TWOFOLD EFFECTS OF THE USE OF FIRE IN THE KITCHEN
The introduction of fire counts as the big turning point in the evolution
of humanity, not only because of the use of fire for warming of human
dwellings and for melting the ores that enabled the production of better
tools and weapons, but also because of its use in food preparation. Cooking
of food is one of those things which separate us from the animal world. When
we cook we use the element of fire with the aim to transform the texture,
taste, smell, visual appearance and temperature of the food. [1] For
that reason we talk about the 'alchemy of cooking', because the essence of
alchemy is
in the inner transformation of the basic characteristics of substances by
the mediation of fire.
But this is not the only case when the element of warmth is active in
connection with food. Warmth of the sun is indispensable for the existence
of the plant and animal world. For example, for the successful ripening of
grains, grapes, and many other fruits and seeds much warmth is needed; this
phase in the development of plants we can compare with the process of
'cooking' – of course, with relatively lower temperatures compared with that
used later in the kitchen. To this we need to add also the processes of
digestion that can run normally only in the presence of inner bodily warmth
which enables the proper transformation of food substances. This doesn't
include only processes in the digestive tract, but also processes happening
in the blood and lymph circulation after food has been absorbed into them.
Thus we have a continuation of warmth processes of three kinds: from
'cooking' performed by the Sun in nature, to the use of fire in the kitchen,
and finally to the digestive 'fire' inside the human organism.
Here we have one reason why "human beings have come in the course of
their evolution to eating the grains differently from the way animals eat
them. A horse eats his oats almost as they grow. Animals eat their kernels
of grain raw, just as they come from the plant. The birds would have a hard
time getting their seed if they had to depend upon someone cooking it for
them first. But human beings have come of themselves to cooking the grains.
And now, what happens when we cook the grain? When we cook the grain, we
don't eat it cold, we eat it warm. And it's a fact, that to digest our food
we need inner warmth. Unless there is warmth we can't transform our
carbohydrates into starch and the starch into sugar: these activities
require inner heat.
So if we first apply external heat to the foodstuffs, we help the body;
in such a case it does not have to provide all the warmth itself. By being cooked first,
the foods have already begun the fire process, the warmth process. That's
the first result. The second is, that they have been entirely changed. Think
what happens to the grain when I make flour into bread. It becomes something
quite different. And how has it become different? Well, first I have ground
the seeds. I have crushed them into tiny pieces. What I do there with the
seeds, grinding them, making them fine, I'd otherwise have to do later
within my own body. Everything I do externally, I'd otherwise have to do
internally, inside my body; so by doing those things, I relieve my body. And
the same is with the baking itself. With all the things I do in cooking I
bring the foods to a condition in which my body can more easily digest them." [2]
Here we see an evident advantage of cooking in the improvement of
digestibility and taste of cooked food [3];
on the other hand we need to acknowledge that by cooking we bring about the
loss of vital forces in the food which can be detected in the loss of
so-called 'vitamins'. This is the summary of the twofold effects of the use
of fire in food preparation that contradict each other. Therefore it is our
task to find the balance between the need to help our inner warmth-processes
of digestion via outer warmth-processes of cooking and the need to obtain
enough vital forces from our food. For that purpose we need to try to find
the right amount of cooking time – not too much or too little. There are
different opinions, of course, about what is too much or too little. Because
of this we will look at one example from a traditional food culture – that
is, from the times when the spiritual leaders of ancient cultures knew about
the special role of warmth in the alchemy of cooking.
In the Chinese traditional kitchen there are a lot of vegetable dishes
cooked 'al dente' – that is, too little from a European perspective. This
demonstrates how important is that we do not overcook plant food when there
is no special reason. This is especially valid for modern affluent societies
with a predominance of highly processed foods made from low quality
ingredients. The final outcome of over-processing is food products with an
extremely low amount of vital forces.
But on the other hand we need to understand that prolonged cooking can
cause such alchemical transformation of food which will trigger healing
processes in the human body. An example of such food is Chinese
congee (with
the time of cooking between four to six hours) which is used as a
therapeutic measure for regulating digestive activities and warmth processes
of the human organism. [4] This
example helps to understand that the reasons for making jams from various
fruits which can be otherwise eaten raw are not only in preventing food
spoilage. Although is almost universally accepted that eating fresh fruit
will have very positive effects on the well-being of people who consume it,
it is also evident that good quality jams [5]
can be part of a healthy nutrition because of their impact on the human
warmth organism.
