CULINARY GLOSSARY

The language of the kitchen.

Forty useful terms, explained simply. Learn the words, then recognize the techniques in a recipe.

Find a term40 terms

Al dente: Cooked until tender with a slight firmness at the center, especially pasta.
Aromatics: Ingredients such as onion, garlic and ginger used to build a dish’s flavor base.
Bain-marie: A water bath that applies gentle, even heat to a container of food.
Baste: Spoon or brush fat or cooking juices over food during cooking.
Bias cut: A diagonal cut across an ingredient, changing its shape and exposed surface.
Blanch: Briefly cook food in boiling water, often followed by cooling when further cooking is not wanted.
Bloom: Warm spices in fat to release aroma, or hydrate gelatin in cool liquid before dissolving it.
Braise: Cook gently with liquid in a covered vessel, often after browning.
Brunoise: A very small, even dice used for fine garnishes and aromatic bases.
Béchamel: A milk sauce thickened with a pale roux.
Carryover cooking: Continued cooking from retained heat after food leaves the heat source.
Chiffonade: Thin ribbons cut from stacked leafy herbs or greens.
Deglaze: Add liquid to a pan and loosen flavorful browned deposits.
Dice: Cut into roughly even cubes; size should match the recipe.
Emulsion: A mixture in which tiny droplets of one liquid are dispersed through another that it does not naturally mix with.
Fold: Combine gently by lifting and turning a mixture, often to preserve trapped air.
Fond: Browned deposits left on a pan that can flavor a sauce; burned residue is not useful fond.
Gluten: A protein network formed when wheat flour is hydrated and developed.
Gratin: A dish with a browned top, often made with crumbs, cheese or cream.
Hydration: In bread formulas, water weight expressed as a percentage of total flour weight.
Julienne: Thin, fairly uniform matchstick cuts.
Macerate: Let fruit or other food stand with sugar or liquid to soften and release juices.
Maillard reaction: Browning reactions involving amino compounds and sugars that generate new aromas and flavors.
Mirepoix: A French aromatic base usually made with onion, carrot and celery.
Mise en place: The preparation and organization of ingredients, tools and workspace before cooking.
Nappé: A sauce consistency that coats the back of a spoon in a thin layer.
Parboil: Partially boil food before completing it by another method.
Poach: Cook gently in liquid below a vigorous simmer.
Proof: Allow shaped yeast dough to rise before baking; the term is sometimes used more broadly.
Reduce: Evaporate liquid through cooking to concentrate flavor or change consistency.
Render: Melt fat out of fatty tissue through cooking.
Rest: Leave food undisturbed for a specified time, such as dough relaxing or cooked meat settling before slicing.
Roux: Flour cooked with fat and used to thicken a liquid.
Sauté: Cook relatively small pieces of food quickly in a little fat in a pan.
Sear: Brown the surface of food with strong heat; searing does not seal in juices.
Simmer: Cook liquid with gentle bubbling, less vigorous than boiling.
Slurry: Starch mixed with cool liquid before being added to a hot liquid for thickening.
Sweat: Cook vegetables gently in a little fat to soften them without substantial browning.
Temper: Gradually adjust temperature by combining portions carefully; in chocolate, a specific crystallization process.
Zest: The aromatic colored outer skin of citrus fruit, without the bitter white pith.