Cooking is an act of preparing food for eating. It encompasses a vast range of methods, tools and combinations of ingredients to improve the flavour or digestibility of food. It generally requires the selection, measurement and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure in an effort to achieve the desired result. Constraints on success include the variability of ingredients, ambient conditions, tools and the skill of the individual cooking.

The diversity of cooking worldwide is a reflection of the myriad nutritional, aesthetic, agricultural, economic, cultural and religious considerations that impact upon it.

Cooking requires applying heat to a food which usually, though not always, chemically transforms it, thus changing its flavor, texture, appearance, and nutritional properties. Cooking proper, as opposed to roasting, requires the boiling of water in a receptable, and was practiced at least since the 10th millennium BC with the introduction of pottery. There is archaeological evidence of roasted foodstuffs, both animal and vegetable, in human (Homo erectus) campsites dating from the earliest known use of fire some 800,000 years ago.

Effects of cooking

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Food safety

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@GirlOnMission Mommie just called...she is tied up cooking for 20 ppl again tonight, so told me to handle it ;)
schnaklefarg (Clemens Metternich) Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:51:11 -0000
@GirlOnMission Mommie just called...she is tied up cooking for 20 ppl again tonight, so told me to handle it ;)
Buying chicken, eating dinner, cooking chicken to eat for the week...what an exciting night
jhoyt (Jon Hoyt) Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:51:08 -0000
Buying chicken, eating dinner, cooking chicken to eat for the week...what an exciting night
No cooking tonite, staight six packs and chicken wraps while I hit dat :)
2rip (cuffleelovelace) Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:51:03 -0000
No cooking tonite, staight six pac Subscribe to Cooking RSS feed