Let’s be honest for a second, cooking can feel unapproachable. Recipes are filled with fancy words used to describe simple concepts or actions. From knife skills to cooking techniques, it can be overwhelming. Fret no more, my friends, as here is a concise list of the most common cooking terms you will encounter and what they mean.
Glossary Of Essential Cooking Terms
Al dente
Al dente refers to undercooked pasta. Usually referring to dried pasta that is 1-3 minutes away from being fully cooked. You will most commonly see this term used when you want to finish cooking the pasta in its sauce. You remove the pasta from the boiling water just before it’s done cooking so the pasta can soak up the flavor of the sauce and the starch in the noodles will help thicken up the sauce. Overall this is a great technique to implement on your pasta dishes.
Bake
Baking refers to cooking with your oven on a low dry setting. While typically used with pastries and breads you can bake meat or vegetables. The main thing to think about when you’re baking something is the low temperature of the oven. If you need to develop some millard reaction or render some fat you need to increase the temp of the oven and start roasting.
Barbecue
A catch-all term used for any kind of outdoor cooking device or event. There is not one single grill or smoker that is a barbeque. Nor is there a single dish that is barbeque or not.
Baste
Basting refers to pouring liquid on top of your food while it roasts in an oven or smoker. Typically this is a fatty and/or sugary liquid meant to add a lot of flavor to the end product. This is not exclusive to meat and can be used on almost all foods.
Beat
Beating refers to rapidly whisking a liquid to aerate it. This is commonly done with egg whites or whipping cream. This can be performed with a hand whisk, but if you have access to an immersion blender with a whisk attachment or a stand mixer, use that and save the wear and tear on the wrists.
Béchamel
A Béchamel is a thick cream sauce. Made from butter and flour and slowly adding in cream, this is the base of many dairy based sauces such as a queso dip.
Blanch
Blanching refers to dunking something in an ice bath to halt the cooking process. This is typically used after steaming/boiling food such as eggs, lobster, or broccoli. The point is to rapidly decrease the temperature to keep a very precise internal temperature and not overcook the food.
Blend
Blending refers to making a homogeneous mixture. The main difference between blending and a food processor is the presence of any solids in the final product. Blending has no solids while a food processor contains solids.
Boil
Bringing a water-based liquid up to a boil. Usually, the liquid is just water but you can use broths, stocks, or sauces. A very consistent way to ensure the proper cooking temp for your food. You know that the water cannot be above 212 degrees F.
Braise
The process of slowly cooking meat in a flavorful sauce until fully tender. Generally, this is used on meats with a lot of collagen but this technique can be used on anything and everything.
Bread
At its most basic level bread is made of flour, water, and salt. Typical additions include yeast, sugar, milk, butter, oil, baking powder or baking soda.
Brine
Letting salt penetrate into something. Typically into meat but you can do this with nearly anything. You can either season your food with salt and leave it for 2-24 hours to penetrate, or create a salty water solution and let the food soak up the salt overnight.
Broil
Typically the highest setting on your oven. It takes your oven from an indirect heat to a high direct heat. Usually used to finish roasts, cheesy dishes or vegetables.
Brown
Browning something refers to achieving Maillard reaction on your food. Also known as caramelization. To understand the Maillard reaction, think of toast. The color and flavor of the bread changes. It’s not just stale warm bread, it’s toast. The same can be thought of when searing a steak, caramelising some onions or browning some veggies.
Butterfly
The process of cutting meat in half to make it a uniform thickness. This helps the protein cook more evenly, achieving a more flavorful final product. Most commonly done on chicken breast but it can be done on all meats.
Caramelize
The process of melting sugars down and developing flavors as they brown. While this can be done with just sugar, thereby making caramel: It can also be done with onions or a sugary sauce.
Chiffonade
Long thin strips of a vegetable, typically a leafy herb. The textbook example of this is basil. Cutting it into thin long strips for a garnish.
Deglaze
Remove the fond in the bottom of a pot or pan with a liquid. Typically done after searing vegetables or meat in a pan. This will add tons of flavor to the sauce that you will make with the liquid left in the pan.
Dice
Cutting technique where vegetables are cut into ¼” or 5mm pieces. Typically into cubes but in the case of onions the thickness is whatever the layer of the onion thickness is.
Double boiler
The act of putting a mixing bowl on top of a pot of boiling water. This is used to gently heat whatever you have in the bowl. Most commonly used with melting chocolate but it can be used to thicken sauces that contain egg such as carbonara.
Dredge
Referring to a thick batter used to coat food before frying. Think of fish and chips with a beer batter dredge.
