Cooking is the preparation of food, by the aid of heat, to nourish the human body. We cook our food to make it taste better, and that it may be more easily digested and made a part of our bodies.

The word "cooking" is derived from the Latin coquo, meaning "to boil, bake, seethe, dry, scorch, or ripen." Cooking is usually done by the application of heat. The ripening and the drying process, which some foods undergo by the direct heat of the sun, is a kind of natural cooking.

The heat of the living animal also does its part in preparing other varieties of food for our use; but the greater part of the food we eat is cooked or prepared by the more rapid action of artificial heat. This develops and improves the flavor, changes the odor, taste, and digestibility of nearly all articles of food, and thus renders them more capable of nourishing our bodies.

The proper cooking of much of our food depends also upon the use of water, or some other liquid, combined with heat, and upon the free action of air during the process of cooking.