Food Preparation and Cooking Methods
What is tested
Heat transfer, moist, dry and combination cooking methods, the physical changes in food during cooking, matching a method to a food, and safe cooking temperatures.
Core rules
- Heat reaches food by conduction (direct contact, e.g. a pan), convection (moving air or water, e.g. an oven or boiling water) and radiation (grill, microwave).
- Moist methods: boiling (100 °C), simmering (85–96 °C), poaching (70–85 °C), steaming, stewing. Dry methods: baking, roasting, grilling, shallow-frying, deep-frying (170–190 °C), stir-frying. Combination: braising and pot-roasting.
- Protein coagulates at about 60–70 °C; overheating toughens it. Starch gelatinises at 60–80 °C with water. Caramelisation is sugar browning above about 160 °C; Maillard browning needs amino acids, reducing sugars and dry heat.
- Collagen in tough cuts converts to gelatin during long, moist, low-heat cooking, giving tenderness.
- Cook poultry to 74 °C internally; reheat to at least 74 °C.
Worked example
Why stew chuck steak but grill fillet? Chuck contains much collagen and little tender muscle structure; dry high heat would shrink and toughen it. Long moist heat at a simmer converts collagen to gelatin. Fillet is already tender with little connective tissue, so quick dry grilling develops flavour without drying it. The reasoning is a match between connective-tissue content and heat method.
Traps
- Calling deep-frying a moist method.
- Using “boiling” for a 95 °C simmer.
- Assuming all browning is Maillard - caramelisation involves sugar only.
- Forgetting that meat should rest before carving so juices redistribute.