The History of Cooking
There is no clear evidence to when cooking was invented. Richard Wrangham argues that cooking was invented as far back as 1.8million to 2.3million years ago. Other researchers believe that cooking was invented as late as 10,000 or 40,000 years ago. While many anthropologists place the advent of cooking at around 250,000 years ago.
Cooking is the process of preparing food by using heat, selecting, measuring and mixing ingredients in an order to procedure safe and edible food. The process involves using a vast range of methods, tools, and combinations of ingredients to change the flavor or digestibility of food. Factors that affect the final outcome include the variability of ingredients, ambient conditions, tools, and the skill of the person actual cooking.
Cooking prevent many foodborne illnesses that would occur if raw food was eaten. It also increases the digestibility of many foods, especially meat, cooking often involves water and in many cases is present as other liquids. Liquids are used to flavor of the foods. Liquids are so important to cooking that the names of the cooking methods used are based on how it is combined with food. These methods are ones such as steaming, simmering, boiling, braising and blanching.
For food safety heat is used to kill or inactivate potential harmful organisms including bacteria and viruses. Meat, poultry, dairy products, and other prepared food must be kept outside of the “food danger zone” to remain safe to eat. Refrigeration and freezing does not kill bacteria it only slows its growth. Cutting boards are a potential breeding ground for bacteria, and can be quite hazardous unless safety precautions are taken.