Cooking
Kitchen equipment and explanations of what different devices can do for you is a major part of the overall section. Another technical aspect are basic cooking fundamentals such as making stocks, marinates, dressings, standard seasoning mixes etc. For the most part cooking does not conform to a one size fits all quick summary. What foods you want to include in your diet, perhaps from health concerns, will dictate the types of dishes and cooking styles you use. The crossroad between health concerns and cooking itself can become an almost indistinguishable line in some ways, but several specific areas of health seem to have special relevance to health. These issues are basically the differences different cooking styles effect the nutritional status of the final product . Perhaps a better way to put it is that food stuffs have an intrinsic nature when we first prepare them for cooking. Those intrinsic understandings are relevant in the context of what the end product is actual In a sense the cook only needs to know what the effects of their cooking will be on the nutritional status of the final product
Hopefully most people are aware that some nutrients from produce are best absorbed when the food is cooked slightly. This can be true for a variety of reasons including that many vegetables have naturally occurring substances often referred to as anti-nutrients which interfere with the proper absorption of certain minerals and enzymes. Cooking can help break up or destroy these compounds as can the soaking beans and grains overnight before cooking. It may also be the case that individuals with compromised digestion, or other health conditions, may not be able tolerate certain diets such as high raw food or even high protein diets that health people would tolerate perfectly well. We should probably add that there is a potential for the health obsessed to become so concerned about cooking everything to in a perfect manner that they create more damage from the health effects of the stress than they save from a perfectly healthily cooked meal.
There are a series of types of food preparation which are all important techniques in either getting food stuffs to last longer, or that changes the food stuff in a way that is more healthful or provides more versatility to the food stuff. These techniques include freezing and dehydrating, canning and preserving, fermentation, juicing and blending, and sprouting. All of these techniques have health implications for the food stuff being manipulated in any one of these techniques, but such techniques can also serve to increase the flexibility for the cook to store the foods and to prepare the foods to serve a wider variety of tastes and textures.
In previous sections we have also mentioned the idea of a list, or chart, of foods that would serve as a kind of food index which would give specific information on foods in various contexts of usage. For instance how long certain foods will stay good in storage or in the refrigerator. Such a chart or index might also give quick blurbs about how well a particular food stuff lends itself to some of the special subjects we mentioned in the previous paragraph, such as fermentation, freezing etc. such a shorthand might also serve to give quick ideas about how well certain foods respond to certain cooking styles such as steaming , sautéing, or frying, both in terms of taste and in terms of health. Obviously some of these issues will need to be discussed more deeply, but such charts can at least give us a general feeling for what we can do with some of these foods.
How to actually cook meals is going to be highly individualistic and dependent on a lot of factors including what foods you believe to be healthy, Providing a good list of cookbooks and perhaps You Tube videos may prove to be helpful for a lot of people. But it is also likely that many folks will need either hands on workshops, or comprehensive cooking schooling in order to become proficient cooks. Most cooking schools seemed designed to create professional cooks, though some options may exist for home cooks trying to become more proficient in their home environment. Bauman College may be one option for home cooks, and we have are eyes out for more.
However it may be the case that we will need to again build some grassroots community based cooperative training in cooking in order to fulfill the potential needs of the community in this regard. Having access to a certified commercial kitchen which is designed to allow for a variety of local community needs might be an important first step in this regard.
Kitchen equipment and explanations of what different devices can do for you is a major part of the overall section. Another technical aspect are basic cooking fundamentals such as making stocks, marinates, dressings, standard seasoning mixes etc. For the most part cooking does not conform to a one size fits all quick summary. What foods you want to include in your diet, perhaps from health concerns, will dictate the types of dishes and cooking styles you use. The crossroad between health concerns and cooking itself can become an almost indistinguishable line in some ways, but several specific areas of health seem to have special relevance to health. These issues are basically the differences different cooking styles effect the nutritional status of the final product . Perhaps a better way to put it is that food stuffs have an intrinsic nature when we first prepare them for cooking. Those intrinsic understandings are relevant in the context of what the end product is actual In a sense the cook only needs to know what the effects of their cooking will be on the nutritional status of the final product
Hopefully most people are aware that some nutrients from produce are best absorbed when the food is cooked slightly. This can be true for a variety of reasons including that many vegetables have naturally occurring substances often referred to as anti-nutrients which interfere with the proper absorption of certain minerals and enzymes. Cooking can help break up or destroy these compounds as can the soaking beans and grains overnight before cooking. It may also be the case that individuals with compromised digestion, or other health conditions, may not be able tolerate certain diets such as high raw food or even high protein diets that health people would tolerate perfectly well. We should probably add that there is a potential for the health obsessed to become so concerned about cooking everything to in a perfect manner that they create more damage from the health effects of the stress than they save from a perfectly healthily cooked meal.
There are a series of types of food preparation which are all important techniques in either getting food stuffs to last longer, or that changes the food stuff in a way that is more healthful or provides more versatility to the food stuff. These techniques include freezing and dehydrating, canning and preserving, fermentation, juicing and blending, and sprouting. All of these techniques have health implications for the food stuff being manipulated in any one of these techniques, but such techniques can also serve to increase the flexibility for the cook to store the foods and to prepare the foods to serve a wider variety of tastes and textures.
In previous sections we have also mentioned the idea of a list, or chart, of foods that would serve as a kind of food index which would give specific information on foods in various contexts of usage. For instance how long certain foods will stay good in storage or in the refrigerator. Such a chart or index might also give quick blurbs about how well a particular food stuff lends itself to some of the special subjects we mentioned in the previous paragraph, such as fermentation, freezing etc. such a shorthand might also serve to give quick ideas about how well certain foods respond to certain cooking styles such as steaming , sautéing, or frying, both in terms of taste and in terms of health. Obviously some of these issues will need to be discussed more deeply, but such charts can at least give us a general feeling for what we can do with some of these foods.
How to actually cook meals is going to be highly individualistic and dependent on a lot of factors including what foods you believe to be healthy, Providing a good list of cookbooks and perhaps You Tube videos may prove to be helpful for a lot of people. But it is also likely that many folks will need either hands on workshops, or comprehensive cooking schooling in order to become proficient cooks. Most cooking schools seemed designed to create professional cooks, though some options may exist for home cooks trying to become more proficient in their home environment. Bauman College may be one option for home cooks, and we have are eyes out for more.
However it may be the case that we will need to again build some grassroots community based cooperative training in cooking in order to fulfill the potential needs of the community in this regard. Having access to a certified commercial kitchen which is designed to allow for a variety of local community needs might be an important first step in this regard.