Cooking Terms

Culinary terms that every beginner cooks should know. When reading recipes you'll come across many different cooking terms and if you don't know the meaning it can be rather confusing. So here is a list of the most common types of cooking terms you'll most likely to come across.

A la Broche: Food cooked on a skewer

Aging: Meat being hed at a tempreture of 1*C for the purpose of making the meat more tender.

Al Dente: A term used to describe a food, usually pasta, that is cooked only until it gives a slight resistance when one bites into it; the food is neither soft nor overdone

Antipasto:An Italian Appetizer

Au Gratin:Food that is covered with a sauce, sprinkled with either cheese or bread crumbs and then baked until golden brown

Au Jus:Food that is served with its natural juice

Bain-marie:The French term for the cooking technique we call a water bath. It consists of placing a container (baking pan, bowl, soufflé dish, etc.) of food in a large, shallow pan of warm water, which surrounds the food with gentle heat. This technique is designed to cook delicate dishes such as custards, sauces and mousses without breaking or curdling them. It can also be used to keep cooked foods warm.

Bake:To cook by a dry heat, usually in an oven

Bake Blind (also called blind baking):A term for baking a pastry shell (pie crust) before it is filled. The unbaked shell is first pricked all over with a fork to prevent it from blistering and rising and then baked.

BBQ/Barbecue/Braai:To Cook over the embers or coals of an open flame

Baste:To laddle dripping over a piece of meat being cooked as a roast to make it juicy and to prevent it from being dry

Batter:Mixture of flour, sugar, eggs, and mik which can be poured

Beat:To lift a mixture with a spoon or electric mixer to inject air. The purpose is to make the mixture smooth and creamy.

Blacken:To coat fish or meat with pepper and other spices, then searing the meat on a hot skillet making the meat black on the outside but tender and juicy on the inside

Blanch:To partially cook a food item. Place fruit or vegetables in boiling water to remove the skin or to prepare for freezing, canning or drying.

Blend:To mix thoroughly two or more ingredients

Boeuf:French Term for Beef

Boiling Point:The temperature reached when a mixture maintains a full bubbling motion on its surface or where bubbles are rising continually and are breaking the surface.

Boil:To cook a liquid in which large bubbles rises quickly and steadily. This is normally at 100*C

Bouquet-Garni:A combination of herbs tied in cheese-cloth which are used to flavor stocks and stews and removed before serving.

Braise:To cook meat by searing in fat then simmer in a covered dish in a small amount of liquid or to brown the meat or vegetables in hot fat then to cook slowly in a small amount of liquid.

Breading:To coat an item with a mixture of flour, egg, and bread crumbs

Brew:To cook in hot liquid until the flavor is extracted.

Brine:A liquid of slat and water or vinegar used for pickling

Broil:To cook by exposing the food drectly to the heat

Broth:The liquid that meat, fish, poultry or vegetables have been simmered in.

Buffet:A table of ready to eat foods.

Candying:To Cook Certain fruits and vegetables in a thick sweet syrup

Capon:A castrated young male chicken

Caramelize:To heat granulated sugar to a golden brown color for the purpose of flavoring and colouring the other food

Casserole:A one pot meal baked and served in an earthenware or glass dish

Chiffonade:Finely shredded or chopped vegetables used in soups or salad dressings

Chop:To cut into small pieces using a knife or other sharp untensils

Choux Pastery:A paste consisting of eggs, water, salt, butter, and flour. They are mainly used to make eclairs and cream puffs.

