Cooking is the application of heat to food. It changes the texture, flavour, smell and colour of food. In some cases, cooking makes food easier to digest and safer to eat.
Methods of cooking are divided into wet and dry. Wet methods use liquid or water vapour (steam) to cook food; for example, boiling, poaching and steaming. Dry methods use hot air or hot surfaces to cook food; for example, roasting, frying and grilling.
Some cooking methods suit certain types of food better than others.
Tough cuts of meat and poultry contain collagen, a connective tissue. Collagen becomes tough and chewy if cooked by dry heat. However, if it is undergoes a long, gentle, wet heat, it becomes soft and jelly-like.
The opposite is also true. If a tender cut of meat with very little collagen is cooked using wet, slow methods, it will become dry and stringy. Such prime cuts are best cooked by fast, dry methods.
You do not need to know all the details of how a dish is cooked to be able to describe it. However, knowledge of cooking methods helps you to understand why some dishes are moist and others drier, and some are crisp and crunchy, while others are soft or tender.
For example:
Boiling results in evenly soft, moist potatoes, whereas roasting results in potatoes with a crisp, brown outer surface and soft inner flesh.