Bread toasting

Bread is the most consuming foods and has critical position in the consumer foods in world because of its nutritional aspects energy providing and food habits.

The primary electric toaster was undoubtedly imagined in 1905, which is the year Albert Marsh built up the Nichrome wire, making the electric toaster conceivable. Throughout the year's toaster sizes, shapes and components changed yet the outcome is the cooking of bread items.

Since the 2000s, pop-up toasters with more extensive openings have been produced, empowering these toasters to toast bagels and English biscuits cut down the middle.

A pleasant flavour and colour are produced when slices of wheat bread are toasted, corresponding to the organoleptic characteristics of bread crust. The chemical reactions involved in this process are essentially the Maillard reaction and caramelization.

During heating, a complex reaction occurs between the proteins and sugar contained in the bread. This is known as the Maillard reaction, and it produces the typical flavour known from toasted bread as well as the colour formed as the bread toasts.

Maillard reactions are favored in systems with an intermediate moisture content, temperatures above 50 °C and pH 4.7 (i.e. in the pH range of food), producing changes in colour (melanoidins), flavour (aldehydes and ketones), functional properties and nutritional value (blocking or destruction of lysine).
Bread toasting

Why should we boil the water before drinking?

Water is used for cooking food by boiling. Boiling is the most primitive and simplest method of cooking food. And heating their water before drinking is only the best alternatives.

There are many advantages of boiling water
*It is a very easy method of cooking and does not require constant attention
*Boiling kills some bacteria, viruses, cysts and worms
*It removes some microorganisms and some chemicals and other components that can be present in drinking water.
*The boiled food is light and therefore become easily digestible
*Boiling process destroying several classes of waterborne pathogens like; bacterial spores, fungi, protozoan, and helminth ova.
Why should we boil the water before drinking?

Electric kettle

The most notable development in small appliances has been that of the electric kettle. The electric kettle consists of a container, handle and an element.

The electric kettle converts about 80 per cent of electricity used into energy that heats the water. In electric kettle, the heating element is enclosed in a metal tube and electrically insulated from it. In some cases the heating element is embedded in a brass chromium plated tube and insulated.

When a current flows through the heating element, the water around the element is heated first by conduction. Then the heat is spread through the water by convection. It is important to ensure that the heating element is covered with water otherwise the element will overheat and will ‘blow’.
Electric kettle

Anthoxanthins in food

Anthoxanthin pigment is a flavonoid and is similar to anthocyanin, but it exists in less oxidized state as the oxygen on the central group is uncharged.

It is actually a composite of compounds known as flavones, flavonols, and flavonones. The anthoxanthins are glycosides when on boiling with dilute acid yield one or two molecules of monosaccharides and a flavone or flavone derivatives.

Anthoxanthins are white or pale yellowish, water-soluble pigments found in a plant’s cell sap. They contribute the cream or white color of cauliflower, onions, white potatoes and turnips.

Short cooking is desired. With prolonged heat, the pigment turns into a brownish gray color. For example, white, anthocyanin potatoes with their low organic acid content may become dark colored after prolonged cooking due to formation of an iron-chlorogenic acid complex.

Vegetable containing anthoxanthins, such as turnips and cauliflower can also change color if they are cooked in a covered pan for long periods of time.

The sulfur containing compounds in the vegetables will be released in the form of hydrogen sulfide which will convert the colorless anthoxanthin to anthocyanins as will be noted in the pink pigment in overcooked turnips and cauliflower.
Anthoxanthins in food

Coffee bean roasting

Raw or green coffee has no flavor or aroma and has an unpleasant taste. For use as a beverage, it is roasted, powdered and brewed and the aqueous extract used as a beverage with or without the addition of milk, sugar and other substances.

Coffee beans are usually roasted in large batch dryers, which spin and heat them evenly at temperature that reaches 550 ° F. During roasting process, about 20 percent of the water content of the green beans evaporates and gases are released. In addition, the beans’ starch content is converted to sugar.

Roasting releases the oils and acids that give each coffee its unique flavor. The volatile oils and acids that give coffee is tempting aroma and delicious flavor are developed during the roasting process.

The flavor of roasted coffee, to a large extent depends upon the manner and extent of roasting. The flavor and aroma of coffee are best when it is freshly roasted and deteriorate on standing.

Sucrose which is the most abundant simple carbohydrate present in green coffee, acts as an aroma precursor during roasting, generating several classes of compound, such as carboxylic acids furans, and aldehydes, which will affect the flavor of coffee. Sucrose is found to be destroyed quickly at the early stages of roasting.
Coffee bean roasting

Barbecue chicken

Cooking meat or chicken slowly over hot coals, known as barbecuing, has been done in America since colonial days. It is characterized by a high-spirited competitiveness based on distinct regional preferences.

For example, in Oklahoma, barbecue refers to meat that has been slowly cooked over wood smoke at a low temperature.

