Thursday, July 26, 2018

Cooking, A Scientific Art or an Artistic Science?

Cooking, A Scientific Art or an Artistic Science?


Cooking, which is simply a process of preparing of food items using a heat treatment, can be considered as one of the most wonderful activities in every human society. This is a talent unique to humans. It is a science, it is an art and the most important thing about cooking is that it is one of the major keys for both physical and mental satisfaction.
Scientific point of view: Cooking is a process where a series of chemical reactions are carried out. The heat treatment causes key ingredients in food items like proteins to transform and result easily digestible compounds so that our body can absorb the required nutrients from the food that we consume.  Pleasant colors, textures, small and flavors are formed within a food item as a result of these reactions.
Food safety: Food safety plays a major role. Food items contain pathogenic microorganisms like Salmonella which can cause various illnesses. A proper heat treatment is required   to make sure that the food items are free from microorganisms. But as the nutrients in the food items are heat sensitive they tend to be destroyed during the cooking process. Therefore a proper control in the heat treatment is very critical in produce a hygienic food with proper nutrients. HTST Specially in food industry High Temperature Short Time (HTST) is used to produce such food items. Here the food items are cooked in high temperature for short period of time. This method ensures that the microorganisms are killed while the nutrients are retained. This technique is quite popular in sterilization applications.
Hygienic cooking In current society the consumers are very concerned about food safety. Therefore cooking has to be carried out in a hygienic manner. The equipment, water or oil has to be clean and be up to the standard. At the same time the chef has to be clean and should follow the guide lines issued by relevant authorities.
Cooking techniques People use different techniques to provide the heating effect which is required in cooking. Early in the human civilization roasting was the most common method. Eventually boiling, smoking, baking and frying methods were emerged.  And today this has evolved up to steam injection and microwave heating. The different cooking techniques will provide different flavors, textures, colors and aromas for the food items.
Cooking is an art: No matter how much nutrients are there in a food item, nobody will eat it if it does not have an attractive appearance, a pleasant look and a delicious taste. That is why it has become an art and that is why there are many methods to cook the same food in different cultures. As a result great variety of food items are available all around the world by using different combinations of techniques and ingredients. Everybody can be a scientist and an artist with cooking. Anyone can do experimenting with cooking and come out with new foods. For one person it can be a scientific art. For another it is an artistic science. So there is nothing wrong in saying that this is the most wonderful activity in our society.

No comments:

Post a Comment