Cookery Methods

Cookery Methods

Why do we use a variety of cookery methods? Think about the following:

• Quality or texture of the produce - tougher meat cuts and fibrous fruit and vegetables require different cookery methods from tender meat cuts and fleshy fruit and vegetables
• Weather - cookery methods are different depending on the climate, e.g. fast cooking techniques are used in tropical areas; slower methods that require a lot of fuel are used more in colder climates
• Season - availability of ingredients varies according to the seasons and some cookery techniques might not be appropriate for all ingredients
• Variety - chefs can showcase their skills by using many different cooking techniques in their menus and within individual dishes
• Cost - as profit margins become increasingly tight, the cost of ingredients becomes more important. As a result, chefs need to explore cookery methods that are appropriate to cheaper cuts of meat and use seasonal vegetables. Offal is becoming more popular as it can be prepared in interesting ways and the purchasing costs are often quite low

Using Different Cookery Methods

The foremost reason for using different cookery methods is the need to make the food palatable. Some foods can be eaten raw, e.g. sashimi, however most foods improve with cooking. Meat is an excellent example of this. Meat is the muscle of the animal and the more a muscle is used, the tougher it gets. Muscles that are not used much, such as the fillet, do not require much cooking and can even be eaten raw. Muscles that are used a lot, such as shin, require extensive cooking.

It is easy to remember which parts of an animal are tougher than others - think about your own body. Generally speaking, any body part that is tough on us is tough in an animal. Try the following - touch the outside of your leg, then the inside of your leg. You will find that the outside is tougher than the inside. Flavour is usually more intense in tougher cuts of meat.

Also think about animal behaviour. For grazing animals, such as sheep and cattle, the front part of the animal is doing a lot of work, with the head moving up and down and pulling on feed. The back legs of the animal do less work, so the hindquarter primals are more tender than the forequarter primals. The back muscles are not used as much as the legs, so they are much more tender, with the fillet being the most tender part. The tail, on the other hand, is always swishing flies off the animal's back, so it is quite tough.

Carcass Tenderness

One reason for using different cookery methods is the variation in tenderness of commodities. Using the example of a cow carcass, you can see that the cuts of meat vary in their tenderness.

Factors Contributing to Toughness

The leg is tender on the top where the rump is located and on the inside of the leg where the topside and round primals are located. The outside primal cut, the silverside, is tougher because this muscle is used more.

Other factors contributing to toughness are age, diet, sex and species:

• Older animals are tougher than young animals, e.g. mutton is tougher than lamb
• Milk-fed animals are more tender than grain-fed animals
• Male animals tend to be more muscular and active than female animals and therefore are generally tougher
• Feathered game species are tougher than domesticated poultry because they are much more active

Poultry is quite young when slaughtered and thus does not get very tough. The legs do most of the work, so they are tougher and more intensely flavoured than the breast, which does very little work and remains tender. Game birds are generally leaner because they are more active and birds of flight have tougher breast meat than birds such as chickens which do not regularly fly.

Understanding primal cuts will help you select an appropriate cookery method. Dry heat methods such as grilling and roasting are appropriate for tender cuts, while moist heat methods such as stewing and braising are appropriate for tougher cuts.

The reason for this is due to the tendons in the meat, which are made of a protein called collagen. Moist heat cookery methods slowly break down the tendons and convert them into gelatine. This adds flavour to the sauce and makes the meat moist and tender. If you were to use a dry heat cookery method, the collagen would not break down quickly enough, meaning that the meat would remain stringy and tough and you would also lose the flavour that would go otherwise into the sauce.

Some items, such as goose and beef brisket, are initially cooked with a moist heat cookery method to tenderise it and finished with a dry heat cookery method such as roasting or barbecuing. Baking soda, acid and papain, an enzyme obtained from pawpaw, can also be used to tenderise meat before cooking it.

A similar principle applies to fruit and vegetables. Tough and stringy fruit and vegetables, such as fennel, cabbage and rhubarb, are cooked with moist heat, e.g. boiling, while tender fruit and vegetables, such as tomatoes, are often grilled, baked or roasted (dry heat).

3a. Menu Applications of Cookery Methods

A well-designed restaurant menu will incorporate a wide variety of cookery methods in its dishes. This is done to display the skills of the chef over a range of dishes. It also offers the customer a range of choices, which is useful for people with specific dietary requirements. It is important to consider the nutritional impacts of the cookery methods you use as some methods result in healthier dishes than other methods.

Individual dishes can be enhanced by using a combination of cookery methods. If all the components of a dish were boiled, then they would all have a similar texture. By adding other cookery methods such as deep-frying, grilling and baking, you can create wonderful harmonies of texture and flavour. Use a variety of colours in the dish and you can create an inspiring dish that excites the customer.

You can also use a combination of cookery methods to make the most of seasonal and regional varieties of produce. For example, if you ordered small zucchini for a grilled vegetable salad, but only large zucchini were available, you could use them for ratatouille instead. Quick cookery methods such as grilling are usually used for smaller, younger vegetables, while slower methods such as stewing are used for older, more fibrous vegetables.

Understanding and mastering the various cookery methods is an essential building block for any chef. Knowing what each method is used for and which ingredients are suitable will help you to create menu items that are well-constructed and balanced. You will need to learn which cookery methods are suitable for the key food groups:

• Vegetables, fruit and legumes
• Farinaceous, e.g. bread, cereals, rice, pasta and noodles
• Dairy, e.g. milk, yoghurt and cheese
• Protein items, e.g. meat, fish, poultry, eggs and nuts

All of these groups can be cooked using a wide variety of cookery methods. In the following sections you will find descriptions of the many cookery methods, as well as menu examples of the different food groups cooked using each method. Take a look at the examples provided and consider why each cookery method was chosen. What other options would be appropriate?c

World of Cooking

The same cookery techniques and principles are used throughout the world to create a huge variety of dishes. The choice of cookery method is often dependent on the commodities used. For example, sinewy cuts of meat and starchy vegetables are used to make flavoursome stews all around the world, while first class cuts and green vegetables are often grilled.