Kitchen terms
30 entries
AI illustration Al dente
Italian cuisine
Italian term for pasta or rice cooked so that it still offers slight resistance to the bite.
AI illustration Blanching
French cuisine
Briefly scalding an ingredient in boiling water or steam, usually followed by quick cooling.
AI illustration Bouquet garni
French cuisine
A tied bundle of aromatic herbs simmered with a stock, sauce or braise and removed before serving.
AI illustration Braising
International
Slow cooking in a covered vessel with a small amount of liquid, typical for tougher meat, vegetables, rice and even fruit.
AI illustration Brine and pickling liquid
Czech cuisine
A preserving or flavouring liquid in which meat, fish or vegetables are steeped; brine is usually a strong salt solution.
AI illustration Brunoise
French cuisine
Vegetables cut into very small, even dice, used as a garnish, decoration or aromatic base.
AI illustration Caramelisation
International
Browning of sugars by heat without proteins taking part, producing a brown colour and the bittersweet aroma of caramel.
AI illustration Chiffonade (chiffonnade)
French cuisine
Leaf vegetables or herbs cut into very thin ribbons, served raw or stewed in butter.
AI illustration Concassé (tomates concassées)
French cuisine
A roughly chopped ingredient, in the kitchen most often tomatoes peeled, seeded and cut into pieces.
AI illustration Confit
French cuisine
Preserving food in fat, sugar or another preserving medium, for meat combined with slow cooking in fat; confit is the result.
AI illustration Deglazing
French cuisine
Adding liquid to a pan or roasting tin to dissolve the browned residue left by frying and turn it into a sauce base.
AI illustration Dusting with flour
Czech cuisine
Sprinkling browned meat, vegetables or a sauce with a little flour, which thickens the juices once liquid is added and simmered.
AI illustration Flambéing
French cuisine
Pouring warmed spirit over a dish and setting it alight; the flame does not, however, remove all the alcohol.
AI illustration Glazing (glacer)
French cuisine
Coating food with a glossy layer – vegetables with a reduced butter-and-sugar liquid, meat with reduced stock or aspic, pastry with icing.
AI illustration Gratinating (au gratin)
French cuisine
Browning a dish under sauce, breadcrumbs or cheese until a golden crust forms on top.
AI illustration Julienne
French cuisine
Cutting vegetables and other ingredients into thin, match-like sticks; also a soup made with vegetables cut this way.
AI illustration Larding and barding
International
Two ways of adding fat to lean meat: threading it with strips of bacon fat and wrapping it in slices of bacon.
AI illustration Liaison
International
Thickening and enriching a soup or sauce with egg yolk, often mixed with cream.
AI illustration Maillard reaction
International
Non-enzymatic reaction of reducing sugars with amino acids and proteins that gives baked and browned food its colour and aroma.
AI illustration Marinating
International
Steeping meat, fish or vegetables in a seasoned, usually acidic mixture before cooking.
AI illustration Mirepoix
French cuisine
Diced vegetables with herbs, sometimes with ham or bacon, that give flavour to sauces, stocks and braised meat.
AI illustration Mise en place
French cuisine
Preparing ingredients, basic preparations and equipment before cooking begins – a core working principle of professional kitchens.
AI illustration Monter au beurre
French cuisine
Finishing a sauce by whisking or stirring in butter at the very end of cooking.
AI illustration Passing through a sieve
International
Pressing soft food through a sieve or food mill to make a smooth mash, purée, soup or sauce.
AI illustration Poaching
French cuisine
Gentle cooking in liquid kept just below boiling point, which must not boil hard.
AI illustration Reduction
International
Boiling down a liquid to evaporate water so that a sauce, stock or wine thickens and gains flavour.
AI illustration Roux
Czech cuisine
Flour cooked in fat and used to thicken soups and sauces; jíška in Czech, Mehlschwitze in German.
AI illustration Sautéing
International
Quick cooking of small pieces of meat or vegetables in hot fat, without a lid and without added liquid.
AI illustration Sous vide
French cuisine
Cooking food in a vacuum-sealed bag in a water bath or steam at a precisely controlled temperature.
AI illustration Water bath (bain-marie)
International
Heating or cooking food in a vessel set in hot water, which shields it from direct heat.