Wednesday, 4 August 2010

Cooking As A Culinary Art

Culinary arts is the art of cooking. Cooking is a way to prepare food that will be eaten or served to other people.

The culinary arts is comprised of many categories - some of which are tools, methods, combination of spices and ingredients that adds flavour to the food. It normally needs the right measurements, proper selection and accurate combination of ingredients involved to reach desired result.

The diversity of the Culinary arts around the world mirrors many considerations such as:

- Economic
- Aesthetic
- Nutritional
- Religious
- Cultural

1. The Dawn Of Fire

The culinary arts, if not always, is associated with fire. The heat generated by fire is oftentimes required to be applied to be able to change the food's texture, flavour, nutritional contents and even its appearance. Heating is important in the culinary arts because it disinfects the food and makes it softer. The food danger zone is between 4 to 60 degrees Celsius. Within these temperatures, the bacteria found in the found or even those that were transferred to the food can grow at a very alarming rate. Under ideal conditions bacteria can double their population every twenty minutes. Although at a glance, these foods may not appear harmful, when ingested they can be. Many people have the misconception that bacteria will die when we freeze our food or refrigerate them, but this actually does not rid the food of bacteria, merely it slows down their expansion.

2. Baking

Baking is probably the most famous department in the culinary arts. In the culinary arts, baking is the art of cooking food using an oven. The food is cooked through applying dry heat evenly through the oven and onto the food. It is used in producing pastry based goodies such as pies, tarts and cakes. The dry heat in the oven causes the starch to gelatinize and results to the browning or charring of the outside of the food. Some uneducated in the culinary arts might think that the charred part or the brown part is not as tasty as it sounds, but this part is actually what gives taste and flavour to the baked good, partly sealing the moisture of the food. The browning apparent in the baked good is caused by the sugar caramelizing and the chemical reaction that happens between the reduction of sugar and the amino acid (Maillard reaction). Moisture in the baked goody, on the other hand, is not really completely kept in, in time as the goody is being baked it will become drier and drier.

3. Boiling

Another category is boiling. Boiling is when there is a rapid vaporization of any liquid when the liquid is heated. In cooking, boiling is divided into many other categories. Blanching, a cooking term used to describe the submersion of food into boiling water and removing it after a certain period of time and then throwing it into cold water or letting water run over it causing the firming of food. Pressure cooking is when food is cooked inside an enclosed cooking tool that would limit the air that's coming in or going out of that tool - this technique speeds up the pace of cooking. Stewing would probably be the most popular cooking technique in the culinary arts division. It is a method where meats are cut up into smaller pieces and along with some vegetables are simmered into a liquid. Simmering, then again is a cooking method where the liquid is barely kept away from its boiling point. Other boiling techniques are braising, codding, steaming, infusion, poaching, double steaming, steeping and vacuum flask cooking.

4. Other

To most Americans, microwaving and grilling are the most common forms of cooking. Microwaving is the easiest and simplest form of cooking; it is a technique used mostly to reheat sumptuous meals ready to be consumed. And for grilling, most Americans have a grill station in their backyard. Grilling is a roasting method that is cooking directly under a source of heat. Other roasting methods are Barbecuing, Searing and Rotisserie. A less common method is smoking meat, or even salting it.

Cooking Games: Culinary Fun For Your Family

Nowadays, life becomes more and more complicated, with everyone taking more and more responsibilities and having less and less time with their close family. Whereas in the past, everyday meals and particularly dinners were occasions for family interactions and value sharing, today more and more people tend to sit quietly and watch TV while they eat dinner, barely talking to each other than for asking for the salt. That is if they even have dinner together, as a lot of teens now prefer to take dinner in their rooms or in front of the compute. Of course, you’d like to do something about it, and have everyone share their thoughts and experiences at the table, but how do you manage that instead of getting the “let’s watch TV instead” attitude that is so common these days. Well, that’s why you have to make it fun for your family members with games that will make them look forward to dinner time.

