Baking is basically a way of preparing food which makes use of low temperatures, usually in an oven, to cook food, usually in a short time. The most popular baked product is bread, but many other kinds of food are also baked. Generally, heat is slowly transferred from the surface of baked goods to the center. Therefore baking requires slow heating, so cooking must be carefully monitored, so the products do not get overcooked, and also, so that they don’t release excessive amounts of calories.
Cooking is the art of raising the temperature of liquid or food to a specific level to make it more cooked. Baking has two methods, which we shall discuss here. The first one starts with baking, the second one starts with cooking. The former can be referred to as pre-baking, while the latter is called baking once the food is fully prepared. We shall use the terms interchangeably, so I will describe each separately.
Baking can be described as the art of preparing baked food by beating or rolling the ingredients, either by hand with a large instrument such as the beaten egg, or with a machine. The baked product is then baked in the oven or hot-water bath. There are two methods of baking, one of which is known as baking in an oven, the other one is known as baking on a stove top. Both have their own advantages, but the oven baking gives us baking pies and cakes.
Oven baking is the process of cooking foods at a high temperature with the help of a roasting pan or a hot air popcorn popper. Baking can be described as a series of chemical reactions that produce heat energy and release it as energy. The foods can be cooked in this heat energy, which is known as the bake.
When we talk of baking, we refer to the baking of breads and cakes, and also of pastries, roasts and the preparation of the dessert. There is another cooking method, which is not related to baking, and that is referred to as broiling or grilling. Under the category of baking we find frying, grilling and steaming, all of which depend on the temperature and the duration of the cooking process.
When we speak of broiling, we refer to the direct cooking of the food in an aluminum pan under dry heat. This is the oldest technique of cooking, which was developed in ancient Rome. The pans used for broiling are usually cast iron or aluminum. The food is placed on top of the hot coals and kept in the oven or the grill for cooking for about two hours. In this way, broiling differs from baking, in the sense that the products are cooked directly, and they do not need any time to rise.