Moist Heat Cooking Methods
Moist Cooking
All moist methods of cooking include boiling, poaching, steaming and simmering. These are all stages in the same cooking process. You cook the food by submerging it in water, stock or other liquids.
Poaching is done by heating the water to a low temperature (160o-180o F) where liquid in the pan is hot but not bubbling at all, although some bubbles may form at the bottom of the pot. Poaching is usually used for very delicate food items such as eggs or fish.
The temperature at which simmering takes place is higher than that of poaching, which can be between 185o and 205o F. Although bubbles will appear and rise gently to the top of the pan when the water is simmered, it’s not boiling at the full boil. Stocks and starchy food like potatoes can be prepared by simmering.
Boiling (220o F): This is the hottest technique of them all. Boiling is not recommended for cooking as it may cause damage to delicate food items and can also make some foods more difficult like fish and meat.
Water heated to boiling (212o F) turns into steam. Steam carries much more heat than boiling water yet steaming is a very gently way to cook foods. This is a great way to cook delicate foods like seafood and vegetables. Food that is steamed cooks quickly with very little loss of nutrients.
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Chat Now online Customer Service Open 12AM-8PM EST Today We ship from the USA to Cart 0 Free Shipping & Net 30! Find out more Kitchen and Cooking Tips WebstaurantStore. We ship from the USA to Cart 0 Free Shipping & Net 30! All three methods use heat to alter foods in different ways. Each of the three cooking techniques (from steaming to grilling) can be combined under this umbrella. It is crucial to be able to master all types of cooking techniques in order for you become a professional chef and home cook. You can use many ingredients and equipment in order to create consistent flavorful dishes. Keep reading for information about the main three types of cooking and all techniques associated with them, as well as the complementary foods.
Learn more by clicking any of the following cooking methods:
Grilling Broiling Cooking Searing Poaching Souring Boiling Steaming Brieling Stewing Glossary
It works well without any water, broth, or moisture. Dry heat cooking relies on hot air circulation or fat contact to transmit heat to the foods. For browning, temperature can reach 300 degrees and higher. Browning refers to a reaction that causes the food’s amino acid and sugars to turn brown. It creates an aroma and flavor. You can see dry heat at work in the aromas of bread baked or meat grilled.
Sauteing
The process of sauteing involves heating a shallow, hot pan over a heat source. This cooks fast, so keep your food moving and toss or turn. Saute is a French word that translates to “jump”. For great sauteing results, ensure that the oil pan is well-heated before adding food. Don’t overload the pan by placing too many things in it. Stir or toss the ingredients frequently.
The best meats to use are tender ones. Place ground beef, tenderloins, or medallions into a saute pan. Use small and uniformly sized meat cuts to brown evenly.
Poultry: You can sear boneless strips or breasts with a saute pan.
Vegetables: Squash, zucchini, and leafy leaves can be sauteed with olive oil or butter. You can sauté onions, carrots and celery. This makes a great base for many other recipes.
Moist heat cooking is, as its name suggests. It uses liquid or steam to prepare food. This technique can make healthy dishes, without using any oil or additional fat. It can be used to tenderize certain meat cuts like beef chucks and brisket. In order to make fibrous vegetables and legumes tender, moist heat cooks soften the food. Unlike dry heat cooking methods, moist heat cooking will not produce a browned crust.
Cooking With Meat
Dry heat is used to cook meat. It is important to consider how tender the cut will be, what quality the final product will have, whether there are any cooking options and tools available, as well the time required for the preparation.
The result is tender, juicy meat when it’s cooked dry-heat. Less-tender cuts must be cooked for longer periods of time by moist-heat methods, to soften the connective tissue, prevent surface drying and to develop flavor. Beef top round and chuck arms, which are less tender, can be prepared by dry heat if they have been marinated.
An internal thermometer can quickly determine the level of doneness. A satisfactory product will require a lower internal temperature to make it tenderer.
