A sec / au sec (ah-sek) - a French culinary term, meaning "made till almost dry".
Aioli - Mayonnaise flavored with garlic.
Airline chicken breast -
A boneless chicken breast with part of the wing still attached, that got the name because it is used to be served on airplane flights.
Al dente (all den-tay) -
"to the tooth", a Italian term describing a cooked texture that remains toothy with a little bite and chew.
Batonnet - Cut food into long, match-like strips. Check "Knife cut".
Blanch -
To cook an ingredient in boiling water for a short period of time, then fish the ingredient out, plunge it into an ice-water bath to stop the cooking process ( called "shock").
Board dressing -
A sauce made with herbs mingled with the juices from sliced meat on the cutting board.
Bouquet garni -
It's a French term for "garnished bouquet", which is a small package or a bundle of herbs tied together with string and used to prepare soup, stock, and various stews. The bouquet is cooked with the other ingredients, but is to be removed prior to consumption. Having the herbs tied up in a bundle makes the removing part easier.
Usually it's a bunch of thyme, celery, and parsley wrapped in a leek leaf and tied with a piece of twine.
Broth -
The difference between broth and stock is that broth is cooked with more meat and thus has more of a meaty flavor, while stock uses bones mostly and has more gelatin and body to it.
Brunoise -
A knife cut measuring 1/8 inch (3mm) size on each side. The food is first cut into long thin sticks (called "julienne" or "allumette") similar to matchsticks, and then turned a quarter turn to be diced again, producing cubes of 1/8 inch (3mm) or less on each side.
Caramelization -
Caramelization is a process of cooking sugar (carbohydrates) until it melts and darkens. The sugar undergoes chemical changes through different stages as the temperature keeps rising. The sugars break apart and reform hundreds of new compounds. These complex compounds are highly desirable with their rich, buttery, nutty, acidic, slightly bitter and rounder softer sweet notes. (more)
Carpaccio -
Usually refers to a dish made with thinly sliced raw beef; also applies to other thinly sliced ingredients, such as tomatoes or seafood.
Chiffonade -
Refers to finely sliced or shredded herbs or vegetables, that is often used as a garnish.
A technique involves stacking the leaves of a leafy vegetable or herb, such as basil, into a pile and rolling the pile up, as if it were a cigar. Then finely slice the cigar into little threads, or ribbons. This technique is the least invasive way of dealing with these herbs and it guarantees that the herb will hold for a long time without turning black. If you chop the herbs, they could quickly turn black because of enzymes in them that react poorly when exposed to oxygen.
Chimichurri -
A sharp, herbal vinaigrette generally used as a sauce for grilled meats.
Chorizo - Spicy Spanish sausage. Used in traditional Spanish Paella.
Clarified Butter -
Clarified butter is a butter that has been melted and separated into butter fat, butter milk, and milk solids. The buttermilk and milk solids burns easily and are removed to produce the remaining clear butter fat that can tolerate higher heat. (How to Make at Home)
Concasse -
Peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped tomatoes. Used in a preparation like ratatouille so you don't end up with tomato seeds and skins floating around. This is for visual aesthetics rather than for flavor as tomato seeds are packed with a lot of tomato flavors.
Condimento, condimenti -
The Italian term for dressing, seasoning a dish by adding finishing ingredients of a dish, such as butter, grated cheese and so on.
Crudité -
Crudités are traditional French appetizers consisting of sliced or whole raw vegetables and served with a vinaigrette or other dipping sauce. Crudités often include celery sticks, carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, bell pepper strips, broccoli, cauliflower, fennel, and asparagus spears; sometimes olives, depending on local custom.
Dashi (出汁, だし) - is a soup base and cooking stock used in Japanese cuisines. Dashi forms the base for miso soup, clear broth, noodle broth, and many others.
Deglaze -
Deglazing is a cooking technique for removing and dissolving browned food residue from a pan to flavor sauces, soups, and gravies by introducing liquid to the pan to loosen and disperse all of those concentrated flavors, aka fond, back into your dish (more).
Emulsifier -
In cooking, an ingredient that helps hold otherwise immiscible liquids, such as oil and water, together in a mixture.
Farro - An ancient form of wheat.
Fond (pronounced fahn) -
The French culinary term for "base" or "foundation", refers to the remaining residue or brown bits that sticks to the pan after browning meat or vegetables, either on the stove top or at the bottom of a roasting pan in the oven (more).
