June/July 2010 (segments of this piece were originally published in March 2009)

As most of you are enjoying summer outings and family reunions in full gear, I wanted to take a different approach this month: No recipe of the month!  Oh the humanity! I know there are scores of you out there that live for my wonderful recipes and wonderful banter and wit, but alas this month will be different.  No chili, no rice dishes and no Mac & Cheese No, this month we’ll be getting back to basics: cooking techniques.  I’ll try not to get too boring on you, but I felt as though it would be a benefit for you to know the basics so you can go out and begin to conquer the food world.

Cooking, at its most basic form is applying heat (and sometimes not) to food and selecting, combining of ingredients in a certain way in order to prepare it for consumption. That’s the generic definition of cooking, but if we dig deeper there are multiple techniques of applying the common element of heat – and a few others that “cook” food without heat. There are basically five ways of cooking or applying heat to food, they are: Dry Heat cooking, Water-based cooking, Fat-Based cooking, Device-Based cooking, and Non-Heat Cooking.  This month I’ll just list these techniques and some of their subgroups and explain a few of them.

Dry heat is a pretty common way to cook and was probably one of the first if not the first way people began to cook food.  Dry heat cooking includes:

• Baking

• Barbecuing

• Broiling

• Grilling

• Roasting

• Searing

• Toasting

Many of these in the list are just variations of each other; the difference coming from the particular method of heat application, amount of heat applied and the amount of time the food is cooked for.  For example grilling and barbecuing seem like the same thing, but are two different animals. Grilling takes minutes to an hour and is better for burgers, chicken and nicer cuts of meat, but barbecuing is sometimes an all day affair that produces some of the most tender and flavorful delights out of almost any cuts of meat.

Water-based cooking is another common way to cook that involves what else – water (and a pot).  Water-based cooking includes:

• Blanching

• Boiling

• Braising

• Poaching

• Steaming

• Stewing

• Simmering

Again, although these techniques employ the same medium for heat transfer they can vary in how hot and how long they are cooked.  Blanching is done by placing foods (usually vegetables) in boiling water for a minute or two and then removing the food and placing it in iced cold water to halt the cooking process.  Braising is a longer process used for tough cuts of meat, the process breaks down the tough connective tissue and collagens in the meat.

Fat-based cooking is something EVERYONE loves in some way shape or form; it’s where French fries, fried chicken and stir-fries come from.  Fat-based cooking includes:

• Browning

• Frying

• Deep Frying

• Pan Frying

• Sautéing

• Stir Frying

This technique varies in how healthy and unhealthy it is for us because of the amount and type of oil/fat we use to cook. Stir frying, pan frying and sautéing are generally considered healthier because they use a very small amount of oil (or none).  Deep frying on the other hand is considered one of the most unhealthy forms of cooking because basically food is submerged in hot oil or fat – but what we get in return for the unhealthiness is the tastiest, crispiest food.  I don’t know many people if any who can walk into a house where someone is frying something/anything and not get hungry instantly.

Device-based cooking employs many of the above techniques but is attached to a particular device/utensil.  Device-based cooking includes:

• Crockpot Cooking

• Microwaving (yes I went there)

• Bain-Marie

• Pressure Cooking/Frying

• Rotisserie Cooking

• Clay Pot Cooking

All these devices are great additions to any home kitchen, but you may be able to mimic the same results with common household items.  Crockpot cooking is just slow cooking, generally like braising. Rotisseries are a cross between grilling, barbecuing and roasting; essentially meat is skewered on a spit so it can slowly spin and self-baste over or next to a flame.  I myself have never used a pressure-cooker but can’t wait to try, food is cooked much faster and with better results.

Non-heat cooking includes various methods of preserving foods such as:

• Smoking

• Pickling

• Souring

• Fermenting

Those of you who follow the column may remember us employing pickling in the Ceviche recipe – we used lemon juice and little vinegar to “cook” fish and shrimp overnight in the fridge.  Foods like tempeh (fermented soybeans), yogurt and pickles are also included in this category.  Basically an acid, bacteria or smoke are used to preserve food for immediate or later consumption.

I hope you found this month’s column informative.  Let me know of any recipes or ingredients you want to play around with and I’ll see what I can come up with.  Just click on the link on the right-hand side of this page and send me a message. 

Thanks for reading and God Bless You.

Oscar