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Common Terms
Al dente
The fashionable way for baby boomers to cook pasta and vegetables like broccoli and green beans—until there is a slight resistance when bitten into. The unfashionable way—like the boomers parents did—is to cook things until they are soft and mushy. There’s something to be said for soft and mushy sometimes. By the way, al dente is Italian for "to the tooth."
Baste
To keep foods moist during cooking or grilling by spooning or squirting drippings or seasoned liquids over them to add flavor and prevent drying.
Blackened
A good way to smoke up your kitchen, this is a Cajun cooking method where fish or other foods are seasoned then tossed into a super-heated heavy skillet and charred, setting off the smoke alarm but resulting in a crisp, spicy crust.
Blanch
Sort of like par-boiling only not as long. It means to partially cook something in boiling water or steam. Blanching tends to set color and flavor and is a guaranteed way to cook something al dente. Blanching also helps loosen skins from tomatoes and pearl onions. Often, blanching is followed by immersing what you’re cooking in ice water, to stop the cooking and preserve the color.
Braise
To cook meat or vegetables by first browning in fat, then simmering them slowly in a small quantity of liquid in a tightly covered pan on the range top or in the oven. Braising is recommended for less-tender cuts of meat.
Brine
To soak meat in a solution of water, salt and various spices. Brining is similar to marinating and makes cooked meat moister since the muscle tissue absorbs the liquid by osmosis. (See more in some Tips and Techniques.)
Butterfly
To split food, such as shrimp, pork chops or a whole chicken through the middle without completely separating the halves. Opened flat, the split halves resemble a butterfly and cook more evenly, especially over direct heat such as grilling.
Caramelize
It’s a process used extensively in cooking and it’s what gives sauces their brown color. Basically, when heat is applied to sugars, the sugars oxidize and turn brown. When granulated sugar is cooked over low heat, it melts and turns golden. To caramelize vegetables, especially onions, cook them slowly over low heat in a small amount of fat until browned. Meat juices that harden in a roasting pan are said to have caramelized.
Chiffonnade
It’s a French word that means "made of rags," and is used to describe to thin strips of fresh herbs or any large-leafed vegetable, such lettuce. To get a chiffonnade, stack the leaves and roll them tightly. Then, hold the roll with your fingers and slice across the roll to produce thin strips.
Dash
Refers to a small amount of seasoning that is added to food. It is generally less than 1/8 teaspoon. The term is often used for liquid ingredients, such as bottled hot pepper sauce. The word “pinch” is usually used for dry ingredients.
Deglaze
Adding a liquid such as water, wine, or broth to a pan that has been used to brown meat. It’s what you do to make gravy or a pan sauce. Put the pan over medium heat, pour in the liquid and scrape up the browned, caramelized bits until they dissolve.
Emulsify
To combine two ingredients, such as oil and vinegar, that don't naturally dissolve into each other. Either gradually add one ingredient to the other while whisking rapidly with a fork or wire whisk or put them in a shaker and shake hard.
Fillet
A piece of meat or fish that has no bones. As a verb, fillet refers to the process of cutting meat or fish into fillets.
Fold
A method of gently mixing ingredients without decreasing their volume. To fold, use a rubber spatula to cut down vertically through the mixture from the back of the bowl. Move the spatula across the bottom of the bowl, and bring it back up the other side, carrying some of the mixture from the bottom up over the surface. Repeat these steps, rotating the bowl one-fourth of a turn each time you complete the process.
French
To cut meat away from the end of a rib or chop to expose the bone, as with a lamb rib roast.
Marble
To gently swirl one food into another. Marbling is usually done with light and dark batters for cakes or cookies. It’s also used to describe the pattern of fat in raw meat. A great steak is said to be well-marbled.
Marinade
A seasoned liquid in which meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, or vegetables are soaked to flavor or tenderize them. Most marinades contain an acid, such as wine or vinegar.
Marinate
To soak food in a marinade. When marinating foods don’t use a metal container. It can react with acidic ingredients to give foods an “off” flavor. A plastic bag works well. For safety reasons, always marinate foods in the refrigerator and either throw away leftover marinade that has come in contact with raw meat or, if you want to use it as a sauce, bring it to a rolling boil for a few minutes to destroy any bacteria that may be present.
Pan-broil
To cook a food, especially meat, in a skillet without added fat, removing any fat as it accumulates.
Parboil
To boil food, such as vegetables, until they are partially cooked; sort of like blanching only a little longer. Both enhance the color of green vegetables.
Pinch
A small amount of a dry ingredient (the amount that can be pinched between a finger and the thumb); sort of like a dash is to wet ingredients.
Poach
To cook a food by partially or completely submerging it in a simmering liquid.
Puree
To process or mash a food until it is as smooth as possible usually using a blender, food processor, sieve or food mill; also refers to the resulting mixture.
Reduce
To decrease the volume of a liquid by boiling it rapidly to cause evaporation. As the liquid evaporates, it thickens and intensifies in flavor. The resulting richly flavored liquid, called a reduction, can be used as a sauce or as the base of a sauce. When reducing liquids, use the pan size specified in the recipe since the surface area of the pan affects how quickly the liquid will evaporate.
Sauté
From the French word sauter, meaning "to jump" (because the pan’s so hot the food supposedly jumps around. It doesn’t really.) Sautéed food is cooked and stirred in a small amount of fat over fairly high heat in an open, shallow pan. Food cut into uniform size sautés the best.
Scald
To heat a liquid, often milk, to a temperature just below the boiling point, when tiny bubbles just begin to appear around the edge of the liquid.
Sear
To brown a food, usually meat, quickly on all sides using high heat. This helps seal in the juices and may be done in the oven, under a broiler, or on top of the range.
Stir-fry
A method of quickly cooking small pieces of food in a little hot oil in a wok or skillet over medium-high heat while stirring constantly. It’s sort of the Chinese version of sautéing.
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