🍃Dehydrating: One of the oldest methods of food preservation. Because microorganisms need the water in foods to propagate, drying renders food and ingredients safe from bacteria, yeast, mold and other forms of microbial contamination. Dehydration, in food processing, means by which many types of food can be preserved for indefinite periods by extracting the moisture, thereby inhibiting the growth of microorganisms. Food drying is not difficult. It means less work, not more. A dehydrator heats air inside the unit and absorbs water in the food placed in a drying chamber. The temperature is low enough to dry the food, and not cook it. It minimally affects the nutritional value of foods, especially when the process takes place in your own home. When you dry foods at home under gentle conditions (correct temperature and a reasonable amount of drying time), you produce a high-quality product. Compared with canning and freezing, both of which involve extreme temperatures, food drying is the least damaging form of food preservation.

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🍃Steaming: Once water is heated past the 212°F mark, it stops being water and turns into steam. The food is kept separate from the boiling water but has direct contact with the steam, resulting in a moist texture to the food. It has an advantage over methods such as boiling or even simmering as there is no agitation involved, so it's gentler on delicate items like Kale. And because it doesn't require the food to be submerged, it avoids the loss of nutrients through leaching.

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🍃Poaching: A type of moist-heat cooking technique that involves cooking by submerging food in a liquid, such as water, milk, stock or wine. Poaching is differentiated from the other "moist heat" cooking methods, such as simmering and boiling, in that it uses a relatively low temperature (about 140–180 °F). Advantages are the fact that poached items will turn out moist and tender.

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🍃Baking: A method of cooking food that uses prolonged dry heat, normally in an oven, but also in hot ashes, or on hot stones. If you're cooking food that doesn't already have a solid structure, but will after it's cooked — like muffins, cake, bread, and casseroles — the proper method is baking. Baking occurs at lower oven temperatures (up to 375°F).

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🍃Roasting: If you're cooking food that has a solid structure — like any type of meat or vegetables — no matter the temperature of the oven, you'll roast it. Roasting is typically done in an open, uncovered pan, and requires a higher temperature (400°F and above) to create a browned, flavorful "crust" on the outside of the food being cooked.

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🍃Sautéing: A form of dry-heat cooking that uses a very hot pan and a small amount of fat to cook the food very quickly. It browns the food's surface as it cooks and develops complex flavors and aromas. It's important to get the pan very hot, then add the fat (butter or oil) and let it get hot as well, before adding the food to the pan. Avoid overloading or overcrowding the pan. In order to achieve the desired browning of the food, the pan needs to stay hot throughout the cooking process. Too much food in the pan dissipates the heat, causing the food to steam or boil rather than sauté. When you sauté, you want to keep the food moving. The word sauté actually means "jump" in French. Tossing or flipping the food in the pan ensures that it cooks evenly, but it also helps keep the pan hot. The reason it's important to keep the food moving around is that when a hot thing meets a cooler thing, their temperatures eventually meet in the middle. The cooler thing grows warmer while the hot thing cools down.

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🍃Pan-Frying: A form of fryingcharacterized by the use of minimalcooking oil or fat (compared toshallow frying or deep frying); typically using just enough oil to lubricate the pan. It’s similar to sautéing but requires more fat and often lower temperatures. The 3 most important elements to remember about pan-frying: ▪Do not overcrowd the pan. ▪Cook the food shortly after applying the coatings. ▪Turn the food only once as it cooks

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🍃Oven-Frying: The basic premise of oven frying is that you take a food, cover it very lightly in oil/fat (even cooking spray) and bake it at a 400°F, the higher the heat, the browner and crispier the coating will get. This method mimics the act of cooking it submerged in fat. You can also add bread crumbs/cracker crumbs to the surface of the food to add crunch. Now you can have the crisp, the crunch, the chewy satisfaction of fried food-and guilt-free pleasure as well.

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