Where is it from?

This is a very simple game that is very good for children. You take several containers or bottles of condiments and each person has to try to guess from what state the bottle or container comes. Depending on the age of the child, further questions can be asked, for example, what the capital of that state is, what is the state famous for, mentioning 2 or 3 important cities in that state, etc.

Categories

This is also a game that is very simple, and is also used for adults with certain variations. One person mentions a category, and each person takes a turn mentioning something that belongs to that category. Categories can be easy, for example “movies,” or more educational, for example “European countries.” People who can’t name an item or repeat an item that has already been mentioned is disqualified.

Famous People at Dinner

This game is fun and has several variations. One person mentions a famous person (dead or alive) and the rest have to mention all the facts that they know about that person. For example, real name, nationality, famous inventions/discoveries, etc. More specific questions lead to more challenging games, while easy ones allow more people to participate. This is a particularly good game for teaching history to children.

Foreign Food

This one requires some extra work from you and is suited for older children, and it’s more of a cultural activity than a game. You have to prepare a traditional dish from another country. Each family member will have to do some research about that particular country to present at dinner. The research should be appropriate for each one’s capacity. So for example, younger children can be asked to draw the flag of the country, while older children can do research on the country’s capital and traditions.

Cooking Both in the Kitchen and Online

Another fun activity is getting your children to actually help you with kitchen activities. Again, this depends on the child’s age and the recipe you’re preparing. Another alternative is to get your children to play cooking games online. While this will not prepare any real food, it will teach your child all the work that goes into preparing his or her favorite dish, without exposing him to kitchen accidents. There are hundreds of cooking games online that range from the simple to the complex and challenging one. It’ll also be fun for your child to experiment with different ingredients. Not to mention that it won’t turn your kitchen into a mess. Once your child develops a bigger interest in cooking, you might introduce him or her to real cooking.

Of course, as with any website, video game or TV show, you must supervise what your child is doing on Internet. However, this makes a good opportunity for spending quality time with him or her, so it’s really a great time investment.

Let's Get Our Company Cooking With Corporate Culinary Items

So what is cooking in the world of business? Apparently just about everything and everyone. That's why companies are using corporate culinary items to promote their business and their products. There are a lot of different reasons why companies are using corporate culinary items to promote their business and products.

Here are a couple of different ways that a company may use corporate culinary products to promote their products and services.

New neighbours

Corporate culinary items are especially a good idea if you are a real estate agent or in another company that works with people who are just moving in. Corporate culinary items are a really nice way to welcome new people to your sales area and to let them know that you are there for then. It's a good idea even if you aren't in the real estate business but you get new neighbours who move in next to you.

Clients who move

Corporate culinary items are a good item to give to clients who are moving. You want them to know that you are thinking of them and that you want to make the transition as easy as possible for them. When you are moving to a new house, having some nice new things to take with you is always a nice idea.

Here are some suggestions on what you should do when you are considering your culinary items for promotion.

Target audience

The first thing that you are going to want to consider is your target audience when you are buying your corporate culinary items. Do your products or services appeal to young or older people? Are you appealing to people who have families or are single?

Economic status

Another thing to consider when you are buying culinary items is what is the economic status of your clients? You give your clients the wrong impression if you give them something that they are never going to use simply because that isn't the type of food that they eat or because they aren't familiar with the item. You also don't want to give something simply to a customer who is used to the best.

So think about what their economic status when you are buying culinary items and it will help you know what to buy.

Culture

Does your company deal with a lot of overseas clients? When you are dealing with culinary items, it's always a good idea to think about the culture of your overseas clients before you send them a culinary item. With the differences in cuisine that people around the world, it's always a good idea to research what they eat and use that to guide you when you are considering culinary items.

Everyone has a different idea of what is good to eat, so you want to take everything into consideration when you are buying culinary items. You will find that the people you give the culinary items to will appreciate it and that your relations with clients and customers are going to be a lot better because of it.