Frittata -
A dish that's similar to an omelet but unfolded. A good vehicle for using up leftover vegetables and preparing a quick meal (usually as breakfast to use up leftover vegetables from the night before).
Frittata -
A dish that's similar to an omelet but unfolded. A good vehicle for using up leftover vegetables and preparing a quick meal (usually as breakfast to use up leftover vegetables from the night before).
Garnish -
A decorative edible accompaniment added to a finished dish for visual appeal. It may be eaten but that is not its purpose and it's usually separate from the dish such as a small piece of parsley or a wedge of lemon. Check "garniture".
Garniture -
French word for garnish. A garniture becomes an integral part of the dish and is intended to be eaten with it, besides providing the decorative eye appeal, such as diced tomato and chopped thyme on top of a piece of finished halibut.
Ghee -
Or butter ghee, is often used in many Indian dishes. Both clarified butter and ghee begin with melting over low heat. And they are both heated until the water evaporates and the milk solids settle and then the clear fat is poured off.
Ghee is heated just a wee bit more until the milk solids are browned, giving the resulting fat a nutty flavor and rich aroma. It has a very high smoke point of 485°F/252°C.
Glycemic Index (GI) -
Gremolata - A condiment made from chopped parsleye, garlic, and lemon zest.
Katsubush -
Thin shavings of dried skipjack tuna, also known as Bonito. These are usually used as a garniture in Japanese cuisine. Check "Kezurikatsuo".
Kezurikatsuo -
Thick shavings of dried skipjack tuna. They are generally referred to as Bonito Tuna Flakes ("Katsubushi" or "Katsu-o-bushi" in Japanese), but when these Bonito shavings are on the larger and thicker side, they are referred to as Kezurikatsuo. These are usually used to make Japanese style stock as the base to provide flavors to create dishes.
Knife cut -
- Allumette - thin sticks, about 1/8 inch x 1/8 inch x 2 inch (3mm x 3mm x 5cm)
- Batonnet - little sticks, about 1/4 inch x 1/4 inch x 2-2.5 inch ( 6mm x 6mm x 5-6 cm)
- Brunoise - fine dices, about 1/8 inch x 1/8 inch x 1/8 inch (3mm x 3mm x 3mm)
- Julienne - thin sticks, 1/16 inch x 1/16 inch x 2 inch (1.5mm x 1.5mm x 5cm)
Kombu -Edible kelp (seaweed) commonly used in making dashis, broths or stocks.
Macerate -
Soften fresh or dried fruits by soaking or steeping in a flavored liquid such as liquor, vinegar, or syrup for a few hours or overnight. For example, croutons may be macerated in tomato juice and vinaigrette to be used in a bread salad. Or strawberries may be macerated in its own juice by adding sugar.
Maillard reactions -
Maillard reactions is a chemical reaction between an amino acid and a reducing sugar, usually requiring the addition of heat and this process accelerates in an alkaline environment because the amino groups do not neutralize.
Maillard reactions also create caramel-like flavor developing in foods that contain carb (sugar) and protein as they brown on high heat. The reactions are similar to classic sugar caramelizing except they involve a series of complex reactions between proteins and sugars, as opposed to caramelization happens to just sugar. Another thing is that Maillard reactions occur at much lower heat than true sugar caramelization. (more)
Marsala wine -
Marsala wine originates from the Italian city of Marsala, which is in Sicily. It is similar to the more commonly know Spanish Sherry, and like Sherry is a wonderful wine to cook with. It has a complex, slightly sweet flavor that makes it the perfect choice for chicken or pork. Be careful when buying your bottle of Marsala. You don’t need anything too expensive, but make sure it’s just regular Marsala wine, and not “Sweet Marsala” which is a desert wine and too sweet for cooking. This wine can be substituted with dry Sherry or Madeira win in recipes with very nice results.
Mirepoix -
A collection of onions celery, and carrots with two parts of onions, one part of celery and one part of carrots. They are usually diced and browned to build the flavor base. For a white mirepoix, use leeks, onions, celery and parsnips.
Miso -
A traditional Japanese paste made from fermented soy beans and sometimes rice and barley. There are red miso, white miso and sometimes you can find those in between. Red miso and white miso taste differently so by mixing different proportions of these two, you will get different tastes in the dishes (such as miso soup) you create.
