'Cooking' is the act of preparing food for eating by the application of heat. It
encompasses a vast range of methods, tools and combinations of ingredients to
alter the flavor or digestibility of food. It is the general preparation process
of selecting, measuring and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure in
an effort to achieve the desired result. Factors affecting the final outcome
include the variability of ingredients, ambient conditions, tools, and the skill
of the individual doing the actual cooking. The diversity of cooking worldwide is a reflection of the myriad nutritional,
aesthetic, agricultural, economic, cultural, social and religious considerations
that impact upon it. Applying heat to a food usually, though not always, chemically transforms it,
thus changing its flavor, texture, consistency, appearance, and nutritional
properties. There is archaeological evidence of roasted foodstuffs, both animal
and vegetable, in human (Homo erectus) campsites dating from the earliest
known use of fire, some 800,000 years ago. Other methods of cooking that involve
the boiling of liquid in a receptacle have been practiced at least since the
10th millennium BC, with the introduction of pottery. |