The best way to determine the temperature of your roasts is by using a meat thermometer. To ensure the temperature of roasts, the thermometer must be placed into the surface of the roast at a slight angle, or through the ends of the roast. When the meat turns, the thermometer must be clear of the drip pan or cooking unit.
Dry Heat- Dry heat methods of cooking are suitable for tender cuts of meat or less tender cuts which have been marinated. Roasting, baking, grilling or pan-frying are all dry heat options.
Larger cuts of beef and lamb are best roasted this way. See Chapter 3 for other cooking techniques and cuts that are suitable to roast.
Broiling Broiling works well for beef steaks, tender lamb chops, beef and lamb kabobs as well as pork, chicken, and lamb chops. Broiling is possible with steaks, chops, and hams at least 3/4 inches thick. Hams must be at minimum 1/2 inch thick. If marinated, less tender cuts like beef flank steak and beef top round can also be broiled. Veal, pork, lamb shoulder chops, and veal may also be broil. The tenderness of the cuts may be increased by marinating but this is limited to certain cuts. Pan-, griddle or grid broiled tender cuts can also be used for oven broiling. This method works well for meats of 3/4 inch thickness or less. Meats of greater thickness may not be as tender.
Barbecuing or grilling. The Caribbean is where the technique that we know as grilling was invented. There, natives smoked meats over hot coals using wood-framed “grills”. Grilling (or barbecuing) was first described by Spanish explorers as the “barbacoa”, which has evolved into “barbecue,” the term for grilled meat. Grilling meat can take place on a grill, a rack or grid over charcoals, ceramic briquettes heated or open fire. While it is usually done out- doors, grilling can be done in the kitchen with special types of range tops or newer, small appliances.
The most popular fuel for grilling is standard charcoal briquettes. The best briquettes are uniformly and reliably able to burn. You can add flammable material to quick-start your fires. It takes longer for natural lump charcoal to get hot, but it provides heat for a longer period of time.
You can grill lamb and beef with woods like cherry, mesquite or apple chips. The best wood for smoking meat and fish is Hickory. After soaking wood chips for about 30 minutes in water, drain it and then place the chip on the hot coals. Never use softwoods or evergreens. They can leave residues in your grill and impart a bitter flavour. Kabobs are often cooked on the grill. Kabobs consist of pieces of meat (or a mixture of meat and veggies) or meat pieces and fruit, which are then arranged on a wooden skewer.
Dry-Heat Cooking
You can roast, bake, barbecue, sear, cook, steam, fry, saute, pan-fry, stir-frying or deep fat frying. Dry heat cooking is done with air or fat. This brings out rich tastes due to browning and caramelization.
Very little oil is used when sauteing. As soon as the oil in the saute pan starts to smoke the ingredients are added. It helps to retain moisture because of the high heat.
Pan frying requires medium-high heat, along with enough oil to prevent water from escaping.
Bake/Roasting involves the use of air to transfer heat. This cooking technique allows for precise temperatures to be set and long cook times. Browning, which is a part of all this process, enhances many food flavors. Baking is a cooking technique used in bakeries. If you are cooking other items (meats for instance) then you are roasting.
Grilling is noted for the flavors that is released from this rapid convection cooking. Smaller cuts of meat are best grilled. For the marks that they leave on food, cast iron grills work better than stainless steel.
Broiling involves radiant dry heat that is generated above the food being prepared.
Deep-fat fry or Deep Frying does not count as moist heat. It is a dry heat technique that uses fat instead of water. The fat or oil allows for much higher temperatures than water because of their higher boiling temperature.
Moist-Heat Cooking
You can boil, steam, steam, simmer, cook, or roast your food in a papillote. For the best natural flavor in food, use moist heat methods that make use of steam or water.
Poaching is the lowest temperature method (160 deg F – 180 deg F). It should be clear and show some movement, which makes it suitable for delicate foods such as eggs.
It is recommended to simmer in the temperature middle (185 F -205 F). You should see small bubbles break through the water’s surface. It helps to release flavor in soups, stews, or meats.
Boiling (212°F) is submersion’s highest temperature. You should see many vigorous and large bubbles in the water.
