a subject which can be approached as a matter of definition (answer: cooking food is preparing it, by the application of heat, for being eaten) or through many different questions, e.g. how? (see the numerous articles on cookery techniques, such as frying), by whom? (see cooks, chef).
In this article the question is why? And this is one question to which the Latin epigram Tot homines [et feminae] quot sententiae does not apply, since most homines and feminae have not had occasion to think about it at all. Those who have, and who have expressed their thoughts, usually produce several answers, including the promotion of digestibility and an increase in enjoyment; and the order in which such factors are listed provides interesting evidence of the authors' attitudes to eating.
Here are some quotations, which seem to advance, respectively, one, two, three, and five reasons for cooking.
[In more primitive times] only to live has been the greatest object of mankind; but, by-and-by, comforts are multiplied and accumulating riches create new wants. The object, then, is not only to live, but to live economically, agreeably, tastefully and well. Accordingly, the art of cookery commences; and although the fruits of the earth, the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field, and the fish of the sea, are still the only food of mankind, yet these are so prepared, improved, and dressed by skill and ingenuity, that they are the means of immeasurably extending the boundaries of human enjoyments. Everything that is edible, and passes under the hands of the cook, is more or less changed, and assumes new forms. Hence the influence of that functionary is immense upon the happiness of the household. (Mrs Isabella Beeton, The Book of Household Management, 1st edn, 1861)
It is to be noted that the object aimed at in cooking food is twofold: First, from an aesthetic point of view, to improve its appearance when it comes to table, and to develop in it new flavours; second, with a hygienic purpose, to partially sterilise the food, thereby enabling it to remain longer sweet, and good. (W. T. Fernie, Meals Medicinal, 1905))
The purposes of cooking are threefold—(1) to assist digestion by preparing the food for the action of the digestive juices, (2) to quicken the flow of saliva and other digestive secretions by making it pleasing to the palate and other senses, and (3) to destroy by heat any disease germs or parasites that it may contain. (Artemas Ward, The Encyclopaedia of Food, New York, edn of 1923)
[Reasons for Cooking]
(1) to render mastication easy; (2) to facilitate digestion; (3) to increase the food value; (4) to eliminate any risk of infection from harmful bacteria; (5) to make the food agreeable to the palate and pleasing to the eye. (Editors of Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, Ward, Lock, London, 1948 edn.)
Thus we pass from the cheerful hedonism of Mrs Beeton herself, undiluted by any other thoughts (and anticipating by two years the publication of John Stuart Mills's Utilitarianism, which would establish the maximization of happiness as a guiding principle), to mixed formulae in which the aesthetic or enjoyment factor is successively first, second, and a feeble fifth. However, it does not follow that there is a widening gulf between cookery and pleasure; but rather that there has been progressively more understanding in the last 150 years of the variety of reasons which exist for cooking food (coupled perhaps with a decreasing ability to write on the subject in an attractive manner).
The reasons for cooking can perhaps be represented thus:
| to increase our enjoyment of it | to make it more digestible | |
| and often | ||
| to enhance its nutritional value | to prevent it spoiling and help it to keep |
And in many instances only one or two of these reasons may apply, or may be dominant.
For consideration of how we would get on if we adopted the recommendations of those who completely oppose any cooking, see raw food.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
