Cooking Terms & Techniques

Au gratin: Topped with cheese and baked in the oven.

Bake: To cook uncovered in the oven.

Barbecue: To roast meat or other food slowly with highly seasoned sauce or rub. May be grilled or slow cooked in the oven.

Baste: To ladle marinade, dripping or other liquid over food as it roasts.

Batter: A flour and liquid mixture thin enough to pour.

Beat: Stir vigorously, or beat with a whisk or electric mixer.

Bind: To add egg or other liquid to hold ingredients together.

Blanch: To scald quickly in boiling water.

Blend: To mix gently two or more ingredients together until smooth.

Braise: To brown in fat (oil or melted butter) to seal in juices of meat before cooking.

Bruise: To crush an ingredient (usually herbs) to release flavor when cooked.

Chop: To cut into small pieces.

Clove of garlic: One segment of a bulb of garlic.

Combine: To mix together two or more ingredients.

Compote: A mixture of sweetened cooked fruit.

Consomme: Clarified stock or bouillon.

Cream: To beat butter or shortening with dry ingredients (usually sugar) until smooth.

Cut in: To work in shortening into a flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture is the texture of course meal.

Dice: To cut into small uniform pieces (smaller than chopped)

Dot: To scatter bits of butter or seasoning over the surface of food.

Dough: A mixture of flour, liquid and other ingredients stiff enough to knead. Dredge: To coat with flour or breadcrumbs before frying.

Drippings: The juices from meat after cooking – used to make yummy gravy.

Dust: To cover lightly with flour, sugar or other dry ingredient (not from the top of your coffee table).

Fillet: A thin boneless piece of meat, or to remove the bones and skin from fish.

Flake: To separate with a fork until flaky as in fish.

Flambe: Make sure this does not apply to your eyebrows or hair. French for to set afire.

Flute: To crimp the edge of pie or tart crust.

Fold: To mix a fluffy ingredient (like beaten egg whites) into a thicker mixture using a gentle down and over motion

Fry: Oh come on, you know this one. To cook in a skillet in fat or oil.

Garnish: To make it look pretty with pieces of food.

Giblets: the heart, liver and gizzard of fowl, you got that right!

Grate: To cut into small pieces with a grater or mandolin.(not the kind you play)

Grease: To rub butter or shortening over the surface of a pan or container.

Grill: To cook over an open flame or coals on a grate.

Grind: To put food through a food chopper or processor.

Hors d’oeuvre: Fancy word for bite sized appetizers.

Ice: To cover with frosting. Also, a frozen fruit dessert.

Knead: To work dough with hands using a motion folding toward you then pushing forward.

Julienne: To cut food in long uniform thin slivers.

Leaven: To add leavening (baking powder, baking soda or yeast) to a bread or cake to make it rise.

Marinate: To flavor a food by letting it soak in a sauce or liquid before cooking.

Meringue: Stiff mixture of beaten egg white and sugar.

Mince: To chop in very fine pieces.

Mull: To heat a liquid (cider or wine) with spices.

Panbroil: To cook in a skillet in very little fat.

Parboil: To cook in boiling water until about half done. Usually before adding to a casserole to be baked later.

Pastry: A stiff flour-water-shortening dough used for piecrusts and turnovers.

Petits fours: Tiny fancy frosted cakes, (pleasing to the eye but too small to satisfy).

Pilaf: Rice cooked in a savory broth with small pieces of meat, vegetables and herbs.

Pipe: To squeeze a smooth mixture through a decorating or plastic bag with a corner snipped to make a shaped design.

Pit: To remove stone or pit from fruit.

Poach: To cook in gently simmering liquid.

Pound: To flatten with mallet meat or poultry to a uniform thickness.

Preheat: To turn oven on so that desired temperature is reached before putting food in.

Prick: To pierce food or pastry with fork before cooking.

Punch down: To deflate risen yeast bread dough by punching the center with fist.

Puree: To form food into smooth velvety texture by blending in a food processor or blender.

Ramekin: A small individual-size baking dish.

Reduce: To boil liquid uncovered to concentrate flavor and reduce amount.

Render: To melt solid fat surrounding meat.

Roast: To cook in the oven uncovered by dry heat.

Roux: A fat and flour mixture used in making sauces.

Saute: To cook or brown food lightly over high heat in a small amount of oil or butter.

Scald: To heat a liquid until bubbles form around edges of pan, just before boiling.

Score: To make shallow cuts on surface of food with a knife.

Sear: To brown the surface of meat over high heat to add flavor.

Shuck: To remove the husks from corn, or the shells from shellfish.

Sift: To put flour or other dry ingredient through a sifter or mesh strainer. Note: Flour should be measured after sifting.

Simmer: To cook in liquid gently just below the boiling point.

Skim: To remove fat from the surface of liquid.

Skewer: Long metal or wooden pin on which food is impaled before grilling.

Stew: To cook slowly covered in liquid.

Steam: To cook with steam from boiling water on a platform in a covered pan or steamer.

Steep: To let food such as tea stand in almost boiling water until flavor is extracted.

Stir Fry: To cook quickly in a small amount of oil on high heat stirring gently, usually in a wok or skillet.

Stock: Fowl, meat or vegetable broth.

Temper: To heat food gently by stirring in a small amount of the hot ingredients, then adding to the hot mixture. Temper beaten eggs by adding ¼ hot mixture to the eggs, then add eggs back into the hot mixture.

Whip: To beat to incorporate air and increase volume until frothy or stiff.

Zest: Small strips of the outer skin of citrus fruits.