Cooking without Heat

Some cookery requires no heat at all, such as certain cures and pickles. Other processes take advantage of climate variations, such as sun-drying, or mechanical reactions, such as whipping cream or emulsifying eggs, oil, and vinegar into mayonnaise.

Health food advocates have periodically recommended a diet of raw foods, and no other culinary preparation in America has been so zealously promoted as the key to longevity and marital bliss, as it theoretically freed women from extended kitchen drudgery. Fruit and vegetable salads predominate, although raw meats such as steak tartare also appear. Unbaked breads and cakes are made from an amalgam of dried fruits, ground nuts, and cereal held together by oil or honey and then allowed to dry in the sun or dehydrate in a carefully moderated oven. Juicing, blending, marinating, and sprouting also are techniques of raw cuisine. In the early phase of the movement, advocates of raw food emphasized utter simplicity in eating, limiting the foods at any one meal to two or three main ingredients, and in eliminating dangerous ingredients, such as vinegar and alcohol, both considered poisons by the most extreme practitioners.