Ayurvedic Nutrition and Culinary Training
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Basic Methods in Cooking
(excerpts from On Food and Cooking, by Harold McGee and Food Lover’s Companion)
Each of the basic methods of cooking has its own particular influence on food. As simple an
operation as heating a pan of water on the stove involves radiation and conduction from an
electrical element (radiation and convection from a gas flame), conduction through the pan, and
convection in the water. Still, one kind of heat transfer usually predominates in a given cooking
technique and, together with the cooking medium, has a distinctive influence on foods.
DRY HEAT
Baking: Air Convection and Radiation
When we bake a food, we surround it with a hot enclosure, the oven, and rely on a combination of
radiation from the walls and hot-air convection to heat the food. Baking easily dehydrates the
surface of foods, and so will brown them well provided the oven temperature is high enough.
Typical baking temperatures are well above the boiling point, from 300 to 500’F (150 – 250’C),
and yet baking is nowhere near as efficient a means of heat transfer as is boiling. A potato can be
boiled in less time than it takes to be baked at a much hotter temperature. This is so because
neither radiation nor air convection at 500’F transfers heat very rapidly to food. Convection ovens
increase the rate of heat transfer by using fans to force more air movement, and significantly
reduce baking times.
Roasting
To oven-cook food (from meat to vegetables) in a shallow uncovered pan, a method that ideally
produces a well-browned exterior and moist interior. The temperatures for roasting a typically
higher than for baking, and the pan must be uncovered so the food doesn’t stew in its own juices.
Another common denominator for roasting is that it requires fat, either as part of the food or
added.
Browning
To cook quickly over high heat, causing the surface of the food to turn brown while the interior
stays moist. This method not only gives food an appetizing color, but also a rich flavor. Browning
is usually done on top of the stove, but may also be achieved under a broiling unit.
Pan-Frying and Sautéing: Conduction
Frying and sautéing are methods that heat foods for the most part by conduction from a hot, oiled
pan, with temperatures between 350 and 450’F/175-225’C that encourage browning and flavor
development. The fat or oil has several roles to play: it brings the uneven surface of the food into
uniform contact with the heat source, it lubricates and prevents sticking, and it supplies some
flavor. As is true in broiling, the trick in frying is to prevent the outside from overcooking before the
inside is done. The surface is quickly dehydrated by the high temperatures—odd as it sounds,
frying in oil is a “dry” technique—while the interior remains largely water and never exceeds
212’F/100’C. In order to reduce the disparity between outer and inner cooking times, we generally
fry only thin cuts of food. Yet another way to avoid overcooking the outer portions of the food is to
coat it in another material that develops pleasant flavors when fried, and acts as a kind of
insulation to protect the inner food from direct contact with high heat. Breadings and batters are
such insulators.
Stir-Frying
To quickly fry small pieces of food in a large pan over very high heat while constantly and briskly
stirring the food. This technique, which is associated with Asian cooking and the wok, requires a
minimum amount of fat and results in food that is crisply tender.
Deep Frying: Oil Convection
Deep frying differs from pan frying by employing enough oil to immerse the food altogether. As a
technique, it resembles boiling more than pan frying, with the essential difference that the oil is
heated far above the boiling point of water, and so will dehydrate the food surface and brown it.
The only deep frying method SV Ayurveda accepts is occasional cooking in fresh ghee which will
never be reused. Keep in mind that deep fried foods are very hard to digest and overheat the
liver. Commercial fast food is deep-fried in hydrogenated oils, turned into bad oxidized fat from
repeated use and reheating. That is one reason why fried fast food is so toxic.
Broiling
To cook food directly under or above the heat source. Food can be broiled in an oven, directly
under the gas or electric heat source, or on a barbecue grill, directly over charcoal or other heat
source.
Sautéing (aka Frying)
To cook food quickly in a small amount of oil or other fat in a skillet or sauté pan over direct heat.
Sweating
A technique by which ingredients, particularly vegetables, are cooked in a small amount of fat
over low heat. The ingredients are covered directly with a piece of foil or parchment paper, then
the pot is tightly covered. With this method, the ingredients soften without browning, and cook in
their own juices.
MOIST HEAT
Boiling: Water Convection
“Bring to a boil” refers to heating a liquid until bubbles break the surface. The term also means to
cook food in a boiling liquid. A “full rolling boil” is one that cannot be dissipated by stirring. In
boiling and its lower-temperature versions, simmering and poaching, food is heated by the
convection currants in hot water. The maximum temperature possible is the boiling point,
212’F/100’C at sea level, which is usually not high enough for these “moist” cooking methods to
trigger browning reactions. Despite the relatively low cooking temperature, boiling is a very
efficient process. The entire surface of the food is in contact with the cooking medium, and water
is dense enough that its molecules constantly collide with the food and rapidly impart their energy
to it.
The Boiling Point Depends on Elevation. The boiling point of any liquid depends on the
atmospheric pressure bearing down on its surface: the higher the pressure, the more energy it
takes for liquid molecules to escape the surface and become a gas, and so the higher the
temperature at which the liquid boils. Every 1,000 feet/305 meters in elevation above sea level
lowers the boiling point by 2’F below the standard 212’f (or 1’C below 100’C). And food takes
longer to cook at 200’ than it does at 212’.
Pressure Cooking: Raising the Boiling Point The same principle is put to use to speed cooking in
the pressure cooker. This appliance reduces cooking times by trapping the steam that escapes
from boiling water, thereby increasing the pressure on the liquid, and so raising its boiling point—
and maximum temperature—to about 250’F/120’C. This is the equivalent of boiling water in an
open pan at the bottom of a pit 19,000 feet/5,800 meters below sea level.
Simmering
To cook food gently in liquid at a temperature (about 185’F) low enough that tiny bubbles just
begin to break the surface.
Poaching
To cook food gently in liquid just below the boiling point when the liquid’s surface is beginning to
show some quivering movement. The amount and temperature of the liquid used depends on the
food being poached. Fruit is often poached in a slight sugar syrup. Poaching produces a delicate
flavor in foods, while imparting some of the liquid’s flavor to the ingredient being poached.
Stewing
Cooking food that is barely covered with liquid and simmered slowly for a long period of time in a
tightly covered pot. Stewing not only tenderizes tough pieces of food but also allows the flavors of
the ingredients to blend deliciously.
Steaming: Heating by Vapor Condensation and Convection
Though it’s less dense than liquid water and so makes less frequent contact with the food, steam
compensates for this loss in efficiency with a gain in energy. It takes a large amount of energy to
turn liquid water into a gas, and conversely gaseous water releases that same large amount of
energy when it condenses onto a cooler object. So molecules of steam don’t just impart their
energy of motion to the food; they impart their energy of vaporization also. This means that
steaming does an especially quick job of bringing the surface of the food up to the boiling point,
and an effective job of keeping it there.
Braising
Food (usually meat or vegetables) is first browned in fat, then cooked, tightly covered, in a small
amount of liquid at low heat for a lengthy period of time. The long, slow cooking develops flavor
and tenderizes foods by gently breaking down their fibers. Braising can be done on top of the
range or in the oven. A tight-fitting lid is very important to prevent the liquid from evaporating.
Blanching
To plunge food (usually vegetables and fruits) into boiling water briefly, then into cold water to
stop the cooking process. Blanching is used to firm flesh, to loosen skins (as with peaches and
tomatoes), and to heighten and set color and flavor (as with vegetables before freezing).
Scalding
A cooking technique often used to retard the souring of milk—whereby the liquid is heated to just
below the boiling point.