our technique

I have been searching for this for a few months, unsuccessfully, but now I have finally found it again after digging through Michael Laiskonis's blog.

I wanted to provide the young-chefs-to-be a list of the common techniques applied to foods.  But I was having a hard time coming up with the list.  Mr Laiskonis had a beautiful list he had prepared in the past...going back to 2008.  So...if you look back at the post...

psshhh..Its time to start writing again..

... you'll see that I was trying to come up with the food from idea to plate.  

 Here is the link to his list... Download Index of Methods and Preparations.pdf

So right now, I am teaching introduction to foodservice which includes basic mise en place, knife skills, and introduction to cooking techniques.

We start with the basics...what happens to food when heat is applied.

WATER-EVAPORATES

SUGAR-CARAMELIZES

PROTEIN-COAGULATES

FAT-MELTS

STARCHES-GELATINIZE

And that's really it.  So in order to make those things happen, we have thirteen specific cooking techniques.  Some dry, some moist, and some combination (according to our textbook, that is).

These are:

DRY

saute

pan fry

deep fry

bake

roast

broil

grill

MOIST

poach

simmer

boil

steam

COMBINATION

braise

stew

In order, to determine which of the cooking methods is appropriate(when applied to meats), we need to take a look at the muscle fibers, fast and slow twitch.

To be continued....