Cooking Methods

Cooking Methods

Dry Heat cooking methods are typically known to use air or fat to cook foods.

  • Sauté– The Saute method is a dry heat cooking method that transfers heat from the pan to a food item with the help of a small amount of fat. Sauteing is a great method to cook up vegetables.
  • Baking/Roasting–  Roasting is also a dry heat cooking method that uses a closed environment and hot air to cook food. These methods are typically utilized for cooking meats, finishing pastas, or cooking vegetables.
  • Grilling– The cooking method of grilling utilizes a heat source that is below the cooking surface.
  • Broiling– This cooking method uses radiated heat form a source above the food. The heat from above cooks the food thoroughly while a bottom preheated plate is used to create desired hatch-marks. Broiling can be used to cook meats, or add a crunchy texture to the top of a dish like Mac ‘n’ cheese.

Moist Heat Cooking methods are ways of cooking foods with water or steam.

  • Poaching– Is a unique cooking method for delicate foods. Foods that do not require long cooking times and are flavored lightly. The actual method uses hot liquid to transfer heat to food item. The liquid can be seasoned or flavored to also be transferred. Delicate foods such as eggs, fish and fruit are typically cooked with this methods.
  • Boiling/Simmering– Simmering and boiling are moist heat cooking methods, that transfer heat from a liquid to a food item. The difference between these methods, is the temperature of water. Boiling uses large amounts of liquid at higher temperatures ensuring a quicker cook time. Moreover when boiling, you will see larger bubbles and more activity compared to simmering. Simmering uses less water and lower temperatures, so there is less visible activity of the water. Boiling are typical of cooking pastas, or root vegetables such as potatoes or beets. Simmering can be used to cook sauces, soups and is usually a method used when you want to extract and enhance all flavors of ingredients.
  • Steaming– Steaming  is a moist heat method that uses convection to transfer heat from steam to the food item. You can steam vegetables, rice or fish.