Thus we can see that extremes are not good –neither rejecting cooked food
nor eliminating raw food out of one's diet are permanent solutions, for we
need to take into account the more hidden supersensible effects which are
not discernible immediately. We need first to understand why cooked food was
introduced into human diets before we can make right dietary choices. We can
make suitable decisions only when we comprehend how through alchemical
transformation of food by cooking, sautéing, frying, roasting ,baking, etc.,
we are helping ourselves to digest consumed food in optimal way – not just
on the physiological level, but also in the higher stages of soul-spiritual
'digestion'. [6]
The Essential Nature of the Warmth
If we want to deepen our understanding of the nature of alchemical
transformations in the kitchen we need to look at the essential nature of
warmth. But before we do this we need to mention one obstacle which can
prevent us from grasping the true nature of warmth: this is the scientific
theory of heat which "has taken a form during the nineteenth century which
has given a great deal of support to a materialistic view of the world. It
has done so because in the observations of heat processes and relationships
it is very easy to turn one's glance away from the real nature of warmth,
from its being, and to direct it to the mechanical phenomena arising from
warmth." [7] In this period came into existence the materialistic theory
which regards warmth as the outcome of "the thermal motion of atoms and
molecules" [8] where "the amplitude of the vibrations increases with
temperature." [9] This image of the source of warmth has been deeply
ingrained into the consciousness of modern humanity.
In opposition to this we have the spiritual-scientific picture of the
COSMIC EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCES
with four long periods of cosmic evolution. In the first period there
existed only warmth or the element of fire. From it gradually developed the
seven conditions of matter which are divided into two distinctive spheres.
"The realms of the gaseous, the fluid and the solid
are now found on the one hand, and on the other realms of light, chemical
effects and vital activity. If we call now the upper realm the etheric and
the lower realm the region of ponderable matter, we obviously have to
consider the heat realm as the equilibrium condition between them. Thus
in
heat we have found that which is the equilibrium condition between the
etheric body and the ponderable material. It is ether and matter at the same
time. Unless we understand this, we cannot understand or do anything in the
realm of heat phenomena." [10]
When we grasp this special intermediate position of warmth between
earthly and etheric conditions of matter, then we can proceed to its next
special characteristic. "Both ancient and modern
spiritual science agree that there is very important difference between what
we term earth, water, air and what we call fire or warmth. How do we get to
know the earth element or solidity? We might try by touching it and
experiencing its resistance. The same applies to water though it offers less
resistance. Nevertheless we are aware of it as something external to
ourselves, as a resistance. The same is true of air. We only get to know it
externally in relation to ourselves. But this is not the case with warmth.
Here we shall have to emphasize an aspect that is regarded as unimportant by
the modern outlook, but we shall have to consider it if we wish to fathom
the riddles of existence. We do, in fact, become aware of warmth without
touching it externally. That is the important point. We become aware of
warmth by touching an object that has been heated, in which case we become
aware of it in the same way as we do the other elements, but we also feel
the warmth within our own organism. Warmth is the first element that can
also be apprehended inwardly.
Warmth, or fire, has a twofold nature – an external aspect, which we get
to know outwardly, and an inner aspect, which we feel in our own condition
of warmth. Actually, we feel our own inner warmth, we are hot or cold, and
yet one is little inclined to concern oneself with what is gaseous, fluid
or solid in one's organism, that is, with what is air, water and earth in
ourselves. We only begin to be aware of ourselves in the element of warmth.
Ancient and modern spiritual science both proclaim fire or warmth to be the
first stage at which matter becomes soul. Hence, we can speak in the full
sense of the word of an outer fire, which we perceive as we do other
elements, and of an inner soul fire within man. That is why, in spiritual
science, fire always built a bridge between the outer material world, and
the inner soul world that can be perceived only inwardly."
