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Do you ever notice how your favourite dish comes out looking smaller in quantity and tastes different after cooking? Perhaps your vegetables look dull, or your meat feels tough. This very common kitchen phenomenon is called cooking loss, and it happens with all the cooks. It is the reduction in weight, volume, and sometimes even nutritional content of food in the process of cooking. Be it through the evaporation of water, degradation of nutrients, or even the loss of flavour due to very high temperatures, it impairs the quality of your meals.
Many of us are not aware of how much cooking loss can affect the food we cook. This can happen due to both overcooking and boiling as well as high-heat methods. On the other hand, the good part is that a few changes in how you cook your meals can reduce cooking loss and keep your meals just as delicious and healthy.
What is Cooking Loss?
Cooking loss is the water, moisture, volume, or nutrient loss that occurs during the cooking process. It is brought about by exposure to heat, water, and even air. Different types of cooking methods determine the rate at which cooking loss occurs. For instance, there are more losses detected in boiling, frying, or grilling; while less obvious losses occur in steaming and baking.
As cooks, water evaporates, fats melt, and a fraction of the nutrients may break down or leach into the cooking liquids. The greater your exposure to higher cooking temperatures for longer periods, the more likely you are to experience dry, tough, or less flavourful food. Overcooking, in particular, will result in this, making your food less appetising and less nutritious.
Whereas some level of cooking loss is inevitable, understanding how to control and minimise it will enable you to retain conplexity in your dishes.
Minimisation of Cooking Loss
Minimising cooking loss is all about making small changes to how you prepare your food-from the cooking method you use to how long you cook it. Below are efficient ways to minimise cooking losses while ensuring your food retains its nutrients, texture, and flavour.
Choose the Right Cooking Methods
Some cooking methods are inherently less prone to cooking loss than others. Steaming and baking are less harsh on the food compared to frying or grilling. Such methods ensure better retention of moisture and nutrients in food because the contents are not exposed to more direct heat and loss of fat. For example, steaming vegetables retain many of the nutrients that boiling cooks out because less water penetrates the food.
Little water consumption
When boiling for a longer period, water serves as an extractor of vital vitamins and minerals from vegetables. To avoid displacement of these nutrients, use as little water as necessary when cooking. Even better, cook through steaming rather than boiling since it will consume less water and hold more nutrients in the food. Yet another trick: don't throw away that water when you cook it, you may be able to add it to soup or sauces for all the goodness left there by those nutrient leachings.
Cut Food into Larger Pieces
The smaller you cut your food, the more surface area it has, which leads to more exposure to heat and water. This increases the losses of water and heat-solubilised nutrients. Cutting up your vegetables and other ingredients into large chunks instead helps reduce the surface area subjected directly to heat, hence preserving many of the inner nutrients.
Cook at Lower Temperatures
High heat cooks faster, but it is usually at the expense of food quality. Lower cooking temperatures will preserve best nutrients and prevent foods from getting too dry. A good example would be slow-cooked methods such as braising or simmering, as long as it gives food time to cook softly over a long period of time, it might even better preserve moisture and nutrients when compared with those methods that employ high heats.
Cook With Skin Intact
Many fruits and vegetables contain valuable nutrients in their skins that get destroyed when one peels the fruits before eating or cooking. Wherever possible, cook your produce with its skin intact. Other than retaining more nutrients, this method will also add texture and flavour to your dishes. Also, ensure that you clean the skins properly before cooking them and you are keeping only edible ones.
Reduce Cooking Time
Overcooking is one of the main causes of loss in cooking. The longer food is out under direct heat, the more moisture and other nutrients it stands to lose. So, do the opposite: Cook your food for the shortest amount of time necessary to achieve your desired doneness. This can sometimes mean that you have to bludgeon those vegetables in boiling water for a minute or two to preserve their vibrant colour and crisp texture as well as prevent the loss of their nutritional content.
