Mastering different cooking techniques

Everything you need to know

Cooking techniques generally fall into two main categories: moist heat and dry heat. Each method manipulates heat to create distinct textures and flavours in your food.

Understanding how to use these core techniques will help improve your cooking and give you more space to explore different dishes.

Moist Heat Cooking

These techniques rely on water, broth, or steam to cook food gently at lower temperatures. It softens tough foods and is excellent for retaining moisture.

Boiling: Cooking food in rapidly bubbling water. It's best suited for foods that need to be cooked quickly without delicate textures, such as dry pasta, some grains, and root vegetables.

Simmering: A gentler version of boiling where the liquid is held just below the boiling point. It's perfect for soups, grains, and delicate proteins that might break apart at high temperatures.

Steaming: Cooking food using the vapour of boiling water. This is done because the food never touches the liquid, so it retains its shape, nutrients, and natural flavours.

Poaching: Gently cooking food in a barely simmering liquid. It's the ideal method for delicate ingredients like eggs, fish and fruit.

Dry Heat Cooking

Dry heat techniques use hot air, direct heat, or high-temperature surfaces (with little to no liquid) to create crispy crusts.

Sautéing: Cooking food quickly in a small amount of oil or butter over medium-high heat in a pan. You generally keep the food moving (or tossing) to ensure even cooking. It's ideal for vegetables, small cuts of meat, and seafood.

Roasting & Baking: Both techniques use dry, hot air inside an oven. Roasting usually applies to meats and vegetables that benefit from a browned, caramelised exterior, while baking refers to breads and pastries.

Grilling: Exposing food to radiant heat from below. It creates a smoky flavour, typically a technique for BBQs.

To become a culinary wizard in the kitchen, mastering these techniques is your first step! 👨‍🍳