Food & Cooking · Unit 9

Cooking Methods

Boiling, roasting, frying and everything in between

Almost every cooking method is a way of getting heat into food, and the differences between them come down to the medium doing the carrying and the temperature it can reach.

The unit covers moist heat, dry heat, cooking in fat, methods needing no heat at all, and the equipment each requires.

This unit breaks down into 20 short steps and 119 questions, starting at difficulty 2 and building to 3. Below you can see exactly what it covers, how the path is structured, and worked examples with explanations.

Steps: 20
Questions: 119
Difficulty: 2-3

What this unit covers

Cooking in Dry Heat
Cooking in Water
Cooking in Fat
Cooking Without Fire
Pans, Ovens and Grills

Where this fits

Needs In the Kitchen. Food Science explains why each behaves as it does.

Where people slip

Water cannot exceed 100 degrees at normal pressure, which is why boiled food never browns. Browning needs the higher temperatures that dry heat and oil can reach.

How the unit is structured

Cooking Methods runs as 20 short steps that unlock in order. 15 are practice rounds and 5 are challenge rounds that pull together everything before them. Questions start at difficulty 2 and climb to 3 as you progress.

Step 1 · easierStep 20 · harder

Challenge rounds

Example questions

30 real questions from this unit, with the answer and the reason behind it, grouped by what they practise. There are 119 in the unit altogether.

Cooking Without Fire

Build the sentenceLevel 2
1. Build a sentence about raw food.
Answer: Acid can firm fish without any heat
Acid can firm fish without any heat.
Choose all that applyLevel 2
2. Which dishes involve no cooking? Pick all that apply.
- A green saladcorrect
- A sandwichcorrect
- A fruit plattercorrect
- A roast dinner
Salads, sandwiches and fruit platters need no heat.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
3. How does lemon juice change raw fish in a ceviche?
- Acid firms it and turns it opaquecorrect
- It heats the fish
- It freezes the fish
- Nothing changes
The acid firms the flesh and turns it opaque, much as heat would.
Odd one outLevel 2
4. Which of these does NOT use heat?
- Making a saladcorrect
- Boiling potatoes
- Roasting a chicken
- Frying an egg
Making a salad involves only washing and cutting.
True or falseLevel 2
5. Some foods are prepared without any heat at all.
Answer: True
True. Salads, sushi and cured foods are all made without cooking.
Type the answerLevel 2
6. What is the mixture of oil and vinegar poured over a salad called?
Answer: dressing
A dressing coats the leaves and adds flavour.

Cooking in Dry Heat

Build the sentenceLevel 2
7. Build a sentence about roasting.
Answer: Roasting cooks food in hot dry air
Roasting cooks food in hot dry air.
Choose all that applyLevel 2
8. Which use dry heat? Pick all that apply.
- Roastingcorrect
- Grillingcorrect
- Bakingcorrect
- Poaching
Roasting, grilling and baking are all dry heat methods.
Match the pairsLevel 2
9. Match each method to how it heats food.
Answer: Boiling = Hot water; Steaming = Hot vapour; Roasting = Hot air; Frying = Hot fat
Methods differ in what carries the heat.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
10. What is roasting?
- Cooking in the dry heat of an ovencorrect
- Cooking in water
- Cooking in a fridge
- Cooking in steam
Cooking food in the dry hot air of an oven.
Sort into groupsLevel 2
11. Sort each method by whether heat reaches the food mainly by air, liquid or fat.
Answer: Roasting = Air; Baking = Air; Deep frying = Fat; Shallow frying = Fat
The carrier changes speed and result.
True or falseLevel 2
12. Roasted vegetables often taste sweeter than boiled ones.
Answer: True
True. Dry heat browns the sugars and concentrates flavour.

