(Aims and objectives of cooking) IHM Hotel Management Food Production 1st year 1st sem notes on Aims and objectives of cooking.

Aims and objectives of cooking:

What is Cooking?

Cooking is a chemical process where in raw materials are exposed to heat to get a finished

product of a certain desired quality with a change in physical state also.

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Aims of cooking

Objectives of Cooking:

1) Improves the taste and food quality

Cooking improves natural flavour and texture of food. For example, roasting groundnuts,

frying onions and papads, cooking rice and roasting coffee seeds improve the flavour.

Cooking meat with spices, rice with spices in making pulav, frying cashew nuts in ghee,

addition of turmeric, curry leaves, pepper in pongal, blend flavour with one another during

cooking.

Too much of cooking lowers the flavour as flavouring compounds are

volatile. Over cooked pulav, does not taste as good as well cooked pulav.

2) Destruction of microorganisms

Microorganisms are present everywhere and some are useful in making curd, cheese and

bread. Some are harmful and cause infections or produce toxins, e.g. clostridium botulism

and salmonella. Some moulds produce toxins. Aspergillus flavus produces aflatoxin in

groundnuts, cereals and spices. This aflatoxin is a health hazard.

One of the most important method of protection of food against harmful

micro organism is by the application of heat. Cooking food to the required

temperature for a required length of time can destroy all harmful

microorganisms in food e.g. pasteurised milk.

Tapeworm or its larvase which infests pork can be killed by proper

application of heat. By cooking, food is made safe for consumption.

3) Improves digestibility

Cooking softens the connective tissue of the meat and the coarse fibres or cereals, pulses

and vegetables so that the digestive period is shortened, and gastro intestinal tract is less

subjected to irritation. Cooking improves the texture hence it becomes more chewable.

Cooking also bursts the starch granules of pulses and cereals so that the starch digestion is

more easy, rapid and complete. When dry heat is applied to starches they are converted to

easily digestible dextrin’s. Cooking increases the access to enzymes and improves

digestibility.

4) Increases variety

By cooking, same food can be made into different dishes. For example, rice can be made

into plain, pulav, lemon rice, biriyani, or combination with pulses into idly. Wheat can be

made into chapatis, puri, paratha or halwa.

5) Increases consumption of food

Cooking improves the texture and makes the food chewable. Improvement in texture and

flavour by cooking increases the consumption of food to meet our nutritional requirement.

6) Increases availability of food

Raw egg contains avid in which binds biotin making biotin unavailable to the body. By

cooking, avid in gets denatured and biotin is available to the body.

Trypsin inhibitors present in soyabean and duck egg get denatured on

cooking and availability of protein is improved. Toxic substances from

kesari dhal can also be removed by boiling it and throwing away the water.

Objective of cooking

1. Retaining the nutritive value of the food.
2. Retaining the original colour of the food.
3. Prevent the clash of colour.
4. Avoid undercooking
5. Avoid overcooking