Introduction

Since man first discovered fire and applied it to food, the act of cooking has come a long way. Instead of fire, we now use electric stoves, microwaves, induction, and so on, but the idea remains the same: the application of heat to a food to transform it into something easier to chew and digest. Modern man also strives to meet another goal—to make our food taste absolutely wonderful—a goal that wasn’t a priority for our ancestors back when food was harder to obtain and all of their efforts went into hunting and gathering the basics.