Essay About Cooking

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Cooking is the art, technology and craft of preparing food for consumption. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely across the world, from grilling food over an open fire to using electric stoves, to baking in various types of ovens, reflecting unique environmental, economic, and cultural traditions and trends. The ways or types of cooking also depend on the skill and type of training an individual cook has. Cooking is done both by people in their own dwellings and by professional cooks and chefs in restaurants. Cooking can also occur through chemical reactions without the presence of heat.
Preparing food with heat or fire is an activity unique to humans. Some scientists believe that cooking fires first developed around 250,000 years …show more content…

Scientists have discovered prehistoric examples of charred wood, but it is not certain whether this was caused by volcanic activity or human use of fire. Most scientists believe that widespread cooking fires began only about 250,000 years ago, when hearths started appearing. Analysis suggests that human ancestors may have invented cooking as far back as 1.8 million to 2.3 million years ago. Evidence for the controlled use of fire beginning some 400,000 years ago has wide support. in the form of ancient hearths, earth ovens, burnt animal bones, and flint, found across Europe and the Middle …show more content…

The 1916 "Food For Young Children" became the first USDA guide to give specific dietary guidelines. Updated in the 1920s, these guides gave shopping suggestions for different-sized families along with a Depression Era revision which included four cost levels. In 1943, the USDA created the "Basic Seven" chart to make sure that people got the recommended nutrients. It included the first-ever Recommended Daily Allowances from the National Academy of Sciences. In 1956, the "Essentials of an Adequate Diet" brought recommendations which cut the number of groups that American school children would learn about down to four. In 1979, a guide called "Food" addressed the link between too much of certain foods and chronic diseases, but added "fats, oils, and sweets" to the four basic food

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