Culinary triangle

The culinary triangle is a concept described by French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss involving three types of cooking: boiling, roasting, and smoking, usually done to meat.

Boiling meat is seen to be a cultural form of cooking because it uses a receptacle to hold water, therefore it is not completely natural.

In most cultures, this form of cooking is usually conducted by women and is served domestically to small closed groups, such as families.

As opposed to boiling, roasted meat can lose some parts during cooking, thus it is also associated with destruction and loss.

For example, grilling meat, by nature of the meat being situated "with lesser distance [...] to fire", could be situated "at the apex of the recipe triangle" (above the roasted), while steamed food, located further from the water than boiled, would be placed "halfway between the boiled and the smoked.