Cooking in Fat

Choose all that applyLevel 2
13. Which fats are used for cooking? Pick all that apply.
- Olive oilcorrect
- Buttercorrect
- Sunflower oilcorrect
- Vinegar
Olive oil, butter and sunflower oil are all cooking fats.
Fact or fibLevel 2
14. You can safely put a wet pan straight into hot oil.
Answer: False
False. Water in hot oil spits violently and can cause burns.
Fill the blankLevel 2
15. Cooking food completely submerged in hot oil is called ____ frying.
- deepcorrect
- shallow
- dry
- cold
Deep frying surrounds the food with oil.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
16. What is the difference between shallow and deep frying?
- How much fat the food sits incorrect
- The temperature only
- The type of food
- There is no difference
Shallow frying uses a little fat, deep frying submerges the food completely.
True or falseLevel 2
17. Oil can reach a much higher temperature than boiling water.
Answer: True
True, which is why frying browns food so quickly.
Put in orderLevel 3
18. Put these events during deep frying in order.
Answer: Surface water boils off rapidly -> A dry crust forms -> Heat conducts into the interior -> The centre finishes cooking
Surface water boils off, crust forms, heat conducts inwards, food cooks through.

Cooking in Water

Choose all that applyLevel 2
19. Which cook food using water or steam? Pick all that apply.
- Boilingcorrect
- Steamingcorrect
- Poachingcorrect
- Grilling
Boiling, steaming and poaching all use water.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
20. What is steaming?
- Cooking in the vapour above boiling watercorrect
- Cooking in oil
- Cooking in an oven
- Cooking on coals
Cooking food in the hot vapour above boiling water, without it touching the water.
Picture questionLevel 2
21. ♨️ What is rising from this pot of hot water?
- Steamcorrect
- Smoke
- Dust
- Snow
Steam is water vapour, and it carries a lot of heat.
Sort into groupsLevel 2
22. Sort each method by whether it uses water or dry heat.
Answer: Boiling = Uses water; Steaming = Uses water; Roasting = Uses dry heat; Grilling = Uses dry heat
The heat carrier defines the method.
Fact or fibLevel 3
23. Boiling food harder makes it cook noticeably faster.
Answer: False
False. The temperature is the same, only the agitation increases.
Put in orderLevel 3
24. Put these blanching steps in order.
Answer: Bring water to a rolling boil -> Drop in the vegetables -> Cook very briefly -> Plunge into iced water
Boil, drop in, brief cook, plunge into iced water.

Pans, Ovens and Grills

Choose all that applyLevel 2
25. Which appliances cook food? Pick all that apply.
- Ovencorrect
- Hobcorrect
- Microwavecorrect
- Freezer
Ovens, hobs and microwaves all cook.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
26. Why do some pans have a non-stick coating?
- So food releases easily with less fatcorrect
- To make pans heavier
- To conduct heat better
- For decoration
Food releases easily, so less fat is needed and washing is simpler.
Put in orderLevel 2
27. Put these steps of frying an egg in order.
Answer: Heat the pan -> Add a little oil or butter -> Crack in the egg -> Cook until set -> Serve
Heat the pan, add fat, crack the egg, cook, serve.
True or falseLevel 2
28. A lid on a pan makes water boil faster.
Answer: True
True. Less heat escapes as steam.
Build the sentenceLevel 3
29. Build a sentence about heat transfer.
Answer: Conduction convection and radiation all cook food
Conduction convection and radiation all cook food.
Fact or fibLevel 3
30. Microwaves cook food from the inside out.
Answer: False
False. They penetrate a few centimetres and heat spreads from there.

Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.

How you practise

This unit mixes 12 different question formats, so you are recalling and applying rather than recognising the same layout every time.

Build the sentence
Choose all that apply
Fact or fib
Fill the blank
Match the pairs
Multiple choice
Odd one out
Picture question
Put in order
Sort into groups
True or false
Type the answer

Practise Cooking Methods

119 questions across 20 steps. Start with step one and crawl at your own pace.

Play this unit

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