[11]
If we now put all this together then it should not be a surprising
conclusion that in the activity of cooking we literary affect the quality of
the alchemical transformations of food substances by the quality of our
inner warmth – that is, by the outcome of what we have managed to integrate
into our personality with the help of the acquisition of spiritual knowledge
and with the help of moral development. "We can indeed work at and
enhance our faculties; in later life we can acquire qualities of soul which
were lacking earlier on. To this extent there can be a development of
character during a person's life between birth and death." [12]
Thus we can conclude that one of the most important 'ingredients' of true
alchemy in the kitchen is the human being who performs the activities of
preparation of food into dishes and meals. Therefore, the final quality of
the dishes is, beside the quality of ingredients and methods of preparation,
also dependent on what is 'imprinted' into the work by those who are dealing
with the food. In this way the problems and challenges in relation to the
growing, processing, preparation, and digestion of food became
simultaneously the moral problems and challenges. Because in these
activities in which many people participate, the final result depends on the
common impact of all individuals who are part of food chain, and from the
quality of raw materials and methods in use. All this is reflected in the
final quality of a meal – not just in characteristics which can be perceived
through our physical senses, but also in more hidden supersensible
information transmuted by the medium of warmth. [13]
For complementary perspectives see:
♦ RAW VERSUS COOKED FOOD
♦ HOLISTIC APPROACH TO COOKING
DIETARY CONCLUSIONS & PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS
First we need to address the issue of
overcooking. For that reason we
need to distinguish three groups of food:
- foods which can be eaten only if cooked, such as legumes and grains; [14]
- foods which can be eaten either raw or cooked, such as carrot, cabbage, apple, etc.;
- foods which we eat only raw, such as lettuce and sprouts. [15]
If you do not want to lose too much vitality then try to find out
the minimum cooking time for a specific food. It is very easy to
overcook some foods, especially when one follows recipes from old
cooking books. Different foods will need different cooking times.
Pulses demand a long cooking time. With grains the times vary
depending on the type of grain and method of cooking. But they can be
quite long or shorter. Then we have vegetables. The roots are those
which are the least ripened and thus demand more cooking. The leaves,
such as cabbage, kale, etc. need less. And the most ripened are fruit
parts of the plants, such as tomato, or pepper, etc. and fruits. Of
course, these are just general indications with the aim to help us when
making experiments in the kitchen.
The next thing we need to mention is the issue of
leftovers. The best option is, of course,
that we do not use leftovers or pre-cooked foods – that is, that we always
make fresh meals. But this might not be always possible. The important thing
is that we are aware that in the case of ready-made dishes, over-cooked
foods, and leftovers we already have dishes with lower level of vital forces
than the fresh ones and therefore we need to try to avoid them as much as
possible. [16]
This is not so problematic with cooked whole grains and legumes which can
be kept in the fridge for a few days. The most problematic are leafy
vegetables because they are the most sensitive. This is evident even if we
keep them fresh in the fridge. They will wilt after a certain period of
time – a clear sign of loss of vital forces. For
that reason it is important that we buy good quality ingredients with strong
vital forces; then the inevitable loss of a certain amount of vitality will
be proportionally less than in the case of low quality ingredients.
[17]
♣ For the list of good quality ingredients see
HOLISTIC FOOD 'PYRAMID'
Lastly, we need to be aware that the quality of water and externals
– the cooking vessels, utensils, the heat, etc. – also contribute to
the final quality of the dish. To address this properly would demand
another text. Because this is not possible, here are given only three
basic pieces of advice.
- Advice on the source of heat: Avoid
microwaves, for the heat is produced by the rotation and inner friction of
food molecules, which in turn causes their damage.
- Advice on cooking vessels: Avoid non-stick pans
and baking trays which are sensitive to scratching, for they always get
damaged (regardless of what you do to prevent it) and thus contaminate the food.
- Advice on vessels and utensils: Avoid plastic vessels, tableware,
cutlery, glasses, etc. whenever you serve food. [18]
WARNING: You always have to put the above
practical dietary instructions inside the framework of
GENERAL NUTRITIONAL
GUIDELINES with the aim to know their limits when looking for a solution
of a specific nutritional problem. You also need to be familiar with
THE ROLE OF NUTRITIONAL GUIDELINES
with the aim to avoid any one-sided conclusions.
