Glossary of Cooking Terms

Aspic Jelly
Savoury jelly used for setting and garnishing savoury dishes.

Au gratin
Food coated with a sauce, sprinkled with breadcrumbs (and sometimes grated cheese) and browned under the grill. Usually served in the dish in which it has been cooked.

Baking blind
Baking pastry shapes without a filling. Line the flan case or pie dish with pastry and trim. Line with greaseproof paper and fill with beans, rice or stale crusts of bread. Or press kitchen foil into the pastry case and omit beans etc. When pastry has set, remove the grease-proof paper of foil and return to the oven to dry out.

Basting
Moistening meat, poultry or game during roasting by spooning over it the juices and melted fat from the tin, to prevent the food drying out.

Beating
Agitating an ingredient or mixture by vigorously turning it over with an upward motion so as to introduce air; a spoon, fork, whisk or electric mixer may be used.

Bechamel
A rich white sauce, one of the four basic types of sauce.

Binding
Adding a liquid, egg or melted far to a dry mixture to hold it the four basic types of sauce.

Blanching
Treating food with boiling water in order to whiten it, preserve its natural colour, losen the skin or remove a flavour which is too strong. Two methods are:-
To plunge the food into boiling water, used for skinning tomatoes or to prepare vegetables for freezing.
To bring it to the boil in the water; used to whiten veal and sweetbreads or to reduce the saltiness of kippers or pickled meat.

Blending
Mixing flour, cornflour and similar ground cereals to a smooth cream with a cold liquid (milk, water or stock) before a boiling liquid is added, as in the preparation of soups, stews, or gravies.

Bouquet garni
A small bunch of herbs tied together in muslin and used to give flavour to stews, etc. Usually consists of a spring of parsley and thyme, a bay leaf, 2 cloves and a few pepper corns.

Braising
A method of cooking either meat or vegetables which is a combination of roasting and stewing. A casserole or pan with a tightly fitting lid is used to prevent evaporation. The meat is placed on a bed of vegetables (a mirepoix), with just sufficient liquid to cover the vegetables and to keep the food moist.

Clarifying
Clearing or purifying fat from water, meat juices or salt. Butter or margarine-Heat the fat gently until it melts, then continue to heat slowly without browning until all bubbling ceases (this shows the water has been driven off). Remove from the heat and allow to stand for a few minutes until the sediment has settled. Pour the fat off gently. It is not usually necessary to strain the fat through muslin.

Compote
Fruit stewed in a sugar syrup and served hot or cold.

Creaming
The beating together of fat and sugar to resemble whipped cream in colour and texture, i.e. until pale and fluffy. This method of mixing is used for cakes and puddings containing a high proportion of fat.

Croquettes
A mixture of meat, fish, poultry or potatoes, bound together and formed into various shapes, then coated with egg and breadcrumbs and fried in deep fat.

Croutons
Small pieces of bread which are fried or toasted and served as an accompaniment or garnish to soup.

Dredging
The action of sprinkling food lightly and evenly with flour, sugar, etc. Fish and meat are often dredged with flour before frying, while pancakes, etc. may be dredged with fine sugar to improve their appearance. A pierced container of metal or plastic (known as a dredger) is usually used.

Dripping
The fat obtained from roasted meat during cooking or from small pieces of new fat that have been rendered down.

Dropping consistency
The term used to describe the texture of a cake or pudding mixture before cooking. To test, fill a spoon with the mixture and hold it on its side, the mixture should fall in 5 seconds, without jerking the spoon.

Entrée
A hot or cold dressed savoury dish consisting of meat, poultry, game, fish, eggs or vegetables, served complete with sauce and garnish.

Fillet
A term used for the undercut of a loin of beef, veal, pork or game, for boned breasts of poultry and birds and for boned sides of fish.

Folding In
(Sometimes called cutting-and-folding). Combining a whisked or creamed mixture with other ingredients so that it retains its lightness. It is used for certain cake mixtures and for meringues and soufflés. A typical example is folding dry flour into a whisked sponge cake mixture. Important points to remember are that the mixture must be folded very lightly and that it must not be agitated more than absolutely necessary, because with every movement some of the air bubbles are broken down. Do not use an electric mixer.

Garnish
An edibile decoration, such as parsley, watercress, hard-boiled egg or lemon added to a savoury dish to improve the appearance and flavour.

