What is the Difference between Baking and Cooking?

Question

I know the Answer I want and if I get it from you, you will get 10 points

Lissy_21 did you mean you can improvise with cooking a lot more??
Clarkie
I thought that was the whole point of this site to gain knowledge and give the correct person 10 points

Lissy_21 was right, Baking is a science, in most cases there is a chemical reaction involved and if this is wrong it doesn't come out as required.
Where with cooking, you can be more inventive adding things and taking them out

Answer 1

Emeril says "Cooking is an art and baking is a science"

You must have specific measurements to bake well and you can improvise a lot more with baking.

Answer 2

Spark and dictionary.com have it almost right. We do use an oven for dry cooking, but sometimes we use a hot water bath to set the item in. This is not technically steaming, since the water bath does not make the intense steam needed to, for example, steaming veggies.
I think they are both the same, we can cook just about everything I can think of on the stove or in the oven, equally. We can sear a steak in the oven, bake cornbread in a skillet on top. If we want to keep moisture in, we cover the pot or dish, if not, we keep it open.
The only difference would be for something that required high steady heat or constant stirring, like candy. You could not get the constant heat or stir, with an open oven door. And Oh, the back ache and the sweaty brow you would get if you have a traditional stove/oven combo, reaching in to stir peanut brittle! But it could be done!

Answer 3

Bob G & Spark 123 score a bullseye; Cooking, top line, baking is a process, a means of cooking - - - note the oddity that books on creating cold salads are called cookbooks!! Cooking has become a synonym for Food Preparation, as easy out -- -- -- baking will always be baking though the variety of ovens is incredible -- -- a Dutch Oven can cook atop a stove - - - people 'bake' items in a microwave when the actual process is more akin to steaming only inside out or something like that.

Peace....

Answer 4

Cooking covers a great selection of culinary words... loosely observed as something you cook dinner on precise of the range in a skillet, saucepan or Dutch Oven. Frying is foodstuff fried in cooking oil or a mixture of oil and butter. Searing is similiar to frying. Baking commonly refers to baking a Casserole interior the oven, or baking a cake, or cookies. Baking a pie. Baking potatoes, and so forth. Roasting commonly refers to roasting meat, poultry, purple meat, certainly one of those meats. Potatoes and different root greens may well be roasted. each and every of the above is cooking.

Answer 5

Baking is cooking of bread and cakes by dry heat in an oven while cooking is the skill or practice of preparing food.

Answer 6

Spark has it exactly right but I would emphasis that baking is a usually drier kind of cooking and the term is used beyond it's strict definition as in "baked beans" which to me aren't baked at all.

But then the meanings of words change over time and from place to place.

Answer 7

Cooking is done on top of the stove. Things such as stir fry and hamburgers.
Baking is done in the oven. Things like bread and cakes.

I like to cook, but I LOVE to bake.

Answer 8

Food + Heat = Cooking
Food + Mixing + Heat = Baking

You can bake various types of bread on the stove and you can cook various food in the oven. Note that stirring != mixing.

Answer 9

Baking is a type of cooking done with an oven. Usually when people refer to baking they are talking about breads, cakes, pastries, etc...

Answer 10

bake:
1. to cook by dry heat in an oven or on heated metal or stones.

cook:
1. to prepare (food) by the use of heat, as by boiling, baking, or roasting.

Thus, baking is a form of cooking and so it is a more specific term and cooking is more of a broad term of food preparation.