{ What is cooking? } I know you’re eager to jump right in and start cooking, but first answer this question: What is cooking? If you’re my wife, your answer will be, “It’s that thing you do when that crazy look comes into your eyes.” A great chef might tell you that cooking is life My mom would probably say that it’s a chore, while my wife’s aunt would tell you that cooking is culture, family, tradition, and love And, yes, cooking is all of those things, but here’s a more technical way to think about it: Cooking is about transferring energy It’s about applying heat to change the structure of molecules It’s about encouraging chemical reactions to alter flavors and textures It’s about making delicious things happen with science And before we can even begin to understand what happens when we grill a hamburger, or even what equipment we might want to stock our kitchen with, we have to get one very important concept into our heads first, as it’ll affect everything we in the kitchen, starting with which pots and pans we use It’s this: Heat and temperature are not the same thing At its most basic, cooking is the transfer of energy from a heat source to your food That energy causes physical changes in the shape of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, as well as hastens the rate at which chemical reactions take place What’s interesting is that most of the time, these physical and chemical changes are permanent Once a protein’s shape has been changed by adding energy to it, you can’t change it back by subsequently removing that energy In other words, you can’t uncook a steak The distinction between heat and temperature can be one of the most confusing things in the kitchen, but grasping the concept is essential to helping you become a more rational cook Through experience, we know that temperature is an odd measure I mean, pretty much all of us have walked around comfortably in shorts in 60-degree weather but have felt the ridiculous chill of jumping into a 60-degree lake, right? Why does one but not the other make us cold, even though the temperature is the same? Let me try to explain Heat is energy Third-grade physics tells us that everything from the air around us to the metal on the sides of an oven is composed of molecules: teeny-tiny things that are rapidly vibrating or, in the case of liquids and gases, rapidly bouncing around in a random manner The more energy is added to a particular system of molecules, the more rapidly they vibrate or bounce, and the more quickly they transfer this movement to anything they are touching— whether it’s the vibrating molecules in a metal pan transferring energy to a juicy rib-eye steak sizzling away or the bouncing molecules of air inside an oven transferring energy to the crusty loaf of bread that’s baking Heat can be transferred from one system to another, usually from the more energetic (hotter) system to the less energetic (cooler) So when you place a steak in a hot pan to cook it, what you are really doing is transferring energy from the pan-burner system to the steak system Some of ... transferring energy to the crusty loaf of bread that’s baking Heat can be transferred from one system to another, usually from the more energetic (hotter) system to the less energetic (cooler) So when you place a steak in a hot pan to... not the other make us cold, even though the temperature is the same? Let me try to explain Heat is energy Third-grade physics tells us that everything from the air around us to the metal on the. .. or, in the case of liquids and gases, rapidly bouncing around in a random manner The more energy is added to a particular system of molecules, the more rapidly they vibrate or bounce, and the more