cooking

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The preparation of food with the use of heat, as by boiling, baking, or frying.

   Cooking over an open flame gives the vegetables a smoky flavor.

   Years of cooking in busy restaurant kitchens taught him to work fast.

   Similarcookery

   Note

   The verbal noun the other uses grow from: cook plus -ing, with the noun and adjective following from the verb. As a mass noun it pairs naturally with time and method (a short cooking time, lengthy cooking, cooking in minimal water) and with place, as in the shack where the cooking was done. Here it takes no plural. Counting separate occasions belongs to the rare countable use.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of cook.

   He is cooking a stew that has simmered all afternoon.

   We were cooking when the power suddenly went out.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty. After be it builds progressives (we were cooking), and as a gerund it names the activity, shading into the noun for the process. Because cook is also intransitive, "the stew is cooking" means the stew is being cooked, not doing the cooking. The slang senses carry over too: a machine can be cooking from excessive heat or radiation.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The food that is produced when ingredients are prepared using heat.

   After a month of airport food, he was desperate for some home cooking.

   Neighbors lined the potluck tables with their cooking, from baked beans to peach cobbler.

   Similarfood

   Note

   The same -ing noun that names the work in the kitchen also names what comes out of it: cook plus -ing, built on the verb. That double life makes "I love her cooking" ambiguous between the food on the plate and her skill at the stove. A quick test settles it: if what is praised could be served, it is this sense; if it could improve with practice, it is the skill.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The particular style or tradition of food preparation associated with a place or group.

   French cooking is known for its rich sauces and careful technique.

   The restaurant specializes in regional Mexican cooking.

   Similarcuisine, cookery, food

   Note

   A style with a passport. It usually follows an adjective of nation or region, as in Chinese, Japanese or Indian cooking, and overlaps heavily with cuisine, the word Pat Chapman's India Food and Cooking uses in its subtitle. The construction separates it from one person's skill. A possessive (mum's cooking) points to a cook, and a national adjective points to a tradition.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   A person's skill at preparing food.

   Her cooking earned compliments from even the pickiest guests.

   Once you taste his cooking, you'll never order takeout again.

   Similarfood, cookery, cuisine

6. 6
   adjective

   Made or intended for use in preparing food.

   Brush the pan with cooking oil before adding the eggs.

   A sturdy cooking pot is essential for making good stock.

7. 7
   adjectivecolloquial

   Currently in progress or quietly being planned.

   By the look on his face, a new scheme was cooking.

   There's a deal cooking that could change everything.

   Similarafoot

8. 8
   adjective

   Of low quality: cheap enough for use in recipes but not good enough to drink on its own.

   She splashed some cooking brandy into the simmering sauce.

   The bottle was cheap cooking wine, fine for stews but nothing to serve guests.

   Note

   It qualifies alcoholic drink and almost always sits directly before the noun: cooking sherry, cooking claret, cooking brandy. The use is old. Bacchus's New guide for the hotel, bar, restaurant calls for "cooking claret" in 1885. The label is a polite insult, since a wine described this way is fit for the pot, not the glass. The same idea was later clipped into the cheapest pint.

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