Cooking can be summarized as the process of passing heat energy from a medium to your food. There are two common cooking methods based on how heat is transferred, the dry heat method and the moist heat method. We will share with you how is heat transferred in dry cooking techniques and share some dry heat method cooking techniques you can try doing at home.
Dry Heat Method
One of the types of cooking method is the dry heat method. The dry heat method cooks the food by transferring heat through mediums like air, fat, metal, or radiation. Compared to the moist heat method, Dry heat uses a higher temperature since the medium of dry heat can be heated to a higher temperature compared to water.
Heat Transfer in Dry Heat Method
If you are wondering how is heat transferred in dry cooking techniques, don’t worry because we got you covered. There are three ways of heat transfer in the dry heat method. They are conduction, convection, and radiation.
Conduction
Conduction happens when the substances transferring heat to each other are in direct contact. Good conductors result in better heat transfer because the heat is transferred faster. One good heat conductor is metal.
For example, imagine a cast iron pan. You put the pan onto the fire. It heats up and conducts heat. After some time, you put a steak you want to cook into the cast iron pan. Heat is then transferred to the piece of meat you are cooking.
Convection
The next answer to the question of how is heat transferred in dry cooking techniques is convection. Convection happens when the warm areas of liquid or gas transfer to the cool areas of the liquid or gas. In the dry heat method, convection usually pertains to gas convection. One good example of convection heat transfer is a convection oven.
Conventional ovens use the heat radiating from the walls of the oven and the oven tray conducting the heat. A convection oven uses a fan inside the oven that circulates the heat and facilitates faster convective heat transfer.
Radiation
Radiation does not rely on contact between the source of heat and the substance you need to transfer the heat into. Heat is transferred through space by thermal radiation. It is sometimes called infrared radiation. Conventional ovens use radiation as the method of heat transfer. The heat bounces around the oven walls, and it heats up the food inside.
Another popular cooking technique that uses radiation as the heat transfer method is microwave. You can be heating your food or cooking a microwave dish; it uses radiation heat transfer to cook your meal.
Different Dry Heat Method Cooking Techniques
There are a lot of different cooking techniques that use the dry heat method. We’ll discuss and share with you how is heat transferred in dry cooking techniques such as baking, broiling, frying, grilling, and roasting.
Baking
Baking is a cooking technique that uses hot air that transfers heat to the food and creates a variety of dishes. It produces different results based on temperature, position, and type of baking pan used.
The conventional oven uses hot air and heat radiation off the oven walls, while the convection oven has a fan that blows the hot air around to cook your food. The convection oven cooks faster than a conventional oven since the heat transfers faster than the other oven. This results in a shorter cooking time.
Broiling
Broiling is almost the same as grilling. It is a dry heat cooking technique that is achieved by placing a heat source with a high temperature above the food you are cooking. The big difference between broiling and grilling is the position of the heat source. In grilling, the heat source is placed below the food while in broiling, it is placed above the food.
One popular meal cooked by broiling is broiled chicken. It is a whole chicken dressed with herbs and spices, then put into the oven and cooked with just the heat source above the chicken. The result is a tender and juicy chicken.
Broiling
Roasting is almost the same as baking, but the term is used when cooking meat and poultry. Roasting also uses fat or other liquid mixture to create a unique flavor for the meat being cooked and to prevent it from drying. The difference between broiling and roasting is that roasting usually uses both heat sources of the oven, above and below the food.
Roast beef is a pretty popular dish cooked by roasting. A slab of beef rubbed with spices is roasted and served in sandwiches or with potatoes and gravy.
Grilling
Grilling is done by cooking the food in a short period of time under high heat. Compared to broiling, the heat source is under the food in grilling. Common heat sources in grilling are charcoal and gas. Grilling can be done directly with the heat source or with a metal grill that heats up then transfers the heat to the food.
There are lots of grilled dishes like beef briskets and pork spareribs that are very tasty. One benefit of grilling is the smoky taste that it provides to the meat you are cooking. The taste depends on the length of cooking and the heat source you used. Using different types of wood as charcoal can result in different flavors for your food.
Frying
Frying is achieved by cooking your food on a pan with fat or oil. It is commonly used to achieve a crispy texture for your dish. Fat or oil is liquid, but frying is still considered a dry heat method because it does not use water.
There are various ways to fry food, sauteing, stir-frying, pan-frying, and deep-frying. The fat used in frying your food affects the taste of the food. Ebi tempura or Japanese fried shrimp is one of the most known fried foods out there. It is made by dipping shrimp into a batter then frying it quickly for a crispy texture.
Conclusion
There are other ways of cooking that use the dry heat method. We shared with you how is heat transferred in dry cooking techniques and some cooking techniques that use the dry heat method. We hope that you learned something and that it can help you cook more amazing meals for everyone. Learn more about the different cooking techniques.