Aim Of Cooking

Cooking helps

• Maintaining the nutritional value of the ingredients.
• The natural colour of the food not to be destroyed.
• Preventing undercooking the food items.
• Excessive high temperature or overcooking should be avoided.
• The volatile oil of spices will be preserved properly.
• Proper blending of masalas is done.

Objective Of Cooking

• Increases variety
• Destruction of microorganisms
• Improves the taste and food quality
• Improves digestibility
• Increases consumption of food
• Increases availability of food

Classification Of Raw Materials

• Fruit and vegetables
• Starchy food
• Dairy
• Protein
• Fat and oils
• Eggs
• Salt and sugars

According to perishability

• Non-Perishable
• Semi-Perishable
• Perishable

Mixing Food

• Stirring – Food is stirred by a rotary motion of the arm. The purpose of stirring is to mix thoroughly all ingredients.
• Beating – Food is beaten when the motion in mixing brings the contents at the bottom of the bowl to the top and there is a continual turning over and over of a considerable part of the contents of the bowl. The purpose of beating is to enclose a large amount of air.
• Folding In – Two foods are blended by putting the spoon or egg-whip vertically down through the foods, turning it under the mass, and bringing it vertically up. This process is repeated until the mixing is complete. The purpose of folding in is to prevent the escape of air or gases that have already been introduced into the mixture.
• Cutting in – A process used to blend fat with flour. It consists of cutting the fat into the flour with a knife or two knives until it is distributed in as small particles as desired.
• Creaming – A rubbing together of fat and sugar, or a pressing and beating of fat to soften it.
• Kneading – A stretching motion applied to dough when more flour is to be added than can be either stirred or beaten into the mixture; or used to make a dough smooth and even in consistency.
• Larding – A process of inserting match-like strips of salt pork about one-fourth inch in thickness into a dry meat or fish.

Effects Of Heat On Various Food Items

• Proteins: Coagulation

Examples: hard boiled or fried eggs

• Starches: Gelatinization

Examples: pasta and rice getting larger and softer after boiling, flour thickening a soup

• Sugars: Caramelization

Examples: brown top of a creme brulee, bread turning brown as it bake

• Water: Evaporation

Examples: water boiling, spinach losing shape

• Fats: Melt

Examples: using butter or oil to pan-fry

Methods Of Cooking Food

• Boiling is cooking in water at a temperature of 212° Fahrenheit. At this temperature water will bubble vigorously and as these bubbles come to the surface of the water steam is given off. (In mountainous regions, where the boiling-point is affected by atmospheric pressure, allowance must be made for the variation.)
• Simmering is cooking in water at a temperature of 180° F. to 210° F., or below the boiling-point of water. Only an occasional bubble is formed and rises slowly to the surface.
• Stewing is cooking in a small amount of water. The water may boil or simmer, as indicated for the food that is to be cooked.
• Steaming is cooking in the steam generated by boiling water.

• Pressure Cooking is cooking in steam at a pressure of 5 to 30 pounds and at temperatures 228° F. to 274° F. The rise in the temperature of the steam is caused by holding it under pressure. A special cooker is necessary for this cooking. From 10 to 15 pounds (240° to 250° F.) is the pressure ordinarily used for household purposes.
• Broiling is cooking over or under or in front of a fire of live coals or a gas or electric burner, or other direct heat.
• Oven Broiling is cooking in a broiler pan (either with or without a rack) that runs close under the heat in the broiling oven of a gas or electric stove.
• Pan Broiling is cooking in a hot griddle or pan greased only enough to prevent food from sticking.
• Baking is cooking in the oven. The temperature of baking varies with the food to be prepared. A slow oven should be from 250° F. to 350° F. A moderate oven should be from 350° F. to 400° F. A hot oven should be from 400° F. to 450° F. A very hot oven should be from 450° F. to 550° F.
• Poaching is cooking, for a short time, foods such as eggs or fish or mixtures of these foods, in water, milk, or stock, just below the boiling temperature.
• Oven Poaching is cooking in the oven in a dish set in hot water. The method is used for custards, souffles, and other egg mixtures of delicate texture which are cooked in the oven.
• Roasting as now used means the same as baking. Originally it meant cooking before an open fire and was similar to broiling.
• Frying is cooking in hot fat at a temperature of from 3 50° F. to 400° F., depending on the nature of the food to be cooked. The article to be cooked is immersed in the fat.
• Sautéing is cooking in a small quantity of fat. The article to be cooked must be shifted from side to side to come in contact with the fat. Sauteing is a cross between pan broiling and frying.
• Braising is a combination of stewing or steaming with baking. The food to be braised is first stewed or steamed and then baked.
• Fricasseeing is a combination of sautéing with stewing or steaming. The food to be fricasseed is first sautéed, then stewed or steamed.
• Fireless Cooking is cooking by heat that has been retained in a fireless cooker or insulated oven. It is accomplished by surrounding the thoroughly heated food with some insulating material to keep the heat from being lost rapidly.

