Cooking: Applying Heat, and Everything That Follows
Cooking is preparing food, usually with heat. The word also names a style of cuisine, and informally it means something is going well or being planned.
Cooking is the preparation of food, and in most senses it means applying heat. Heat does more than warm: it kills pathogens, breaks down tough tissue and triggers the browning reactions that create most of what we recognise as flavour.
- Preparing food with heat. *He does all the cooking.*
- A style of cuisine. *Home cooking.*
- Suitable for cooking (adjective). *Cooking apples.*
- Going well (informal). *Now we are cooking.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | cooking | Italian cooking. |
| Verb | cook | Cook it slowly. |
| Person | cook | A good cook. |
| Person | chef | The head chef. |
| Compound | cookbook | A well-used cookbook. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The smell of cooking filled the hall.Uncountable — the activity.
- Use cooking apples for the crumble.Varieties that hold up to heat, unlike eating apples.
- What is cooking?Informal — what is happening or being planned.
What heat actually does
- Kills pathogens — the reason cooking made new foods safe
- Breaks down collagen — why slow-cooked tough cuts turn tender
- Gelatinises starch — why raw flour and rice are indigestible
- Maillard reaction — browning of proteins and sugars, the source of most savoury flavour
- Caramelisation — sugars breaking down on their own, a separate process
From *cook*, from Old English *coc*, from Latin *coquus*. English borrowed the person before the verb: for centuries there was a cook but no verb to cook, and people said *seethe*, *roast* or *bake* instead.
Cook or chef?
A chef has professional training and usually runs a kitchen. A cook prepares food, at home or at work, without the implied hierarchy.
Is cooking always hot?
Almost always, but ceviche is cured in acid rather than heated, and dishes like this are described as cooked by cooks and not by chemists.