Chutney:A spicey condiment of fruits and spices - served with curry

Cider:The juice from pressed apples used as a beverage or to make vinegar

Clarify:To make a liquid clear and free of sediment

Coarsely Chop:To cut food into small pieces, about 1/2 square cm

Coat Spoon:When a mixture forms a thin, even film on a spoon

Coat: To cover the surface of one food with another

Coddle: To cook or simmer an item just below the boiling point for a short period of time

Combine: To mix two or more ingredients

Compote: Fruits stewed in a syrup or a mixture of assorted stewed fruits

Condiments: A seasoning for food to enhance the flavour

Coq Au Vin: French term for chicken that is cooked in wine

Core: To remove the central seed part of certain fruits

Cracklings: The crispy remains left after the fat has been fried out

Couscous: Small, spherical bits of semolina dough that are rolled, dampened and coated with a finer wheat flour

Cream: 1: component of milk with a milkfat content of at least 18%; has a slight yellow to ivory color, is more viscous and richer tasting than milk and can be whipped to a foam; rises to the top of raw milk; as a commercial product it may be pasteurized or ultrapasteurized and may be homogenized. 2: To beat until soft and fluffy (normally applies to when you beat sugar and butter together

Cream of Tartar: Cream of tartar is a fine white powder used mainly used to improve the stability and volume of beaten egg whites. It is also used to give some candies and frosting a creamier consistency. An interesting fact is its origin, cream of tartar is actually derived from crystalline acid deposits on the inside of wine barrels.

Crepe: French term for pancakes

Cube: To cut food into small cube shapes, larger than diced, usually about 1/2 inch.

Cut in: To incorporate by cutting or chopping motions, as in cutting shortening into flour for pastry

Cuttlet: A small flattened boneles piece of meat generally referring to pork and veal


Dash: a small amount of seasoning


Deglaze: Adding water to a pan in which meats have been sauteed or roasted to dissolve the tastey juice that has dried on the bottom and sides of the pan


Demiglace: A rich brown stock that has been reduced to half of the original amount


Dice: To cut food into tiny cubes


Dijon: French prepared mustard made in the Dijon region from black or brown mustard seeds, blended with salt, spices and white wine or verjuice. It has a clean sharp, medium-hot flavor, yellow-gray color and creamy texture.

Double Boiler:  two saucepans, one of which fits into the top of the other. The lower pan is partially filled with water kept boiling or near boiling to keep the food in the upper pan cooking without excessive or uneven heat.

Drawn Butter: Melted Butter


Dredge: To coat an item with a dry ingredient such as flour


Drippings: The fat, juices, and other residues separated from meat during cooking and left in the pan, or crusted onto the bottom of the pan. What actually happens is that the substance in the animal juices caramelizes, just as sugar does, on the bottom of a hot pan. Diluting and scraping these up, the cook created the basis for the flavor of the best stews and soups and gravies. Drippings from roasts or sautéed meats in cast iron utensils caramelize exceptionally well, and make possible tastier casseroles and gravies.


Dust: Lightly sprinkle with a dry ingredient, such as flour.


Dutch Oven: Is a cast iron pot with a tightly fitting lid used for braising or baking


Drizzle: Sprinkle drops of liquid lightly or pour a very fine stream of liquid over food


Emulsify: A liquid mixture sustpended in another mixture to prevent separation


Entree: Fancy word for main course of the meal


Epicure: That would be the perfect word to describe me. A lover of food and wine


Escargot: French word for snails


Extract: Drawing flavours from certain foods used to flavour other food with eg Vanilla extract is use to flavour cakes


Filet or Fillet: Boneless cut of meat, poultry or fish


Fillet Mignon: Small cut of beef taken from the end of the fillet, considered by many to be the most elegant steak of all. It is very tender and sweet, but lacks the flavor of a steak with bone in


Finely: Vvery small, as in finely chopped, but not as small as minced


Fines Herbes: French term for “fine herbs”, usually a mixture of parsley, chives, tarragon, and chervil used to flavor omelets and in casseroles and soups


Flake: Break off small pieces or layers of food, usually with a fork; often used as a test for doneness when cooking fish


Flambe: Flame, using alcohol as the burning agent; flame causes caramelization, enhancing flavor


Fold: To mix using a motion beginning vertically down through the mixture, continuiing across the bottom of the bowl and ending with an upward and over movement


Fondant: Icing made by boiling sugar and water to the point of crystallizatiion then whipping it into a creamy mixture


Fondue: A swiss style of preparing foods which involves dipping vegetables, meat, bread in a heated sauce


Frenched: Scrapping meat and fat from the bones, generally associated with lamb chops, ribs and shanks

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