Drippings
The liquid that drips out of a roast or vegetables during cooking. This is packed full of flavor and you don’t want it to go to waste.
Dutch oven
A heavy cast iron pot that is completely covered in a nonstick coating. Used to braise meats, make bread, and much more. The Dutch oven offers a very gentle way to cook food. When placed in an oven it adds another layer of protection from the direct heat of the oven to evenly cook your food.
Emulsify
Mixing oil and water into a homogeneous mixture. This is done with an emulsifier, typically an egg. Mayonnaise or an aioli is the most common example of this.
Grease
A catch-all term for the fat that renders out of meat as you cook it. Do not be afraid of this, there is an amazing amount of flavor and many things you can use “grease” for.
Julienne
A cutting technique where you create long strips of vegetables. Think of long strips of carrots as an example.
Knead
A process of working a dough to develop the gluten therefore making the bread have more chew in the final product. Pizza dough has a lot of gluten development, pancakes do not.
Leavening
The catch-all term for making a dough less dense. Achieved through the use of yeast, dough starter (which is just a different way of getting yeast into your dough), or baking soda/powder.
Marinate
Placing food into a flavorful liquid to add flavor to the final product. This is typically to add flavor to the outside of the food. For adding flavor all the way through, try brining.
Mince
Cutting technique referring to very small pieces of vegetables. Essentially you want the smallest pieces possible while keeping the pieces solid, not into a paste.
Mirepoix
2 parts onion, 1 part celery and one part carrot. The base of nearly all french cuisine sauces. It’s just a super tasty simple starting point for nearly any dish.
Pan Fry
Referring to frying something in a shallow amount of oil. Rather than fully submerging the food in the oil there is only enough to cover about half of the food when it is in the pan.
Parboil
Boiling something without fully cooking it. Used a lot in making french fries. You boil the fry first to cook them all the way through, then you fry them to achieve the crispy texture and don’t have to worry about overcooking them while the insides fully cook.
Pith
The extremely bitter part of the skin of a citrus fruit. Typically the white part is extremely tough and bitter. There are few recipes that you want this in, usually avoid this.
Poach
Gently cooking something in boiling water with vinegar in it. Typically done with eggs. The vinegar adds a small amount of flavor but mostly helps stabilize the temperature to assure consistent cooking.
Puree
Completely homogeneous mixture, usually very thick. Very similar to blending but a puree is taken even further.
Reconstitute
The act of adding water to a concentrate to return it to normal consistency. Can be done with a demi glaze cube or something that has been dried out.
Reduce
The act of boiling a liquid to reduce the total water content. Used in making a demi glaze from stock. This process can take a long time.
Render
The process of liquifying solid fat. Think of cooking the fat cap on a steak, you want it to be rendered so you aren’t biting into a large piece of chewy fat every bite.
Rind
Outer skin of citrus or cheese. Packed full of flavor but sometimes too tough to include in the food or in the case of certain specialty cheese it can be unsafe to eat.
Roast
High temp oven setting. Similar to the bake setting but at a higher temperature. Dry indirect heat usually meant to render fat and promote a Maillard reaction.
Roux
Mixture of butter and flour. The longer you cook a roux the more nutty flavors develop adding depth to a soup or sauce. While butter is traditionally used, any fat will work.
Sauté
Cooking in a pan over medium high heat with a decent amount of oil. Think of cooking down vegetables.
Score
The act of cutting shallow slices into meat or vegetables to increase surface area and create more Maillard reaction when cooking.
Sear
The act of using high heat to achieve the Maillard reaction. Typically done on meat in a pan but it can be used on vegetables and achieved with an oven or grill.
Sift
The act of passing a powder through a fine mesh strainer to remove all lumps. Achieves a more consistent final product in baking.
Simmer
The act of barley boiling a liquid. You aren’t looking to reduce the sauce, simply keeping it warm while not reducing the liquid.
Skim
The act of removing all the impurities that float to the surface of a soup or stock. This will help you achieve a cleaner looking and tasting final product.
Spatchcock
The act of removing the spine of a bird and pressing it down flat to reduce the cook time and achieve a more consistent final product.
Steam
Cooking technique where food is placed above boiling water and the steam is what gently cooks it. Used alot in vegetables.
Stock
A liquid made from boiling vegetables and bones for 6-24 hours.
Tenderize
The act of making food, typically meat, less tough. This can be done by using a mallet, salt or a tenderizer.
Truss
Using butcher’s twine to make a large roast cook more evenly.
Zest
The outside, colorful bits of citrus. This is wonderful and not bitter like the pith. Add it to sauces and marinades to pack in the flavor.