Topic outline of cooking

Cooking is an act of preparing food for eating. It encompasses a vast range of methods, tools and combinations of ingredients to improve the flavour or digestibility of food. It generally requires the selection, measurement and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure in an effort to achieve the desired result.

The following topic outline is provided as an overview of and introduction to cooking:

Essence of cooking

: Chef - Cuisine

History of cooking

: History of Chinese cuisine

Styles of cooking

Sample famous cuisines around the world:

:Cajun cuisine - Chinese cuisine - Cuisine of the Mediterranean - English cuisine - French cuisine - Italian cuisine - Japanese cuisine - Vietnamese cuisine

: See the entire list of cuisines

Basic ingredients

* Cereals: Maize - Rice - Wheat (Bread, Noodles)

* Cooking fats and oils: Butter - Canola oil - Coconut oil - Corn oil - Flaxseed oil - Lard - Margarine - Olive oil - Palm oil - Peanut oil - Rapeseed oil - Sesame oil - Soybean oil - Sunflower oil - Tallow

* Dairy: Buttermilk - Cheese - Cream - Milk - Yogurt

* Eggs

* Fruits: Apples - Cherries - Pears

* Legumes: Beans - Lentils - Soy (Miso, Soy cheese, Soy milk, Soy sauce, Soy yogurt, Textured soy protein, Tofu)

* Meat: Beef - Fish - Mutton - Poultry - Pork

* Mushrooms: Champignon

* Seasonings: Herbs (Parsley) - Spices (Pepper, Salt) - Sweeteners (Agave syrup, Fructose, Glucose, Honey, Stevia, Sugar)

* Vegetables: Cucumber - Eggplants - Garlic - Onions - Potatoes - Squash - Tomatoes

Cooking techniques

Some major hot cooking techniques:

* Baking: Baking Blind - Broiling - FlashBake
* Boiling: Blanching - Braising - Coddling - Double steaming - Infusion - Poaching - Pressure cooking - Simmering - Steaming - Steeping - Stewing - Vacuum flask cooking
* Frying: Deep frying - Hot salt frying - Hot sand frying - Pan frying - Pressure frying - Sautéing - Stir frying
* Microwaving
* Roasting: Barbecuing - Grilling - Rotisserie - Searing
* Smoking

Other preparation techniques

Some cool techniques

: Brining - Drying - Grinding ( [e.g. sesame seeds to produce tahini ] chopping, slicing finely, grating, etc.) - Julienning - Marinating - Mincing - Pickling - Salting - Seasoning - Sprouting - Sugaring

Basic cooking concepts

:Cookbook - Cooking oil - Cooking weights and measures (includes conversions and equivalences common in cooking) - Cooker or stove - Cuisine - Cutting board - Eating - Flavor - Food - Food and cooking hygiene - Foodborne illness - Food preservation - Ingredients - International food terms (useful when reading about food and recipes from different countries) - Maillard reaction - Oven - Recipe, List of recipes - Restaurant - Staple

Famous chefs

:Julia Child - Auguste Escoffier - Alton Brown - Jamie Oliver - Wolfgang Puck - Gordon Ramsay

Cooking lists

: Cocktails - Cookbooks - Cooking utensils - Soups

See also

: Food writing - Nutrition - Culinary profession

External links

* [http://cookingterms.dietdictionary.org/ Cooking Terms] Recipes, cooking terminologies, food and diet dictionaries