What is an acceptable level of preparation to be "cooking"?

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

This is a deep problem I have been grappling with. At what point does it become cooking, and not merely preparing a meal?

We pretty much all use some level of pre-preparation in our meals. The vast majority of people do not make meals spring forth entirely from the ground, Minecraft-style, but harvesting their own crops and slaughtering their own animals. Similarly, most of us presumably don't make our own pasta from flour, or make our own ground chuck from a giant slab of beef.

But at what point does the simplification of the task turn it from an act of cooking to a mere act of warming the food? And, does the nature of the heat source change things? Is heating pre-prepared pasta in the microwave less or the same as warming vegetables in a pot over the stove?

 

[I should be working]

From my understanding, Cooking is just the action(s) of taking something raw and making it the oposite of raw.
So you prepare a salad.
You reheat your KFC.
You cook a Turkey.

 

[MAPK phosphatase]

When you're changing the protein and/or enzyme structure and/or configuration of the food through the application of heat, you are cooking it. Basically you're crossing a line that can't be crossed backwards (at least not easily since you can, hypothetically, un-boil a hard boiled egg).

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

I’m not talking about dictionary definition cooking, I’m talking about “preparing a meal” cooking.

 

[Sīn the Moon Daddy]

If it involves an instant pot it's definitely cooking

If you're just reheating some hot pockets then no

 

[I should be working]

I’m not talking about dictionary definition cooking, I’m talking about “preparing a meal” cooking.

What's the Difference?

 

[Tiny Clanger]

Pot Noodle

 

[Gustav Schuchardt]

I think it's cooking if you're following a recipe with raw ingredients and using an oven/wok etc.

If you're just reheating or, God forbid, rehydrating, something then no.

 

[Tiny Clanger]

....or, God forbid, rehydrating, something then no.

How dare you besmirch the mighty Pot Noodle?

Pistols at dawn on the front terrace, good sir...er kiwi.

 

[Slap47]

Cooking is a subsection of preparing a meal.

Cooking = heating up the food.

You don't cook tuna salad, sushi or a salad.

 

[Tiny Clanger]

You don't cook tuna salad, sushi or a salad.

Ay fuck. I knew I was doing summat wrong.