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It does not matter if you are an experience cook or a beginner. I am going to bet you have been in a situation when you are ready to cook or bake the night away, so you get out a cookbook or recipe. Then looking over the recipe, you realize you have no clue what some of the cooking terms mean. What do you do? You can choose another recipe or brush up on your cooking terminology. I suggest you brush up on your cooking terms. I don't know about you, but I frustrated when I do not know a cooking term, so I get on the internet and look the cooking term up . So I decide to have a page where I would put cooking terms and their definitions, where visitors can come an look up a cooking term that has stumped you. In the following, are cooking terms that you may come across: Zest: To grate the outer, colored portion of the skin of a citrus fruit, avoiding the white pith. The thin parings are also called the zest.
Au gratin: Topped with crumbs and/or cheese and browned in oven or under a broiler.
Au jus: Served in its own juices.
Baste: To moisten foods during cooking with pan drippings or special sauce in order to add flavor and prevent drying.
Bisque: A thick cream soup.
Blanch: To immerse in rapidly boiling water and allow to cook slightly.
Cream: By beating ingredients at room temperature together.
Crimp: To seal the edges of a two-crust pie either by pinching them at intervals with the fingers or by pressing them together with the tines of a fork.
Crudites: An assortment of raw vegetables that is served as an hors d'oeuvre, often accompanied by a dip.
Degrease: To remove fat from the surface of stews, soups, or stock. Usually cooled in the refrigerator so the fat hardens
and is easily moved.
Dredge: To coat lightly with flour, cornmeal, ect.
Entree: The main course.
Fold: A spatula is used to gently bring part of the mixture from the bottom of the bowl to the top. The process is repeated,
until the ingredients are throughly blended.
Flake: To break food into small pieces using a fork.
Glaze: To cover with glossy coating, such as a melted and somewhat diluted jelly for fruit desserts.
Julienne: To cut or slice vegetables, fruits or cheese into matched- shape slivers.
Marinate: To allow food to stand in a liquid in order to tenderize or to add flavor.
Meuniere: Dredged with flour and sauteed in butter.
Mince: To chop food into very small pieces.
Parboil: To boil until partially cooked; to blanch. Usually final cooking in a seasoned sauce follows this procedure.
Pare: To remove the outermost skin of a fruit or vegetable.
Poach: To cook in hot liquid kept just below the boiling point.
Prove: To let dough or yeast mixture rise before baking.
Puree: To mash food by hand by rubbing through a sieve or food mill, or by whirling in a blender or food processor until
perfectly smooth.
Refresh: To run cold water over food that has been parboiled in order to stop the cooking process quickly.
Saute: To cook and/or brown food in a small amount of hot shortening.
Scald: To heat just below the boiling point, when tiny bubbles appear at the edge of the saucepan.
Simmer: To cook in liquid just below the boiling point.
Steep: To let food stand in hot liquid in order to extract or to enhance flavor.
Toss: To combine ingredients with a repeated lifting motion.
Whip: To beat rapidly in order to incorporate air and produce expansion, as in heavy cream or egg whites.
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