Stir-frying: This is a quick and hot cooking method that is popular in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Southeast Asian cooking. All ingredients are cut in uniform size, then quickly fried in hot wok or frying pan with a bit of oil. This method will retain nutrients and texture and give a vibrant color to food, and intensify the flavor. What a great stir-fry recipe can help a novice to learn is how to control heat and cooking time, and to cook efficiently.
Slow-cooked dishes have a long history in many European and Middle Eastern countries.
Braising, stewing, and soup making are staples of European and Middle Eastern cooking. Tough ingredients are cooked slowly over low heat for a long period of time to create very flavorful and tender dishes. Slow-cooking is perfect for cooking tougher cuts of meat, legumes, and root vegetables. It’s a great technique for new cooks as it’s hard to mess up and the results are delicious and comforting with very little hands-on time.
Steaming in East and Southeast Asia
Steaming is a popular cooking method in Chinese, Vietnamese, and many other Asian cultures. Unlike boiling or frying, food is never exposed to boiling water or hot oil in steaming, allowing for maximum flavor retention, moisture preservation, and most importantly, minimal nutrient loss. Steaming is typically used for cooking dumplings, fish, vegetables, and rice. Steaming is easy, healthy, and a great beginner cooking technique that yields excellent results.
Grilling Across Cultures
Grilling: Grilling is common in a variety of international cuisines, from Mediterranean and Middle Eastern to Latin American and African. Food is charred to enhance flavor and texture when cooked on an open flame or very hot surface. Essential ingredients and techniques include marinades, seasonings and timing. This cooking technique teaches beginners how to gauge the effects of heat on food and how seasonings can add flavor when cooking at high temperatures.
European and Global Baked Goods
Baking is integral to much of European cuisine, and it’s also the primary cooking method for bread, cakes, pastries, and casseroles all over the world. The dry-heat cooking method requires concentration, measured temperature and time, and an understanding of the relationship between these factors and the desired texture and structure of the final product. Learning to bake is an exercise in precision, attention to detail, and following through to the end. And don’t assume baking is all about sugar and sweetness — bread, pies, flatbreads, and even whole roasted dinners rely on the baking method.
Frying is very common in deep fried or fried foods. They can range from french fries and fried chicken to doughnuts and various street foods.
Frying (shallow or deep) is a technique often used in street foods and traditional recipes, and is a way to achieve a crispy exterior and a deeper flavor. Use this technique for fried dumplings, fried pastries, fried snacks etc. and make sure to keep an eye on the temperature of the oil and the length of time you fry the food. If you’re new to cooking, this is a great technique to practice because it will help you understand how to handle heat, and how different types of fat interact with food.
Wild fermentation, or “lacto-fermentation,” has the advantage of increasing nutrients and the number of beneficial microorganisms in food. In the context of wild fermentation, preservation is about letting food sit undisturbed for a while to allow the desired microorganisms to develop, which can be less challenging than keeping them from growing. Use a small bit of brine from the top of a fermented vegetable that has been already fermented as a starter for making sauerkraut. The natural bacteria on the skin of fresh fruit or vegetables can also be used as a starter.
To preserve and flavor: This is another of the most common reasons for fermentation. There are a ton of preservation techniques used to ferment foods to improve their longevity and flavor, from Korean kimchi to Eastern European sauerkraut to African fermented locust beans. Fermentation adds depth and a pungency, a “funk” of flavor, to foods, as well as extra nutrition. Though fermentation can be a time-consuming process, there are quicker ways to get a feel for how fermentation can be used in the kitchen.
A mix of the above-mentioned methods can be employed in some classic recipes.
Some recipes for national dishes involve combining several techniques in a single dish, like sautéing and braising, or steaming and baking. Knowing what the techniques mean will make it easier for beginning cooks to make complicated recipes and to adjust them for their home kitchen. These combinations of techniques show the culinary inventiveness of a culture, combined with years of practical experience.
Discovering Ways of Learning via Culture
Learning about cooking methods by culture is a great way for new chefs to branch out, while learning a little about different cultures as well. Each cooking method has something to teach you about timing, heat, and the way you manage ingredients. As you learn these methods in various cultures, you will become a more adaptable, innovative, and open-minded chef, with a new respect for food from around the world.