Steaming allows for higher temperature cooking with water (> 212 deg F). You can steam your food quickly and enjoy moist-heat cooking.
Combination Dry/Moist cooking braising, stewing and sous vide, as well as wet (hot), smoking. Combination cooking combines both dry and moist cooking.
To ensure that the meat caramelizes properly, you need to dry-heat cook it (pan frying or deep-frying). Once the meat is seared and slightly caramelized, liquid, such as a stock, is added until it reaches the bottom third of the product. Cooking the meat in the oven or over the stove top is done. Keep turning it until tender. It is particularly useful to braise tougher cuts of meat.
The process of stewing is similar to braising except that you completely cover the meat instead of the top third. This method is preferred for making stews.
The vacuum sealing of food is done by sous vide. The vacuum sealing system ensures even and precise cooking. It prevents you from overcooking because the temperature is never higher than the water.
You can give meat flavor and moisture through indirect heat by wet (or hot) smoking (160 degF-240 degF). To smoke meat, you need to heat water in a saucepan with the coals. This creates a steamy and smoky environment that helps keep it moist.
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What if it’s not easy? It doesn’t seem right.
Moist Heat Cooking Blanch: This is when foods are briefly cooked in either hot fat or boiling water before being finished. Blanching preserves color, lessens strong flavors, and aids in removing the peels of some fruits and vegetables.
Boil: You boil your food.
Braise: Cooking food, usually a meat, by searing off the fat and then simmering slowly at a low temperature in a small amount of stock or liquid (about halfway up the meat) in a covered pot or dish. Later, the liquid can be reduced to make a sauce.
Deep Fry: Deep-frying is cooking with hot fat (usually an olive oil). Before cooking, these foods may be coated with breadcrumbs or batter.
Pan Fry: To cook food in fat in a skillet. While this uses less oil (oil), it is more intense than traditional sauteing and stir-frying. The oil used will usually only cover about half of the food.
Tiffany Zaupan Steam: Use very little liquid to cook your food.
Steam: Vapor bath cooking. This is usually done with a double boiler, or steamer. The pot below holds boiling water and the pot that contains the food has perforations.
Stew means a low-temperature cooking technique similar to braising. It uses small pieces of meat, which are typically seared and blanched prior. The result is a faster cooking time.
Tiffany Zau Sweat Photo: Cooking vegetable in a saucepan covered with little fat. They will soften, release moisture and then brown.
The Art of Roasting and Baking
You can roast and bake with dry heat. Dry heat cooking differs from moist heat methods, where meat is cooked in water or another liquid.
The process of roasting usually refers cooking meat in a big dish known as a roasting pot. A rack is often included in a roasting pan to hold the meat from the juices as they drip.
An oven rotisserie is another option, which allows meat to be cooked on a slow-turning fire spit. This is a technique that’s used for large cuts of meat and whole animals like chickens or turkeys.
Instead of red meat, bakers use baking to cook chicken, poultry and fish. A baking dish is used to cook the meat. It can be either covered or uncovered.
Temperatures to roast and bake range between 300-425degF and 149-218degC. Cooking times can vary from 30 minutes up to an hour depending on type and cut.
In general, baking and roasting are good forms of cooking with minimal vitamin C loss.
However, when the meat has been cooked long enough at high temperatures up to 40% of the vitamin B can go missing.
The two forms of healthy cooking that are most similar to baking and roasting, is baking at lower temperatures and for shorter cooking times. Serve meat au-jus to replace the B vitamins you lose in cooking.
Which are The 6 Most Moist-Heat Cooking Techniques?
Common moist-heat cooking methods include: poaching, simmering, boiling, braising, stewing, pot roasting, steaming and en papillote.
Which Cooking Method uses Moist Heat
Moist-heat cooking is what? To transfer heat from food to liquids or steam, moist heat cooking is used. Braising, steaming or poaching are some of the more popular cooking techniques. Each technique involves liquid or vaporized heating to soften and cook food.
.Moist Heat Cooking Methods
