Aerate

To incorporate air to make ingredients lighter. Sifting flour is an example of the process. Whipped butter
is another. Air is whipped in, thus making the butter lighter and increase in volume.

Aging

Keeping meats and a or cheese in a controlled environment for a specific amount of time in a controlled
and ventilated atmosphere to permit natural flavoring and tenderizing.

Al dente

"To the tooth," in Italian. Pasta is cooked just to a firm and chewy texture.

Allemande

In French Cooking it means in the German style. Sauce Allemande is made from veal stock, cream, egg
yolks and lemon juice.

Aromatics

Seasonings to enhance the flavor and aroma usually herbs and spices and some vegetables.

Aspic

A transparent meat flavored jelly/jello that is firm when cold. Used to flavor and add moisture to pate,
charcuterie and cold food preparations.

Au Jus
This is the natural pan drippings or juice that comes from a roasting pan after deglazing.

Bacteria

Microscopic organisms, some of which can cause sickness including food-borne infections. Others can be
perfectly safe and help tenderize or even add flavor. The blue veining in cheese is an example of the
"good" type.

Bake

To cook in the oven as baking a cake, but also may be used in meat cookery such as baked leg of lamb.

Baste

To brush or spoon liquid fat or juices over meat, fish poultry or vegetables during cooking to help keep
moisture on the surface area.

Batter

A mixture of flour and liquid that is beaten or stirred in preparation of baking, i.e. cake batter.

Beat

Briskly whipping or stirring it with a spoon, fork, wire whisk, beater or mixer.

Beurre Noir

Heating salted butter until dark brown and foamy but not smoking. A type of butter sauce called black
butter sauce.
Bias-slice

Slicing a food crosswise at a 45-degree angle.

Bind

To thickening a sauce or hot liquid by stirring in ingredients such as roux, flour, butter, cornstarch, egg
yolks, vegetable puree or cream.

Bisque

A rich thick shellfish soup with cream.

Blackened

Cajun-style cooking method in which highly seasoned foods are dipped in liquid butter then cooked over
high heat in a super-heated heavy skillet until charred.

Blanch

To partially cook vegetables by parboiling them in highly salted water then cooling quickly in ice water.

Blend

Mixing two or more ingredients together to obtain an equally distributed mixture.

Boil

To heat water or other liquids to 212 degrees Fahrenheit, 100 degrees Celsius and to keep it bubbling
and shimmering in the pot.
Bouillabaisse

A Mediterranean fish soup made from several varieties of fish, tomatoes, saffron, fennel and wine.

Bouillon

Clear soup made from slow simmering lean meat, bones and seasonings and vegetables. Strained and
served with the shredded cooked meat it was made from.

Bouquet Garni

A bundle of seasonings; bay leaf, thyme and parsley stems tied with leeks, carrot and celery stalk. It's
used to season braised foods and stocks.

Braise

Meat browned in fat with vegetables, seasonings and then cooked slowly in liquid so it is partially
submerged then cooked in an oven, this combines moist and dry heat cooking. Making a pot roast is an
example.

Bread

To coat the food with bread crumbs. Standard method is to first dip in salted flour, then beaten egg and
then bread crumbs. Items prepared like this are usually pan fried in oil or clarified butter until golden
and crispy.

Broil

To cook food directly under a very hot 500 degree F. heat source.
Broth or stock

A liquid made by gently simmering meats, fish, or vegetables and/or their by-products, such as bones
and trimming with herbs, in liquid, usually water. Broths usually have a higher proportion of meat to
bones than stock.

Brown

A quick sauting/searing done either at the beginning or end of meal preparation, often to enhance
flavor, texture, or eye appeal.

Brush

To coat food with melted butter, glaze, or other liquid using a pastry brush.

Bundt pan

The name for a tube baking pan having fluted sides.

Buttercream

A frosting made from sugar, sweet butter, milk, egg yolks and flavoring. Confectioner's or powdered
sugar is often used buy not required.

Butterfly

To cut food down the center without cutting all the way through to open and then spread it apart.
Shrimp cut this way is popular. Meat may be butterflied when cooking it well done so it isn't burned
during the process as if it remained thick.

Cake pan
Round baking pan with straight sides. It comes in 8", 9" and other sizes.

Calamari

Plural for squid in Italian.

Caramel

Brunt sugar used for sauces, coloring, flavoring and candy.

Caramelization

Natural sugars turn brown when exposed to direct heat over a flame, with or without the addition of
some oil to aid the process. Onions when fried in butter over high heat causes them to turn brown and
have a sweet toasted flavor. Carrots in a roasting pan turn golden with a roast

Natural sugars turn brown when exposed to direct heat over a flame, with or without the addition of
some oil to aid the process. Onions when fried in butter over high heat causes them to turn brown and
have a sweet toasted flavor. Carrots in a roasting pan turn golden with a roast chicken. This process and
color change from raw to cooked is carmelization.

Caramelize

The process of cooking sugar until it begins to color. Also, while slowly cooking some vegetables e.g.
onions, root vegetables, the natural sugars are released and the vegetables will caramelize in their own
sugars, usually oil is used in the pan to help the process.

Chicory

A lettuce used for salad and sometimes called curly endive. Also added to coffee in the deep South.

Chiffon
Usually a pureed filling made light and fluffy with beaten egg whites, gelatin and or whipped cream.
Lemon chiffon pie is one example.

Chiffonade

Lettuces, sorrel, basil leaves and other leafy vegetables cut into julienne strips.

Chinoise

A very fine conical wire mesh strainer. Using a chinoise removes the small impurities from the liquid
that is strained. It is a must in any professional kitchen.

Chop

To cut into irregular pieces with no set size as a result. Chopping parsley is a good example.