Non-Conventional Methods Of Cooking

• By Fire
• Fireside Cooking-The most obvious, tried and true method is to cook over an open fire
• Cooking through microwave

EGG

Figure-Structure Of Egg

Various Ways Of Cooking Eggs With Example In Each Method

• Soft Boiled eggs have a firm white and warm, runny egg yolk. Prepared by gently lowering the egg into boiling water for around 5 to 6 minutes.
• Hard Boiled eggs have a firm white and firm egg yolk. Prepared by gently lowering the egg into boiling water for around 10 to 15 minutes.
• Fried egg
• Sunny Side Up – Egg is cooked without flipping until the while is set firmly and the yolk is cooked softly.
• Omelettes are popular breakfast items and also served at other times of the day. Omelettes can be served plain or with different garnishes like ham, cheese, onion, tomato, sliced sausages etc. the combinations are never-ending.
  • Plain Omelette: is prepared plain only with seasonings.
  • Flat Omelette: Add garnish to the egg before making the omelette, turn out without folding, coloured side uppermost. Spanish TORTILLAS and Italian FRITTATAS are examples of this open-faced pancake style omelette.
  • Stuffed and folded Omelette: Place fillings in the centre of omelette before folding.
  • Folded and stuffed: Slit the turned out omelette along with the centre of the top surface, place in the fillings.
  • Folded Omelette
• Scrambled eggs is a dish made from eggs stirred or beaten together in a pan while being gently heated, typically with salt and butter and variable other ingredients.
• Shirred eggs are prepared in special dishes made with chinaware or metal skillets in a variety of sizes, the prepared egg is also served in the same dish.
• Poached eggs are difficult to prepare as keeping the form of the egg in the cooking process is difficult. The Freshest the eggs the easier to prepare poached eggs.

Prevention Of Blue Ring Formation.

A greenish-gray ring may appear around a hard-cooked egg yolk. It’s unattractive, but not harmful. The ring is caused by a chemical reaction involving sulfur (from the egg white) and iron (from the egg yolk), which naturally react to form ferrous sulfide at the surface of the yolk. The reaction is usually caused by overcooking, but can also be caused by a high amount of iron in the cooking water.

Eliminate the ring by avoiding overcooking and by cooling the eggs quickly after cooking. Run cold water over the just-cooked eggs

STANDARD RECIPE

A standard recipe is a restaurant recipe that has been tested and repeated enough so that it has the same yield and results when created with consistent procedures, ingredients, and equipment. Standard recipes not only help the business satisfy customer expectations, but also help it maintain efficiency in other aspects. Let’s take a closer look at the purpose of standard recipes and explore how standard recipes are developed.

YIELD

Yield in culinary terms refers to how much you will have of a finished or processed product. Professional recipes should always state a yield; for example, a tomato soup recipe may yield 15 L, and a muffin recipe may yield 24 muffins. Yield can also refer to the amount of usable product after it has been processed (peeled, cooked, butchered, etc.)

STANDARD PORTIONS

Standard portions mean that every plate of a given dish that leaves the kitchen will be almost identical in weight, count, or volume. Only by controlling portions is it possible to control food costs.

STANDARD PORTION COST

A standard portion cost is simply the cost of the ingredients (and sometimes labour) found in a standard recipe divided by the number of portions produced by the recipe

STOCKS

Stocks are flavorful liquids used in the preparation of soups, sauces, and stews, derived by gently simmering various ingredients in water. They are based on meat, poultry, fish, game, or seafood, and flavored with mirepoix, herbs, and spices.

TYPES OF STOCKS

• White stock: A clear, pale liquid made by simmering poultry, beef, or fish bones.
• Brown stock: An amber liquid made by first browning/roasting poultry, beef, veal, or game bones.
• Fumet: A highly flavored stock made with fish bones.
• Court bouillon: An aromatic vegetable broth.
• Glace: A reduced stock with a jelly-like consistency, made from brown stock, chicken stock, or fish stock.
• Remouillage: A weak stock made from bones that have already been used in another preparation. It is sometimes used to replace water as the liquid used in a stock.
• Bouillon: The liquid that results from simmering meats or vegetables; also referred to as broth.

 

ASPIC JELLY

A clear jelly made from fish, chicken, or meat stock, sometimes with added gelatine, flavoured with lemon, tarragon, vinegar, sherry, peppercorns, and vegetables, used to glaze foods such as meat, fish, and game.

ROUX

Roux is a classic thickening agent for soups and sauces, with roots dating back more than 300 years in French cuisine.

 TYPES OF ROUX:

White, Blonde And Brown.

They all contain the same ingredients—equal parts flour and fat—but the colors differ based on how long you cook the mixture.

