Cooking or cookery is the art, technology and craft of preparing food for consumption with the use of heat. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely across the world, from grilling food over an open fire to using electric stoves, to baking in various types of ovens, reflecting unique environmental, economic, and cultural traditions and trends. The ways or types of cooking also depend on the skill and type of training an individual cook has. Cooking is done both by people in their own dwellings and by professional cooks and chefs in restaurants and other food establishments. Cooking can also occur through chemical reactions without the presence of heat, most notably with ceviche, a traditional South American dish where fish is cooked with the acids in lemon or lime juice.
Preparing food with heat or fire is an activity unique to humans. Some anthropologists think that cooking fires first developed around 250,000 years ago, although there is evidence for the controlled use of fire by Homo erectus beginning 400,000 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.
Archaeology, by its nature, can only identify the current earliest evidence of cooking. The possibility always remains of finding new evidence which indicates an even earlier date. 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, South Africa, has provided evidence supporting human control of fire there by 1 mya. There is evidence that Homo erectus was 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. Archeological 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. Anthropologists think that widespread cooking fires began about 250,000 years ago, when hearths started appearing. More recently, the earliest hearths have been reported to be at least 790,000 years old.
Typical Maximum Nutrient Losses due to cooking
| Vitamin & Minerals |
Freeze |
Dry |
Cook |
Cook+Drain |
Reheat |
| Vitamin A |
5% |
50% |
25% |
35% |
10% |
| Vit A- Retinol Activity Equivalent |
5% |
50% |
25% |
35% |
10% |
| Vit A- Alpha Carotene |
5% |
50% |
25% |
35% |
10% |
| Vit A- Beta Carotene |
5% |
50% |
25% |
35% |
10% |
| Vit A- Beta Cryptoxanthin |
5% |
50% |
25% |
35% |
10% |
| Vit A- Lycopene |
5% |
50% |
25% |
35% |
10% |
| Vit A- Lutein+Zeaxanthin |
5% |
50% |
25% |
35% |
10% |
| Vitamin C |
30% |
80% |
50% |
75% |
50% |
| Thiamin |
5% |
30% |
55% |
70% |
40% |
| Riboflavin |
0% |
10% |
25% |
45% |
5% |
| Niacin |
0% |
10% |
40% |
55% |
5% |
| Vitamin B6 |
0% |
10% |
50% |
65% |
45% |
| Folate |
5% |
50% |
70% |
75% |
30% |
| Food Folate |
5% |
50% |
70% |
75% |
30% |
| Folic Acid |
5% |
50% |
70% |
75% |
30% |
| Vitamin B12 |
0% |
0% |
45% |
50% |
45% |
| Calcium |
5% |
0% |
20% |
25% |
0% |
| Iron |
0% |
0% |
35% |
40% |
0% |
| Magnesium |
0% |
0% |
25% |
40% |
0% |
| Phosphorus |
0% |
0% |
25% |
35% |
0% |
| Potassium |
10% |
0% |
30% |
70% |
0% |
| Sodium |
0% |
0% |
25% |
55% |
0% |
| Zinc |
0% |
0% |
25% |
25% |
0% |
| Copper |
10% |
0% |
40% |
45% |
0% |
- Roasting
-
Roasting – Barbecuing – Grilling/Broiling – Rotisserie – Searing
- Baking
-
Baking – Baking Blind – Flashbaking
- Boiling
-
Boiling – Blanching – Braising – Coddling – Double steaming – Infusion – Poaching – Pressure cooking – Simmering – Smothering – Steaming – Steeping – Stewing – Vacuum flask cooking
- Frying
-
Fry – Deep frying – Hot salt frying – Hot sand frying – Pan frying – Pressure frying – Sautéing – Stir 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.
- Smoking
-
Smoking is the process of flavoring, cooking, or preserving food by exposing it to smoke from burning or smoldering material, most often wood.