Mount -
Refers to a French cooking technique that involves stirring cold butter into a sauce toward the end of the cooking process in order to thicken and give it body.
Nap, nappé -
A French culinary term means the consistency of a sauce becomes thick enough to lightly coat and completely cover the food with a thin even layer. The sauce should coat the back of a spoon evenly and when you draw the tip of a finger through the middle, the clean path stays without the sauce running back together.
Pappa al pomodoro -
An Italian soup made with tomatoes and croutons.
Parboil -
The partial boiling of an ingredient just until soft as the first step in cooking, in order to tenderize it for further cooking or freezing processes. The food usually is intended to be cooked further at a later time.
Peekytoe Crab - Also known as Atlantic Rock Crab.
Pekmez - Grape molasses used in Turkey.
Poach -
Poaching is a type of moist-heat cooking technique that involves cooking by submerging food in a liquid, such as water, milk, stock or wine. Poaching is differentiated from the other "moist heat" cooking methods, such as simmering and boiling, in that it uses a relatively low temperature (about 160–180 °F (71–82 °C)).
Ponzu - A citrus-based and soy-based sauce used in Japanese cuisine.
Phytonutrients -
Plant foods contain thousands of natural chemicals. These are called phytonutrients or phyto-chemicals. These chemicals help protect plants from germs, fungi, bugs, and other threats. When you eat or drink phytonutrients, they may help prevent disease and keep your body working properly because Phytochemicals are powerful antioxidant and anti-cancer compounds.
Plant-based food such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, beans, and tea contain phytonutrients.
Examples of phytochemicals include carotenoid which is high in carrots, sweet potatoes, dark leafy greens, tomato, broccoli and resveratrol which is found in the skin of red grapes, peanuts and berries.
Your cooking method is very important in maximizing the availability of phytochemicals. The wrong cooking method will significantly diminish the phytochemical content of your vegetables. For example, phytochemicals found in broccoli and cauliflower are phenolic acids, carotenoids, sulphoraphane and glucosinolates, such as glucobrassicin and glucoraphanin. Steaming 2-4 min is the best way to go while microwaving or boiling are the worse way since they lose 60-90% of the phytonutrients.
Roux -
A combination of flour and fat, cooked together and used to thicken soups or sauces.
Sachet d'Epices -
A sachet d'epices is a little piece of cheesecloth made into a tea bag that has pepper corns, a bay leaf, thyme, parsley, and garlic.
Sauteuse -
Also known as a saute pan or frying pan which has sloping sides to allow you to flip food and move it very quickly over high heat.
Sautoir -
It is a type of frying pan that has straight sides, a tight-fitting lid, and is a little deeper than sauteuse. A sautoir is great to fry a piece of meat and make a pan sauce in the same pan because you can put the lid on to trap the steam.
Shock -
The act of immersing food in cold water after being blanched or parboiled. Shocking food prevents the food from cooking further by drawing any residual heat from the food item.
Simmer -
It is a type of moist-heat cooking technique when one brings it to a boil and then reduces the heat to a point where the formation of bubbles has almost ceased, typically a water temperature of about 94 °C(200 °F) at sea level. Also check "Poach" in this glossary.
Slurry -
A starch mixture added toward the end of cooking to get a thicker, more luxurious sauce. While making a roux is another way to get a thicker sauce, which is to cook flour in fat in the beginning of the cooking process.
Sofrito -
A term meaning flavor base that is Spanish in origin. A traditional Spanish tomato sauce that is often made with annatto seeds sautéed in pork fat or olive oil before being added to other ingredients.
Spelt - An ancient form of wheat.
Stock - Check "Broth" on this page for the difference.
Suppli or Arancini -
Italian snack consisting of a ball of rice (generally risotto) with tomato sauce and raw egg that is deep-fried in oil.
Suppli al telefono -
A variation of arancini (Italian fried risotto rice balls) made in an oblong shape and stuffed with cheese (usually mozzarella). The name comes from the fact that the cheese forms a "telephone wire" between the eater's mouth and hand.
Tahini - Sesame paste; used to make hummus or baba ghanoush.
Tomato Concasse - Check "Concasse" on this page.
Truss - To wrap meat with string or cotton twine to hold it together tightly while it cooks.
Umami - Explained here.
(Sorry if I missed it. Try Google it! Or shoot me an email at foodofonesown@gmail.com. I love finding it out for you.)
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