The name ‘barbecue’ assigned to slow roasting over an outdoor fire, can likely be traced back to the West Indian term barbacoa, which is the word natives of Haiti used to describe the grill over which they roasted meat.

Chicken (Gallus gallus) is a very popular food, as it can be prepared a multitude of ways. Barbecued chicken is a perennial favorite, which is not surprising as it is easy to prepare and delicious.

Barbecue chicken needs to be seasoned early (giving the chicken time to absorb the spices) and cooked over a low flame for even browning.

When cooking chicken on a barbecue rack, always grease the rack well first. The collagen on the skin will turn into a sticky gelatin, which causes it to stick to the rack.

To really solve the problem, try baking the chicken for 15 to 20 minutes in a preheated oven, breast side up, allowing the gelatin time to infuse into the fat and meat or to be released into the pan.
Barbecue chicken

Microwaving the food

The absorption of microwave by a dielectric material results in the microwaves giving up their energy to the materials with a consequential rise in temperature. Food composition (mainly water content) is a key factor that determines how fast it will heat in a microwave environment.

Cooking food using a microwave oven is accomplished by setting an appropriate amount of time necessary for the waves to penetrate the food and cook it.

The most important advantages of microwave heating is that microwaves are capable of penetrating very deeply into certain materials heating extend within the entire food material, which result in very significant reductions in process heating times for drying, thawing, sterilization and so on.

There are limits to the depth of their penetration. The geometry of the food to be heated is an important consideration; conduction and convection may often take far longer to heat a given mass of food.

Microwaves generate heat due to their interactions with the food materials. The microwave radiation itself is non-ionizing radiation, distinctly different from ionizing radiation such as X-rays and gamma rays.

Heating foods evenly in a microwave oven is difficult at best, particularly with solid foods of different composition.

A major use of microwaves in the food industry is the tempering and thawing of frozen foods, especially meat, fish, butter and fruit.
Microwaving the food

Simmering

Unlike boiling, where food is cooked in rapidly moving liquid, simmering is a cooking process where food is cooked in liquid that is just below boiling point, never less than 82 °C. Simmering is characterized by gently rising bubbles that barely break the surface.

When boiling or simmering food, it is important to establish if the food should be placed into cold or hot liquid.

Many food dishes specially rice, soup and stews are first brought to a boil and then simmered for the remainder of the heating time.

Simmering is the stage just before boiling. It is soft, relaxed and small. Simmering is preferred over boiling in many cases because it its more gentle and will usually not physically damage the food. Also, foods will not overcook as quickly as they do when boiled.

Careful simmering is required when making a consommé and for the despumation of sauces.

When simmering food, it is usual to bring the contents of the saucepan to the boil and immediately lower the heat to a suitable setting.
Simmering

Braising method of cooking

Braising is a combination of stewing and pot roasting that takes place in an oven proof dish in liquid and combined conduction and convection. Moist heat is responsible for most of the cooking process and the browning may be thought of as preliminary technique.

The method is very simple. Food is simmered in minimal liquid in a closed pot until the essence in every ingredient flavors very other ingredient.

The purpose of braising is to make food safe, to add verity to the menu and to enhance flavor, texture and eating quality.

Braised meats are usually browned first using a dry heat method such as pan-frying. This gives desirable appearance and favor to the product and sauce.

Braising also refers to cooking some vegetables, such as lettuce or cabbage at low temperature in a small amount of liquid without first browning in fat, or with only a light preliminary sautéing.

Braising is a building process. The cook adds layer upon layer of flavor, nuance and character to a dish at each stage of the game.

Long braising is the more traditional approach: the indisputable best technique for cooking breast of veal or lamb shank is long braising for anywhere from 1.5 to 4 hours until falling tender.

Short braising takes less than an hour and is reserved for more tender foods like cut-up chicken, seafood and vegetables. The role of short braising is not to tenderize tough cuts of meat but to bring out a depth of flavor not attainable through any other technique.
Braising method of cooking

What is stewing?

Stewing is the slow cooking the least tender cuts of meat in the minimum of liquid such as water, stock or sauce in a suitable pot with a tight-fitting lid in top of the stove.

The meat will become tender and juicy with the slow moist heat method.

The purpose of stewing is to produce an acceptable flavor, texture and eating quality in cheaper and tougher cuts of meat. Stewing is both economical and nutritional.

The best cuts for stewing are the chuck, which comes from the shoulder and rump or round.

Chuck consists of several kinds of cuts, including eye roast, chuck short ribs, blade stick, arm pot roasts and stew beef, which is cubed chuck.

Stewing has two variations: white-stewing, which doesn’t use soy sauce and red-stewing which does.

White-stewing, sometimes called pure-stewing or clear stewing-simmering is used to cook fish, chicken and other delicate meats. It’s usually accompanied by vegetable and produces a clear soup, which retain the natural flavor of the ingredients.

Red stewing gets its name from the rich, red-brown gravy produced by the soy sauce.
What is stewing?