Glaze
Beaten egg, egg white, milk, etc. used to give a glossy surface to certain sweets and to savouries such as galantines. The meat glaze used for savouries is home-made meat stock reduced by rapid boiling. Stock made from a cube cannot be treated this way.

Hors d’oeuvre
Small dishes served cold, usually before the soup, as an appetiser. Hors d’oeuvre are generally small and piquant.

Marinade
A seasoned mixture of oil and vinegar, lemon juice or wine, in which food is left for a given time. This helps to soften the fibres of meat and fish and adds flavour to the food.

Meringue
Egg white whisked until stiff, mixed with caster sugar and dried in a cool oven till crisp.

Noisettes
Neatly trimmed round or oval shapes of lamb, mutton or beef, not less than
1 cm. thick.

Parboiling
Part-boiling; the food is boiled for part of the normal cooking time, then finished by some other method.

Petits fours
Very small fancy cakes, often iced, and almond biscuits, served at the end of a formal meal.

Piping
Forcing cream, icing or butter out of a forcing bag through a nozzle, to decorate cakes etc. Also used for potatoes and meringuses. The bag may be made of cotton, nylon or plastic.

Poaching
Cooking in an open pan at simmering point with sufficient seasoned liquid to cover. Used in egg, fish and some meat dishes.

Pot-roasting
Cooking meat in a saucepan with fat and a very small amount of liquid; it is particularly good for small and less tender cuts.

Pulses
Dried beans, peas, split peas and lentils.

Puree
Fruit, vegetable, meat or fish which has been pounded, sieved or pulverised in an electric blender (usually after cooking), to give a smooth pulp. A soup made by sieving vegetables with the liquor in which they were cooked is also called a puree.

Rechauffe
Re-heated leftover foods.

Rennet
An extract from claves’ stomachs. It contains rennin and is used for curdling or coagulating milk for junket and for cheese-making.

Rubbing In
Incorporating fat into flour; used when making shortcrust pastry, plain cakes and biscuits, when a short texture is required. Put the fat in small pieces in the flour, then rub it into the flour with the fingertips.

Saute
To cook in an open pan over a strong heat in fat or oil, shaking the pan to make whatever is in it ‘sauter’ or jump, to keep it from sticking. The pan used should be heavy, wide and shallow. This may be used as a complete cooking method or as the initial cooking, before finishing, in a sauce.

Scalding
Pouring boiling water over food to clean it, to loosen hairs (as from a joint pork) or to remove the skin (as on tomatoes or peaches). The food must not be left in the boiling water or it will begin to cook.

Scalloped dishes
Food (often previously cooked) baked in a scallop shell or similar small container; it is usually combined with a creamy sauce, topped with breadcrumbs and surrounded with a border of piped potato.

Scalloping
A means of decorating the double edge of the pasty covering of a pie. Make close horizontal cuts with a knife round the edge of the pie, giving a flaked effect, then, with the back of the knife, pull the edge up vertically at regular intervals to form scallops.
Traditionally these should be close together for a sweet pie and wider apart for a savoury one.

Skimming
To take fat off all the surface of stock, gravy or stews, or scum from other foods (eg. Jams) while they are cooking. A piece of absorbent kitchen paper or a metal spoon may be used.

Steaming
An economical method of cooking food in the steam from rapidly boiling water. There are several ways of steaming, according to the equipment available.

Steeping
The process of pouring hot or cold water over food and leaving it to stand, either to soften it or to extract its flavour and colour.

Stock
The liquid produced when meat, bones, poultry, fish or vegetables are simmered in water with herbs and flavourings for several hours, to extract their flavour. Stock forms the basis of soups, sauces and stews and many savoury dishes.

Thickening
giving body to soups, sauces or gravies by the addition of flour, cornflour or arrowroot.

Vol-au-vent
A round or oval case made of puff pastry and filled with diced meat, poultry, game or fish in a well-flavoured sauce

Whipping or whisking
To beat air rapidly into a mixture by hand, beater or whisk.

Zest
The coloured part of orange or lemon peel containing the oil that gives the characteristic flavour. To obtain zest, remove the rind very thinly, with no pith, by grating, or use a zester. If it is required for a sweet dish, you can rub it off with a lump of sugar.