In this post and succeeding ones, we will examine the various cooking methods. There are numerous cooking methods you can utilize when preparing your food. Constantly cooking foods, the same way can be quite monotonous. You may tend to become bored with a particular food or completely avoid it. However, the good news is that there are a variety of cooking methods you can employ to make your foods more palatable, more nutritious and to preserve them better.
Being aware of alternative cooking methods allows you to have selections on how you can cook your food better and enjoy it even if it is what you consume regularly. Moreover, knowing different cooking methods and implementing these techniques can aid in managing certain conditions. For instance, you may have been recommended by your physician to alter your fat intake because you have a cardiovascular condition such as heart disease, rather than constantly read food labels or count calories, you can occasionally opt for a cooking method like boiling to limit your fat intake. In such a case, you will be limiting your fat intake without having to continually assess the number of fat kilocalories in a food.
To enhance a food’s palatability certain cooking methods e.g. frying or stewing can work. Other cooking methods such as blanching can preserve the nutritive value of foods, particularly vegetables.
Examples of cooking methods include:
- Sautéing
- Boiling
- Stewing
- Frying -shallow frying and deep frying
- Grilling
- Roasting
- Simmering
- Steaming
- Baking
- Braising
- Poaching
- Blanching
When you integrate more cooking methods, you are likely to find different foods more pleasant and appetizing, even if it is foods, you are accustomed to. You are also likely to enjoy cooking your meals and therefore limit the number of times you eat out, which is actually recommendable as then you can manage your weight and limit unhealthy snacking.
But before we delve into the various cooking methods, in our next post we will outline the essentials of food preparation methods.