Using the best cooking technique is pretty important when cooking food. Ironic, isn’t it?

As with all things, knowing when to use your different skills is vital. Even if you have the choicest piece of meat ever conceived, if you cook it improperly it will turn out bad.

There is nothing more intimidating than having an expensive cut of meat and not knowing how to cook it. Learning about the cooking methods will help when faced with cooking both meat and vegetables.

All food cooks in: air, fat, water, or steam. Which one you choose to use will help determine the best cooking method.

Methods of Cooking

There are many different methods of cooking. Including:

• Broiling
• Grilling
• Roasting/Baking
• Sauteing
• Pan Frying
• Deep Frying
• Steaming
• Boiling
• Simmering
• Poaching
• Braising
• Stewing

These methods ultimately produce:

• “Dry” or “Moist” heat to cook the food, and
• Will cook it “Fast” or “Slow”

The following infographic helps to illustrate each method.

Note, what we call “BBQing” in Canada is usually called “Grilling” in America. Likewise, what American’s call “BBQing” many Canadians call “Smoking.”

For meat, the speed of heating is very important for determining how tough or tender a cut will be. When you apply heat, you start breaking down the collagen in the meat, and the longer (not necessarily hotter) you cook, the more collagen you break.

Thus, a slow cooking method will turn a tough cut of meat into a tender steak.

But, you shouldn’t do this for already tender cuts, as it is usually a waste of time, energy and money.

Tender cuts of meat are usually more expensive, and cooking meat slowly can act as an equalizer. A cheap, tough cut of meat will be similar to an expensive, tender cut of meat after 8 hours in a slow-cooker.