What is Cooking: Definition and 78 Discussions

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 stoves, to baking in various types of ovens, 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 chefs in restaurants and other food establishments.
Preparing food with heat or fire is an activity unique to humans. It may have started around 2 million years ago, though archaeological evidence for it reaches no more than 1 million years ago.The expansion of agriculture, commerce, trade, and transportation between civilizations in different regions offered cooks many new ingredients. New inventions and technologies, such as the invention of pottery for holding and boiling water, expanded cooking techniques. Some modern cooks apply advanced scientific techniques to food preparation to further enhance the flavor of the dish served.

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  1. Artlav

    Cooking saltpeter+sugar rocket fuel?

    Is there some place with good information on saltpeter+sugar rocket propellant and it's making? The problem is, there are a lot of places on the internet telling how to do it right, but next to none on how to do it wrong, and I'm not brave enough to follow someone's instructions without...
  2. fluidistic

    A question about cooking oil bottle caps

    Hi PF, I really didn't know where to ask the following question so redirect the thread if necessary. I'd like to know why I can't really "close" cooking oil bottle caps. I can screw the oil bottle caps but when it's almost totally screwed, suddenly it's like it unscrew and I have to screw it...
  3. F

    Sear's and Zemansky Ex. 17.10: What's Cooking?

    Homework Statement A heavy copper pot of mass 2.0 kg (including the copper lid) is at a temperature of 150°C. You pour 0.10 kg of water at 25°C into the pot, then quickly close the lid of the pot so that no steam can escape. Find the final temperature of the pot and its contents, and determine...
  4. T

    Best Cooking Show - America's Test Kitchen

    Okay, everyone can go ahead and disagree with me, but I like http://www.americastestkitchen.com/" I like the idea of being scientific and trying everything they can think of then picking the best recipe. They always do recipes of the kind of food I like best. Big thick pork chops, comfort foods...
  5. G

    Efficiency and temperature of cooking device

    Homework Statement Suppose a cooking device has a power of P Watts. The temperature of the bulb which radiates heat is determined to be T (in Kelvin). Write an expression for efficiency in terms of T and P. Homework Equations E = \sigmaT^{4} Stefann Boltzmann equation \eta=...
  6. Math Is Hard

    Is Potato Salad the New Side Dish for Pho?

    The restaurant where I get my Pho (a Vietnamese noodle soup) is run by a nice lady who makes special treats for me every time I visit. One time it was a peanut butter ball with tiny pieces of apple, another time it was tiny scoops of tuna fish salad. The last few times she has treated my to tiny...
  7. D

    Cooking Veggies: Boiling or Steaming - Which is Faster?

    Explain! Please * You can cook es by vegatables by dropping them into boiling water or by placing them in a basket over boiling water, putting the lid on the potand steaming them. Which method do you think would be faster? Explain your reasoning.
  8. K

    Unraveling the Mystery of Cooking Steak: Why Oil Matters?

    So, you have steak which you toss on a hot pan. The heat eventually break apart the molecules, making oxygen and hydrogen evaporate and you are left with just carbon, a burnt crust on your steak. My question is, why does this change when you use oil or fat? I have two possible solutions...
  9. I

    Italian Cooking: Delicious Recipes for All Occasions

  10. wolram

    Lodge Logic Dutch Oven: Cooking for One Made Simple!

    http://www.headcook.co.uk/lodge-logic-dutch-oven-1025-p-2069.html?source=webgains&siteid=7963 Is this a good one? it looks way to big for cooking for one, but if i cook a batch of chili may be it will last all week?
  11. Evo

    Questionable Skills of Cooking Show Hosts on Food Network

    This channel cracks me up. Could they possibly have more people hosting cooking shows that have no background in cooking? :rofl: Bobby Flay, high school drop out that is dating the producer's daughter. This classless idiot has no place in the cooking world. Emeril Lagasee. As his...
  12. Cyrus

    Getting Ready for Winter Break: Cooking, Eating & Drinking Ideas

    Ah, Finally. Winter break has rolled around. Tomorrow is my first day of winter break a free man. Over the break I want to cook, eat, cook, eat, cook, eat and cook some more! But the problem is I don't really know anything about cooking, and I need some ideas on some foods to make and eat. I...
  13. Mk

    Cooking vegetables like at a steakhouse

    At restaurants they always cook vegetables with butter and serve with steak. Perhaps a combination might be broccoli, carrot, and squash. I always like that and want to learn how to cook it myself, is it called sautéing? How do I do it?
  14. F

    How does a microwave oven generate and contain radiation for cooking?

