the principles of cooking food

The cooking of food involves heating it in a variety of ways to make it more palatable. The heat to cook the food comes from a variety of sources, including electric elements or hotplates; gas flame from a stove or barbecue; the heat from a conventional oven; and heat generated by a microwave oven. Heat is transferred to the food and cooking medium (the fat, water, stock or milk) by means of convection, conduction and radiation. It must be remembered that most foods are cooked by a combination of at least two of the processes of transferring heat, not just one. For example, a baked butter cake will be cooked by heat directly reflecting from the oven walls (radiation), heat circulating in the air of the oven (convection), and heat transferred from the cake pan to the cake mixture (conduction). The three methods of heat
transference are:

Convection:

When food is cooked through the convention process, the heat passes through another medium—either liquid or gas. When liquids or gases are heated, the heat is distributed throughout the cooking medium and food by convection currents. For example, in baking, the air in the oven gradually heats up until the heat is transferred to the product being baked. When food is boiled, the water (the cooking medium) is gradually heated by the process of convection. Once the water is heated, it transfers the heat to the food. The same principle applies to deep frying, except that oil is the cooking medium. Cooking equipment that uses the process of convection to cook food includes deep fryers, stockpots, steamers, boilers, poachers, cooking pots and ovens.
Methods of cooking by convection include poaching, boiling, stewing, braising, baking and roasting.
Conduction:

Conduction is the process in which heat is transferred to the food by direct contact with the cooking vessel (e.g., pot, pan, barbecue, hotplate). The heat passes through a solid or from one solid to another. For food to be cooked by conduction, it must be in direct contact with a heated item. This process relies on the use of good conductors, which allow the heat to transfer through them to the food. Metals are generally good conductors of heat, which is why the cooking equipment in a commercial kitchen is mostly metallic. Cooking equipment that uses the process of conduction to cook food includes bratt pans, barbecues, woks, crêpe pans, solid grill plates and stove hotplates.
Methods of cooking by conduction include stir frying, shallow frying and sautéing.
Radiation:

Radiation is the process of heat transference directly onto the food being cooked. The heat is transferred by electromagnetic waves, such as microwaves and infrared waves. These waves go directly to the food being cooked, and any object in the path of the rays will also become hot, such as a grill plate. When food is microwaved, the cooking process is due to the action of electromagnetic waves produced from the magnetron in the microwave oven. Infrared waves are produced from the grill. These waves cause the food, which is located close to the heat source, to first heat then cook the food. Cooking equipment that uses the process of radiation to cook food includes microwaves, salamanders, grillers and toasters. Methods of cooking by radiation include grilling, toasting, baking and microwaving. Moist heat or dry heat can be used to cook food in this way. The decision of which cooking method to choose depends on the desired and result of the cooked product. For example, a boneless chicken breast fillet will taste and appear very different if it is poached in chicken stock, rather than being char-grilled, or
crumbed and shallow fried.

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