Blumenthal, Pierre Gagnaire (chef).

Chemical processes central to cooking include hydrolysis (in particular beta elimination of pectins, during the thermal treatment of plant tissues), pyrolysis, glycation reactions wrongly named Maillard reactions .

Cooking foods with heat depends on many factors — the specific heat of an object, thermal conductivity, and perhaps most significantly the difference in temperature between the two objects. Thermal diffusivity is the combination of specific heat, conductivity and density that determines how long it will take for the food to reach a certain temperature.

Home-cooking and commercial cooking

Home cooking has traditionally been a process carried out informally in a home or around a Communal oven, communal fire, and can be enjoyed by all members of the family, although in many cultures women bear primary responsibility. Cooking is also often carried out outside of personal quarters, for example at restaurants, or schools. Bakery, Bakeries were one of the earliest forms of cooking outside the home, and bakeries in the past often offered the cooking of pots of food provided by their customers as an additional service. In the present day, factory food preparation has become common, with many "ready-to-eat" foods being prepared and cooked in factories and home cooks using a mixture of wikt:from scratch, scratch made, and factory made foods together to make a meal. The nutritional value of including more commercially prepared foods has been found to be inferior to home-made foods. Home-cooked meals tend to be healthier with fewer calories, and less saturated fat, Cholesterol embolism, cholesterol and sodium on a per calorie basis while providing more Dietary fiber, fiber,

calcium

, and iron. The ingredients are also directly sourced, so there is control over authenticity, taste, and nutritional value. The superior nutritional quality of home-cooking could therefore play a role in preventing Chronic condition, chronic disease. Cohort studies following the elderly over 10 years show that adults who cook their own meals have significantly lower mortality, even when controlling for confounding variables.

"Home-cooking" may be associated with comfort food, and some commercially produced foods and restaurant meals are presented through advertising or packaging as having been "home-cooked", regardless of their actual origin. This trend began in the 1920s and is attributed to people in urban areas of the U.S. wanting homestyle food even though their schedules and smaller kitchens made cooking harder.

See also

* Carryover cooking
* Control of fire by early humans
* Cookbook
* Cooker
* Cooking weights and measures
* Cuisine
* Culinary arts
* Culinary profession
* Cooking school
* Dishwashing
* Food and cooking hygiene
* Food industry
* Food preservation
* Food writing
* Foodpairing
* Gourmet Museum and Library
* High altitude cooking
* International food terms
* List of cooking appliances
* List of cooking techniques
* List of cuisines
* List of films about cooking
* List of food preparation utensils
* List of ovens
* List of stoves
* Nutrition
* Recipe
* Scented water
* Spices
* Staple (cooking)

References

External links

*wikiHow:Cook, How to Cook (wikihow)
Open Cookbook (wikicook)Human Timeline (Interactive)
– Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian, National Museum of Natural History (August 2016).
*
justcooking

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Cooking,
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Home economics
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