    Not the waves, but the cooking device. I am curious how the radiation is generated, and why it stays inside the microwave (the outside doesn't get hot).
  15. A

    Thermodynamics cooking Question

    Homework Statement A househusband is cooking beef stew for his family in a pan that is (a) uncovered, (b) covered with a light lid, and (c) covered with a heavy lid. For which case will the cooking be the shortest? Why? Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution...
  16. S

    Microwaved Food Safety: Is Stove Cooking Safer?

    I need to runs this by some others to make sure it checks out. The guy that runs bugsweeps.com claims that microwaved food is dangerous. He claims that the water molecules in the food keep oscillating at 2450 MHz after the food is removed from the oven and this is somehow dangerous to us. So...
  17. P

    Cooking vs Titration: Comparing Methods & Techniques

    Someone likened cooking with titration. How accurate is this? Is heat usually applied to titration? Does titration recquire physical labour to stir the solution? If not than these are two big differences between cooking and titration. What other chemical methods/techniques are comparable to...
  18. P

    Maximizing Oven Efficiency for Faster Cooking

    Homework Statement How can food in an oven be made to cook more quickly? Explain why you think that your answer states the most effective method. Homework Equations none The Attempt at a Solution All I can think is by increasing the temperture at which the oven is set. i.e. Let more...
  19. T

    Better for egg cooking? Asphalt Vs. Sewer cap

    me and my friends are having an arguemnet. what is better for cooking an egg during the summer: on hot asphalt or on a sewer cap. EXAMPLE: you have a sewer cap and the surrounding asphalt. both have been sitting in the sun for the same amount of time. If you were to crack an egg on both...
  20. Pengwuino

    My Failed Attempt at a Carls Jr. Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger

    I seem to suck at it :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: I tried to mimick carls jr's double western bacon cheeseburger... and i failed miserably. It all started when i tried to make onion rings for hte hamburger. Problem #1: the onion rings were not... coming out as rings of onion from the "master"...
  21. BobG

    The internet is so helpful (for cooking)

    I have a recipe for ice cream that requires me to "scald" the milk. :confused: I type in "scald milk" into google and, sure enough, I get a list of web sites that explain how to scald/scorch milk. From O Chef Okay, after that, it actually does explain what's meant by scalding/scorching...
  22. R

    Safe Cooking Oil Heating: Tips and Techniques

    How do you heat cooking oil - it's flammable so it'd have to be under an inert atmosphere right? How do you set this up?
  23. Pengwuino

    Do any physicists switch to cooking?

    Man am i tempted to start cooking now! but no no, ill stay a physics major... The one thing i really hate about cooking for some reason is that it takes so much more time to make food then it takes to actually sit down and eat it. Like I've told 3 people, "30 minutes to make, 3 minutes to eat...
  24. enigma

    What is a good substitute for pumpkin pie spice in a pumpkin dip recipe?

    I have been tasked to make this for a party I'm going to tomorrow: I found everything except for the "pumpkin pie spice". Anyone have any idea what's in that? Can I do without and just add some more cinnamon and nutmeg? Should I run out to the store and grab something else? (I hope not...
  25. B

    Cooking Wine - No Drunkenness or Allergies?

    you know what, all of the food I eat contains cooking wine. I also just sipped a bit, but why am I not drunk at all ? at least there must be some reactions like allergy on my skin, the same as when I drink beer, but it still like when I just come out from the bath-room, clean and well?
  26. Math Is Hard

    Microbaker Potatoes: Tasty and Fast Cooking!

    My market sells these individual potatoes and sweet potatoes wrapped (sealed) in plastic. They're called http://www.progressiverecipes.com/package_microbaker_pot.html . Have you seen these? The label says "Oven Baked Taste - right from the microwave." I am curious if this plastic wrap really...
  27. Astronuc

    Recipes & Cooking: Delicious & Nutritious Dishes

    I like to cook, which is good thing because my wife doesn't, and it is probably one of the reasons my wife married me. :biggrin: I used to help my mom and her mom when they were cooking, and that's probably where I get my interest in cooking. Anyway, I am always looking for interesting and...
  28. D

    Cooking and Science: Exploring the Scientific Method

    I've heard a lot of people that say cooking is a science. I've always thought of cooking as an art...a very tasting one. Can someone explain to me how cooking is a science, and how it incorporates the scientific method?
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