White roux is the most common and it has the most thickening power. it is used for making white sauce (also called bechamel) and soups.only cook the roux long enough to eliminate the flour’s raw flavor, about 2 to 5 minutes.

Blonde roux is caramel colored and has a nuttier flavor. It is cooked for about 10 minutes. use it is used to make velouté (one of the mother sauces)

Brown roux is the darkest. It’s cooked for as long as 30 minutes, and to stir it constantly to keep it from burning.

SAUCE

Béchamel derivatives

• Cream Sauce
• Mornay Sauce
• Soubise Sauce
• Nantua Sauce
• Cheddar Cheese Sauce
• Mustard Sauce
• Cheesy Sauce

Veloute sauce derivatives

• Normandy Sauce
• Bercy Sauce
• Hungarian Sauce
• Mushroom Sauce
• Aurora Sauce
• Poulette Sauce
• Herb Seafood Sauce

Espagnole sauce derivatives

• Marchand de Vin Sauce (Red Wine Reduction)
• Robert Sauce
• Charcutière Sauce
• Lyonnaise Sauce
• Chasseur Sauce
• Bercy Sauce
• Mushroom Sauce
• Madeira Sauce
• Port Wine Sauce

Hollandaise sauce derivatives

• Béarnaise Sauce
• Dijon Sauce
• Foyot Sauce
• Choron Sauce
• Maltaise Sauce

Tomato sauce derivatives

• Spanish Sauce
• Creole Sauce
• Portuguese Sauce
• Provençale Sauce

Mayonnaise Derivatives

• Aioli
• Thousand Island Dressing
• Tartar Sauce
• Remoulade Dressing
• Cocktail Sauce
• Honey Mustard Dressing

SOUP
Soup, liquid food prepared by cooking meat, poultry, fish, legumes, or vegetables with seasonings in water, stock, milk, or some other liquid medium

Types of Soup

• Clear Soups
• Bouillon
• Broth
• Consommé
• Thick Soups
• Bisque
• Cream

Clear Soups

Clear soups are delicate soups with no thickening agent in them. Consommé, a French clarified meat or fish broth, is a classic version of a clear soup.

Broth,or bouillon

Broth, or bouillon, is another common clear soup. Broths come in a variety of flavours, including chicken, turkey, beef, vegetable and mushroom. Contrary to perception, clear soups can be full of bold and distinct flavours. Good clear soups never taste watery.

Consommé

A consommé is made by adding a mixture of ground meats, together with mirepoix (a combination of carrots, celery, and onion), tomatoes, and egg whites into either bouillon or stock.

Thick Soups

Thick soups are soups that are thickened using flour, cornstarch, cream, vegetables and other ingredients.

Bisque

A bisque is a creamy, thick soup that includes shellfish. Bisque is a method of extracting flavour from imperfect crabs, lobsters and shrimp that are traditionally not good enough to send to market.

Cream

“Cream of____” soups come in a variety of flavours and are the main type of soup found in our Campbell’s Condensed Soup cans. Cream soups are traditionally a basic roux, thinned with cream or milk and combined with a broth of your preferred ingredient.

Ingredients of Consommé Clear Soup Recipe

Minced meat – 2 Cups

Egg white – 1

Chopped Onion – 1

Chopped carrot – 1 Cup

Chopped leek – 1 Cup

Salt – 1 Teaspoon

Chopped celery – 1

Peppercorns – 5

A few bay leaf

Mutton stock or chicken cubes – 1 ½ liter

Boiled rice or tomato dices for garnishing

How to Make Consommé Clear Soup

Step 1: Take a thick, heavy bottom frying pan.

Step 2: Add minced meat in a pan and add egg white, carrot, leek, celery, bay leaf, peppercorns and mix them.

Step 3: Then add a cold mutton stock to the mixture and again mix them well. Cook it for 10 minutes.

Step 4: Cook the mixture on the MEDIUM heat and keep stirring till it comes to boil.

Step 5: A raft will be formed don’t’ stir.

Step 6: Strain the soup through a muslin cloth.

Step 7: Add salt to the soup and garnish it with tomato cubes and rice and serve hot.

Consommé garnishes

• Consommé st. German             Green peas.
• Consommé cereals           Rice and barley.
• Consommé Paysanme              Uniform size cuts of fresh vegetables.
• Consommé Diabolism              Diamond cuts of cheese bisque.
• Consommé Aurora           Tomato puree and tapioca.
• Consommé Caroline                 Dry cook rice.
• Consommé Hungarian             Paprika powder and saute tomato
• Consommé Leopold                 Semolina, Julienne of chervil.
• Consommé Egg-drops                         Beaten egg.
• Consommé Thunderstone                Slice mushroom.
• Consommé Florentine                Julienne cuts of spinach.
• Consommé Washington           Sweet corn.
• Consommé Permentiere             Potato
• Consommé A ‘I’ Agnon            Golden brown onion.