CULINARY INTELLIGENCE Choosing the Right Cooking Method for Your Food By Mark Ainsworth ’86
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One of the most important aspects of cooking delicious food involves understanding the strategies for matching specific types of meats, seafood, and vegetables with the correct cooking method. Braising, stewing, panfrying, roasting, poaching, grilling, and sautéing are the techniques that form the backbone and structure of the kitchen. Cooking methods can be grouped into three categories: 1. Dry heat methods, with or without fat 2. Moist-heat methods 3. Methods using a combination of dry and moist heat
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Dry-Heat Cooking Methods—Without Fat In grilling and roasting, food is cooked either by direct or indirect application of radiant heat. No liquid is used, and any fat that is added during the cooking process is intended to add flavor, and not to act as a cooking medium. The end result is a highly flavored exterior and moist interior. Grilling and broiling are quick techniques used with portion-size tender pieces of meat, poultry, fish, or vegetables. Roasting requires longer cooking times because this technique is most frequently used with large cuts of meat or whole birds and fish.
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