Cocer

Cocer is a Spanish verb that means to cook or to heat food until it is ready to eat. The term covers a range of cooking methods, including boiling, simmering, baking, and steaming, depending on the context. In everyday usage, cocer emphasizes the process of applying heat to transform raw ingredients into cooked food.

In culinary practice, cocer is transitive: se cocen las patatas, se cuece la carne, se puede cocer arroz, and other ingredients are prepared by cooking them in liquid or with heat. The verb is commonly used with phrases like cocer a fuego lento (to simmer), cocer al vapor (to steam), or cocer en olla (to cook in a pot). While hervir is often used specifically for boiling in water, cocer can refer to cooking by heat in general, including methods beyond boiling.

Conjugation and forms: cocer is irregular in the present tense. The standard present indicative forms are yo cuezo, tú cueces, él cuece, nosotros cocemos, vosotros cocéis, ellos cuecen. Other tenses follow regular patterns, though some forms retain the root change. The participle is cocido and the gerund cociendo.

Etymology: cocer derives from Latin coquere, meaning to cook, with later evolution into Old Spanish forms such as cozer/cocer. The word is closely related to other Romance verbs for cooking, such as coçar in some Iberian varieties and cozer in Portuguese.

See also: cocción, cocido, cocinar.