Which factors determine the absorption levels of foods? [closed]

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I wonder if there are some general rules for primary food groups (meat, veggies) that a cook can use to increase/decrease the amount of oil, water, and other compounds uptaken by the target ingredient from surrounding ingredients.

For example, when baking potatoes, what factors (like temp, time & mixing ratios) would dehydrate them & what factors would help them pick up oils and herb flavors down to the center?

Similarly, when cooking meat, how would time, preparation (e.g. brining), temperature & cooking technique help pick up flavors & oils from additional ingredients in one case, while leave the cut tasteless & gummy in another case?

I guess my question has a lot to do with the level of decomposition that is reached before and during cooking a food. Am I on the right track here & how would I control decomposition in general?

bakingmeatvegetablestemperaturefood-science


Best Answer

I was wondering if this should be closed as too broad or unclear, or answered. I'll attempt an answer.

The information you are looking for doesn't exist. First, there are no common factors which make all and any food tasty. Second, the factors which make most foods tasty have nothing to do with absorption, and in fact most foods do not absorb anything at all. The starches are a big exception (rice, noodles, etc.) but they absorb water, not flavors, oil or spices. Third, decomposition does not exist in the way you are suggesting, and is not a topic in cooking. Different food groups cook in different ways, and I guess that the process could be classified as decomposition for some of them (proteins, celluloses and hemicelluloses), but it is actually too generic a term to be of any use for understanding what is going on.

If you want to learn to cook well, and understand the whys behind it, you have to go into each type of food separately, and learn it on a deeper level than some very general terms like "absorption". Alternatively, you can say that's too much theory for you and just learn to cook by following recipes and comparing the outcome to your expectations. But you can't throw out a term like "decomposition" or "absorption" and cover all cooking with it.



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Absorption in the visible region | Spectroscopy | Organic chemistry | Khan Academy



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