Cilantro

Parsley like herb with a basil, mint and green onion flavor, popular in Chinese and Mexican/Latin cuisine

Clarify

A process of making a liquid clear by adding beaten egg whites, ground meat and tomato, then
simmering slowly. The liquid is then strained and the result is consomm. Also---melting butter over
medium heat so the milk solids settle to the bottom and impurities float to the top. The foamy top is
discarded and pure golden liquid butter is ladled off into a clean container for other cooking uses.

Coat
Evenly covering food with flour, crumbs, herbs, oil or batter.

Coddle

To cook slowly and gently in a liquid just below the boiling point. Usually eggs are coddled when making
traditional Caesar salad to help them absorb and emulsify evenly with the lemon juice and olive oil.
Coddled eggs for breakfast a different than poached as they relatively soft but fully heated through.

Combine

The mixing of two or more ingredients into a single mixture.

Confit

Slowly cook pieces of meat in their own gently rendered fat until very soft and tender. With seasonings,
brandy/wine and sometimes vegetables. Duck and pork are two popular meats to be used in confit.
When cooked and cooled the meat is keep submerged in its cooking fat as a preservative and as a seal
against oxygen.

Concasse

Applying to raw or cooked tomatoes: Peeled, seeded and diced/chopped fine, raw; or then sauted
with minced onions in olive oil, cooked.

Core

To remove the inedible center of fruits such apples and pears.

Cream

To beat vegetable shortening, butter, or margarine, with or without sugar, until light and fluffy.
Crimp

To create a decorative edge on a piecrust, also seal the edges together.

Crisp

To restore the crunch to vegetables such as celery and lettuce. This can be done with an ice water bath.
Stale crackers can be crisped in a medium oven. Also a type of a pan baked dessert made of cooked fruit
with a crunchy flour and sugar topping. Apple or peach crisp are examples.

Croquettes

Chopped seasoned food held together by cream sauce, eggs, flour/breadcrumbs, shaped and then
breaded with bread crumbs and deep fried. Crab cakes that are deep fried, not sauted are really crab
croquettes.

Crush

To reduce a food to small particles, usually using a mortar and pestle, rolling pin or bottom of a pot. To
crush crackers you may place them in a double bag and roll a rolling pin over them.

Crystallize

To form sugar or honey syrups into crystals buy cooking it to hard crack and letting it cool on an oiled
surface. The term also describes a sugar coating surrounding a fruit dipped in a egg white and
granulated sugar mixture.

Cube

To cut in even pieces. May be 1/4 inch/ 1/2 inch or 1 inch. Sides must be of even size to be conceded
cubed. This is a description used in dicing as an exact dice.
Curd

Custard-like pie or tart filling made with whole eggs, sugar,juice and zest of citrus the fruit, usually
lemon. May also be the solidified nuggets of milk after citric acid has been added and rennet introduced.
The curding process is an important stage in the cheese making process.

Curdle

Separation of a milk/cream based sauce or the cooking of eggs when over cooked. Sauces look like egg
drop soup when curdled.

Cure

Marinating to preserve an ingredient with salt and/or sugar and spices. Preparing gravlax, marinated
salmon, is an example of curing.

Custard

A mixture of beaten egg, egg yolks, milk, and other ingredients. Which is cooked with gentle heat, often
in a water bath. A custard differs from a pudding in that it isn't stirred during the cooking process.

Cut in

Working butter or vegetable shortening, margarin

Cut in

Working butter or vegetable shortening, margarine, into dry ingredients for equal distribution. This is
done with the help of a pastry blender and is an important procedure in making flaky pie crusts.

Dash
A measure approximately equal to 1/16 teaspoon, a pinch or less.

Deep-fry

To partially or completely submerge and cook food in hot oil until golden brown.

Deglaze

Adding liquid to a pan in which foods have been sauted, fried or roasted to dissolve the caramelized
juices stuck to the bottom of the pan.

Devil

To add hot or spicy ingredients such as cayenne pepper, mustard or Tabasco sauce to a food. Sauce
Diable is a classic French sauce made with demi-glace and Dijon mustard.

Dice

To cut food into cubes. The cubes can be small, medium or large. Dicing is slightly less exact as cubing is
but still should have uniformity.

Direct heat

A grilling method that allows food to be cooked directly over the high heat of a flame source.

Dot

To place small bits of an ingredient such as butter on foods at random intervals for the purpose of
adding flavor and to aid in browning during cooking.
Double a recipe

To increase recipe amounts by two.

Dough

A combination of ingredients usually including flour, water or milk, and, sometimes, a leavener,
producing a pliable mixture for making baked goods.

Dredge

Completely coating in flour and shaking off the excess.

Drippings

Drippings are the liquids and bits of food left in the bottom of a roasting or frying pan after meat is
cooked.

Drizzle

Pouring a liquid such as as melted butter, olive oil or other liquid in a slow trickle over food.

Dust

Sprinkling flour on a work surface to evenly coat it, or as with spices, sugar, or bread crumbs, light
coating a food item.

Egg wash
A mixture of beaten eggs, yolks, whites, or both with milk or water. Used in the standard breading
process of foods. May be used to coat baked goods to give them a shine when baked. Also may be used
as a sealant of pieces of dough.

Emulsion

A mixture of oil and liquid in which tiny globules of one are suspended in the other. Stabilizers, such as
egg or mustard may be used. Classic example is vinaigrette salad dressing.

Entre

In the United States it refers to the main dish. In France it's a term that referrers to the first course of a
meal, served after the soup and before the meat course.

Espresso

A strong dark coffee brewed under steam pressure. Popular in many European countries, it is the base
for other coffee drinks such as Cappuccino