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- “The beasts have memory, judgment and all the faculties and passions of our mind, in a certain degree; but no beast is a cook.”

This quip by the eighteenth-century Scottish biographer James Boswell defines the essence of humanity in a way his contemporaries would have found humorous but also thought provoking. It is neither an immortal soul, reason, nor powers of abstraction that separate us from animals but the simple ability to use fire to transform our daily fare into something more palatable and nutritious.

THE ORIGINS OF COOKING

ancient cookery

We are nothing more than cooking animals. Archaeological evidence bears this out; it is our distant Neanderthal relatives, whose sites offer the earliest incontrovertible evidence of cooking. From those distant times down to the present, the food we eat and how it is prepared has become the decisive factor in the survival of both individuals and whole civilizations, so what better way to approach the subject of history than through the bubbling cauldron?

Growing and preparing food has also been the occupation of the vast majority of men and women who ever lived. To understand ourselves, we should naturally begin with the food that constitutes the fabric of our existence. Yet every culture arrives at different solutions, uses different crops and cooking methods, and invents what amount to unique cuisines. These are to some extent predetermined by geography, technology, and a certain amount of luck. Nonetheless every cuisine is a practical and artistic expression of the culture that created it. It embodies the values and aspirations of each society, its world outlook as well as its history.

Cooking is full of questions that science can help answer — questions you might not have even thought about asking but that can make you a better cook.

A Food Scientist

Typically, it’s people trained in Food Science who are responsible for supplying the abundance of safe and nutritious foods found on the store shelves. Food Scientists are the people who make sure our food supply is safe, convenient, and long-lasting, yet still as nutritious as possible.

Food Science is an applied field, where numerous disciplines like chemistry, physics, engineering, biochemistry, microbiology, and even psychology are applied to the production and preservation of foods. In contrast to cooks and chefs, whose main interests are in the kitchen, Food Scientists are concerned with the large-scale production of high-quality nutritious foods that are safe for consumption, particularly after extended times of storage.

Chicken Gravy

Whisking together flour and water, and adding it to hot pan juices tends to produce lumps. Instead, make a roux, and add your hot water (or stock) to this, whisking consistency over a low flame. This should produce a lump-free gravy. If not, you may strain the gravy, and reheat It gently. If all else fails, and your gravy makes up in taste what it lacks in looks, keep the lights dim during dinner.

What is a roux?
A roux is a thick paste made of flour cooked in butter (to rid the flour of any chalky taste) or other fat, such as oil, lard, or beef drippings. Roux is used as a base for gravies and sauces, and as a thickening agent in dishes such as étoufée and gumbo.

While Northerners simply stir a little flour into butter to thicken their gravies, roux is taken very seriously down South, particularly in Cajun and Creole cookery, with some lard-based roux’s being cooked for an hour or more, until the mixture turns mahogany and the flavor becomes deeply roasted. This is called  brown roux; mixed with beef stock, it becomes the base for brown sauce, which occasionally goes under the name Espagnole.

There is also white roux, barely cooked and suitable for light white sauces, and the longer-cooked blond roux, pale gold and slightly nutty, the choice for gumbo and other dishes that require a stronger flavor.

Bread Loaves

While many bread recipes simply for yeast to be mixed with flour and other ingredients and left to rise, what if the yeast is already dead? Proofing shows whether yeast cells are active. To do this, you prove the yeast is effective. The simplest way is to dissolve a packet of yeast granules (about two teaspoons) in one quarter cup of warm water (anything over 120 degrees instantaneously kills yeast cultures), to which you’ve added a teaspoon of sugar.

Sugar is yeast’s favorite food, and if yeast is living, it will begin to gobble up the sugar and bubble madly. If the mixture shows no sign of foaming within five minutes, the yeast is dead and has lost its leavening power.