Cooking makes raw foods acquire the appropriate conditions for consumption.
Originating from the Latin word coctĭo , the concept of cooking refers to the consequence and process of cooking something . This verb, for its part, describes the fact of leaving raw food in conditions suitable for consumption through a procedure based on boiling or the action of steam . In a similar sense, cooking is exposing a certain thing to the action of heat so that it acquires certain properties .
Cooking makes most products softer and more flavorful. The process also contributes to the good preservation of foods. However, most fruits and vegetables do not require cooking as they can be eaten while raw. Likewise, it is worth remembering that there are times when meat and fish are eaten raw, although they are exceptions.
Cooking times
When talking about cooking food, it is important to emphasize that depending on the product, the properties it has, the time of this action will vary. Thus, for example, it is established that fresh legumes, including green beans or artichokes, should be cooked for between five and ten minutes.
Compared to them, dry type legumes such as lentils or chickpeas have characteristics that determine that the time established for cooking them is around approximately twenty minutes.
The pasta, for its part, requires about six minutes; Fish require a cooking time between four and ten minutes; and the meat normally takes around ten minutes.
Cooking time varies depending on the food.
Removal of contaminants
It should also be noted that cooking causes an alteration in the biochemical and physical compounds of each food , whether through softening, coagulation, swelling or dissolution. Heat also guarantees the total destruction of disease-causing or disease- transmitting agents present in raw foods.
Salmonella and Escherichia coli , for example, can be eliminated by cooking. Certain natural amino acids and alkaloids that are toxic to humans can also be destroyed by cooking processes.
Cooking methods
The most common cooking methods are three: cooking in aqueous medium , cooking in fatty medium and cooking in air medium .
The most common cooking in aqueous medium consists of submerging the food in boiling water or in a water bath. Cooking, on the other hand, can be done steam or in a pressure cooker.
As for the fatty medium, the most common cooking is carried out in oils or fats that are at temperatures that exceed one hundred degrees Celsius.
Finally, air cooking involves establishing close and direct contact with the flame or any other heat source, such as on a grill or oven .
The process in ceramics
In addition to everything stated above, we have to emphasize that firing is also one of the most important phases carried out within the artisanal manufacture of ceramics. Specifically, for professionals in this artistic sector it is the most important stage since it is the moment in which it is possible to provide the pieces with their decorative properties.
In this way, it is established that the cooking phase of said artisanal procedure will be adequate and perfect when it has been possible to avoid that the piece is free of defects and that, therefore, it has the best possible quality to be useful and to be launched on the market where It can be acquired by buyers who wish to do so.