Think octopus and shrimps, but other foods get just dry when overcooked?
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I suppose it’s due to different proteins and different connective tissue for different types of foods. Proteins are longer hydrocarbon chains that react differently in different heat and often result in tough textures in food. Methods of cooking likewise matters. Microwaving food, which distributes the heat throughout the food instead of just through a surface can result in hotspots within the food that over cooks certain proteins while not cooking other elements down properly.
Animal products meanwhile have different connective tissue due to cellular structure and evolutionary reasons, resulting in different textures and different preparation and handling methods. Even different breeds of animals of the same species can result in very different textures and flavors, while also species sharing common evolutionary history may find themselves more like each other. It’s no coincidence that amphibians and reptiles are compared to chicken, which as a bird are descended from dinosaurs as opposed to fish or mammals.
Dryness would be due to water content. Heat causes water to evaporate. Cookies for example just dry out out of the oven . Ironically chips or crisps go stale by gaining water content. So if you have stale chips that lose their cripiness you can try baking them a bit to dry them out and return some cripiness. However their age may cause them to gain certain additional flavors which may or not be desirable.
Cooking is really a full complex chemical and physical reaction with many things happening all at once. Proteins, fats, carbs are changing, breaking down or forming while water, lipid and other fluid contents are changing, replacing one another. Microwaving has its uses but culturally its been around for 50 years while other cooking methods have been around for centuries if not millenia of trial and error.
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