Common Cooking Terms

Al dente: If you're a pasta fan this is a term you'll become very familiar with. It literally translates from Italian as 'to the tooth' and basically means cooking your pasta so it still has a little bite to it and isn't a big, soggy mess.

Bake: Cooking in an oven

Baste:This is when you baste meat with a sauce or marinade as it cooks (ie brush the juices from the meat over the top of the joint). Roast lamb or chicken will benefit from being basted with the juices in the pan during cooking, in order to keep the meat moist.

Beat:Eggs are the usual recipients of this technique. Hold the bowl to your chest with one hand and then beat the eggs firmly with a fork or whisk, with the other hand.

Blanch:Some vegetables should be cooked very briefly and will literally be dropped into boiling water for a minute. You can also blanch tomatoes, and other vegetables and fruit, if you want to remove the skin.

Boil: When a liquid is boiling, 212 F at sea level, rapid bubbles will form and break when they reach the surface of the liquid.

Braise: Browning meat quickly in a fat and then cooking it in a covered pan on the stove or in the oven. Liquid is optional.

Breading: Coating a raw food that has been dredged (dipped into, dragged through, soaked in) a liquid such as eggs, buttermilk, ranch dressing, or an egg/milk mixture with bread crumbs, crushed cereal or cracker crumbs.

Broil: Cooking a food by placing it on a rack in the oven that is directly under the heat source.

Chop:Let's face it; no one's going to be put off cooking because they don't understand this term. However, pay attention to any precedding words as you might be asked to 'roughly' or 'finely' chop and there's a big difference!

Cream:Not the stuff you pour over apple pie - this is a culinary term that's often used in baking. You generally cream together the butter or margarine and sugar.

Cut In: Using a pastry blender or fork (not your hands) to add shortening or butter to dry ingredients.

Dice:This is when you chop ingredients into neat cubes.

Fillet:If you're a novice cook you probably won't be tackling too many recipes that call for filleting. It's a bit of a skill but once mastered is very impressive! You fillet fish and meat in order to remove the bones.

Fold In: Gently adding a new ingredient to an already mixed or beaten mixture. Putting the new ingredient on top of the mixture and then gently bringing it down through the middle and brought back through and around the mixture.

Fricassee: Braising small pieces of meat in a small amount of liquid

Fry: Cooking food in a hot fat (ie. vegetable oil, shortening )

Julienne:A posh form of chopping whereby you cut vegetables into long, fine, even strips.

Marinate:A sauce (marinade) is made and meat or fish are left to soak up the juices before cooking. Depending on the recipe, the food might be left to marinate for anything from a few minutes to overnight. It's always kept in the fridge

Mince: To chop food into very tiny pieces

Parboil: Cooking food in a boiling liquid until it is only partially cooked

Pare:Peeling the skin from a vegetable or fruit.

Poach:This is a method that uses water or other liquid to gently cook food. The liquid is brought to a simmer and then the ingredients are added to the pan. Poached eggs are a healthy alternative to fried, and fish is kept moist and tender when it's poached in milk.

Purée:This is finer than mashing but it's basically the same process. For really creamy potatoes, you might purée them. You can use a sieve or a food processor. Other great vegetables purées include pea, and sweet potato - both great as an accompaniment to fish or chicken.

Sauté:This is where food is cooked briefly over a high heat, so you might sauté onions or chopped bacon.

Sear:Browning meat rapidly by using extremely high heat

Season:This generally refers to salt and pepper and you'll often see this instruction in a recipe book. If it's referring to anything other than salt or pepper, it will say. Other seasonings are most likely to be spices or herbs.

Simmer:Simmering is a more gently way of cooking than boiling as the water doesn't disturb the
food as much.

Slice:To cut food into neat, even pieces.

Steep:Simmering food in a liquid just below boiling point over a long period of time so that the flavor is extracted into the water.

Stew:Simmering slowly in a small amount of liquid, usually for several hours.

Whip:Beating a food rapidly so as to add air to it