Principles of Cooking Methods

• Principles and methods of cookery are a foundation of knowledge for all professional cooks and chefs
• Once mastered, any recipe from any culture can be prepared to an acceptable standard
• The principles of cooking apply to all cuisines and all menu dishes that you will cook, regardless of the type or style of food you serve
• Established cookery methods

  • Baking
  • Roasting
  • Deep frying
  • Shallow frying
  • Boiling
  • Poaching
  • Braising
  • Stewing
  • Sous vide
  • Microwave
  • Steaming
  • Grilling
• Food is cooked to

  Make it palatable to eat and easier to digest
• Cooking food gives

  Colour, flavour and aroma
• Cooking adds

  Variety and choice to a person's diet
• Conduction

  The passage of heat through a solid, or from one solid to another, provided they are in contact
• Convection

  The passage of heat through liquids and gases
• Radiation

  The passage of heat in straight rays from a hot object
• Mise en place

  To set in place or everything in place
• Mise en place

  • Preparation done before starting the actual cooking process
  • Allows you to cook without having to stop and assemble items, enabling a fast, efficient service
• Standard recipe

  Standardises the production of each food item on a menu so that all food will be consistent in quality, quantity and cost
• Main purposes of using standard recipes

  • Maintain consistent quality in food production
  • Record the food cost for each menu item
  • Control the portion size
  • Establish the food cost percentage for each menu item
  • Write accurate food orders
  • Assist in the training of new staff
  • Use recipes to determine quantities
• Standard recipe card

  Forms the basis of a kitchen quality control program, ensuring each cook prepares each dish in the same way
• Before using equipment

  • Ensure safety features and guards are in place and operational
  • Check electrical cords are in good condition
  • Ensure equipment is in good condition
  • Adjust temperature settings as needed
  • Minimise water and energy use
  • Coordinate with other cooks
  • Ensure equipment is clean and sanitised
  • Ensure blades are sharp
• Portion control


  Concerned with the right portion of food or beverage EVERY time; not too much and not too little
• Measuring methods for menu items

  • Weight (grams)
  • Volume (millilitres)
  • Count
• Traditional portion sizes


  • Entrée (Appetizer) 100g
  • Soup 200 - 250ml
  • Main course 200 – 250g
  • Vegetables 50g
  • Dessert 100g
  • Side dish 150 g to 250g
• Boiling

  The principle of cookery in which food is completely immersed in liquid and cooked at boiling point (100ºC)
• Simmering

  Gently boiling at a temperature of 95ºC to 98ºC
• Blanching


  The process by which food is placed in rapidly boiling water for a very short time, then refreshed by rinsing or plunging into cold water to stop the cooking process
• Reasons for blanching with a cold water start

  • To leach out acrid or strong tastes
  • To remove excess salt from pickled and cured meats
  • To remove blood and impurities from the food
• Reasons for blanching with a boiling water start

  • To seal in flavours and juices
  • To fix the colour of certain foods
  • To partly cook foods
  • To remove skins from foods
• Blanching in oil

  To precook the product prior to service, which speeds up and makes more efficient the finishing of food when the order arrives
• Foods suitable for boiling, simmering and blanching

  • Pasta and grains (boiling)
  • Stocks, sauces and soups (simmering/blanching)
  • Cured meats (blanching, boiling)
• Ng

  Separates the individual parts or grains and prevents them from sticking together
• Al dente


  Pasta is cooked until it is still a little firm when bitten into
• Stocks, sauces and soups - Simmering / Blanching

  1. Bones for stocks are sometimes blanched first to remove excess blood and impurities

  2. Stocks, sauces and soups need to be simmered gently to avoid cooking any impurities back into the product which would make them cloudy and affect the flavour and appearance
• Stocks

  1. Started in cold water to extract impurities

  2. Impurities will rise to the surface and should be skimmed off at regular intervals
• Cured meats - Blanching, boiling

  1. Cured meats such as corned silverside and tongue are started in cold water to prevent excess shrinkage and toughening of the meat

  2. These meats should be blanched before they are cooked to leach out excess salt and remove the blood
• Cooked meat

  Meat is cooked when a skewer pressed into the meat goes in with little resistance and when the meat is lifted out of the liquid it slides easily off the skewer
• Green vegetables - Blanching, boiling

  1. Green vegetables are placed in boiling salted water

  2. They are brought back to the boil rapidly and cooked until tender, without a lid

  3. Cooking green vegetables with a lid on retains some of the acids in the water and the bright colour is lost

  4. Cooked green vegetables are refreshed quickly to retain their colour by straining in a colander or cooling quickly in iced water
• Common problems with boiling

  • Over cooking
  • Undercooking
  • Not enough water to allow movement of the food as it is boiled
  • Not maintaining a suitable heat causes food to take longer to cook and the food loses colour
  • Boiling rather than simmering a stock, leading to a cloudy stock
• Most varieties of white rice must be washed before cooking
• Washing rice

  • Ensures that the loose starch, a white powder, is removed
  • If it is not washed, the rice grains are more likely to stick together
• Methods of cooking rice

  • Absorption method
  • Boiling method
• Absorption method

  1. Cook the rice in liquid (water or stock) using the ratio of one-part rice to one and a quarter parts liquid (1:1.25)

  2. For brown rice use the ratio of one-part rice to two and a half parts liquid (1:2.5)

  3. Cook on top of the stove or in the oven

  4. The rice is cooked when the liquid is completely absorbed
• Boiling method

  1. Cook rice in plenty of boiling salted water until al dente

  2. Drain the rice and finish off, according to service

  3. If not needed immediately refresh the rice in cold water, drain thoroughly and store covered for later use
• Poaching

  • Involves immersing food in barely simmering water, usually salted, or meat, vegetable, or fish stock
  • Cooking food below boiling point (100°C) with no visible movement of the liquid
  • A gentle form of cooking which is suited to good quality, tender foods such as fish, poultry, red meat, eggs and dried or fresh fruit