What Does F.g. Stand For In Cooking

When you're reading through a recipe, practise you always stop, scratch your head and enquire, "What does that hateful?" When I first ventured into the world of cooking, I often constitute myself a chip dislocated and, often, guessing on how to perform a certain chore.

The more I cooked, the more I began to realize that cooking terms popped up everywhere in recipes. Thankfully, over time I've learned what they mean.

To beginners, and maybe even some veterans out there, a few cooking terms found in recipes might leave cooks a flake puzzled.

In an attempt to lessen the defoliation, I've compiled a list of basic cooking terms that you lot should be familiar with when you scope out and begin to tackle new recipes.

Basic Cooking Terms Defined

Al dente: Italian term to depict pasta and rice that are cooked until tender but withal firm to the bite

Bain-marie: A pan of water that is used to aid mixtures, such equally custards, bake evenly and to protect them from the direct heat of the oven or stove

Bake: To cook in the oven – the terms blistering and roasting are often used interchangeably, merely roasting involves cooking at a higher temperature (at least in the start) to brown the surface of the food

Baste: To spoon, ladle or moisten with a filled baster hot cooking liquid over food at intervals during cooking to moisten and flavor the nutrient

Crush: To make a mixture smooth with rapid and regular motions using a spatula, wire whisk or electric mixer; to brand a mixture light and smooth past enclosing air

Bind: To add egg or a thick sauce to hold ingredients together when they are cooked

Blanch: To plunge some foods into boiling water for less than a minute so immediately plunge into iced h2o – this is ofttimes used to brighten the color of some vegetables; to remove peel from tomatoes and nuts; or performed to halt deterioration prior to freezing

Alloy: To mix two ore more ingredients thoroughly together; not to be confused with blending in an electric blender

Boil: To cook in a liquid brought to a boiling signal and kept there

Braise: To cook in a small amount of liquid (also called stewing or pot roasting); not to be dislocated with poaching, in which the food is completely submerged in simmering liquid; braised dishes utilize a minor amount of liquid

Bread: To coat foods to be sauteed or deep-fried with flour or a breadcrumb mixture to create a crust

Broil: To melt with a direct heat source, commonly a gas flame or an electric coil higher up the hood

Clarify: To make a liquid clear by removing sediments and impurities; to cook far and remove whatever sediment

Corned: To salt and cure a meat

Coat: To dust or roll food items in flour to cover the surface earlier the food is cooked; also, to coat in flour, egg and breadcrumbs

Foam: To brand creamy and fluffy by working the mixture with the back of a wooden spoon; usually refers to creaming butter or margarine with carbohydrate (can also be done with an electrical mixer)

Cube: To cut uniformly into small pieces with six fifty-fifty sides (due east.g., cube of meat)

Deglaze: To dissolve dried-out cooking juices left on the base and sides of a roasting dish or frying pan; add a little water, vino, or stock, or stock and scrape and stir over oestrus until dissolved (resulting liquid is used to make a gravy or added to a sauce or casserole for boosted concentrated flavor)

Degrease: To skim fat from the surface of cooking liquids (e.1000., stocks, soups, casseroles, sauces)

Dice: To cut food into tiny cubes (ane/8 to 1/4 inch)

Dilute: To reduce a mixture's strength by adding liquid (usually water)

Dollop: A pocket-sized gob of soft nutrient, such as whipped foam

Dredge: To heavily glaze with icing saccharide, flour or corn flour

Drizzle: To pour in a fine, thread-like stream moving over a surface

Dust: Lightly coating a food with a powdery substance, such as flour or powdered sugar

Egg wash: Beaten egg with milk or h2o used to castor over pastry, breadstuff dough or biscuits to requite a sheen and golden-brownish color

Chip: To separate cooked fish into flakes, removing bones and pare, using two forks

Fold in: To combine a light, whisked or creamed mixture with other ingredients – this is accomplished by calculation a portion of the other ingredients at a fourth dimension and mix using a gentle circular motion, over and under the mixture and then that air will not exist lost (it's always best to employ a spatula)

Fry: To cook a nutrient in a hot fat

Glaze: To castor or glaze food with a liquid that will requite the finished product a glossy or shiny advent, and on baked products, a golden-brownish colour

Grind: To pass meats or basics through a grinder or a food processor to reduce to small pieces

Infuse: To steep nutrient in a liquid until the liquid absorbs the flavour

Julienne: To slice food (e.g., vegetables and processed meats) into fine strips the gauge length of matchsticks

Knead: To piece of work a yeast dough in a pressing, stretching and folding motion with the heel of the paw until information technology is smoothen and rubberband then as to develop the gluten strands

Macerate: To soften fruit in a syrup, liqueur or spirit to give added season

Marinate: To combine foods, commonly meat or fish, with aromatic ingredients for some time to tenderize and add season

Mask: To evenly embrace cooked nutrient portions with sauce, mayonnaise or savory jelly

Pan-fry: To fry foods in a small amount of fatty or oil, sufficient to coat the base of operations of the pan

Pare: To pare the skim from vegetables and fruit

Pinch: The corporeality of dry ingredients you tin hold in a pinch (between your thumb and forefinger). Information technology's equivalent to 1/16 teaspoon

Poach: To simmer gently in enough hot liquid to almost encompass the food then shape will exist retained

Puree: To work or strain foods until they are completely smooth

Saute: To melt over high heat on the stove in a small amount of fat in a saute pan or skillet

Scald: To heat milk but below the boiling point (or, to immerse a vegetable or fruit in boiling h2o in order to remove its skin easily)

Sear: To brown the surface of pieces of meats and/or fish by submitting them to intense initial estrus

Simmer: To cook in liquid but below the boiling point (approximately 205 degrees F), with small-scale bubbles ascension gently to the surface

Skim: To remove fatty or barm from the surface of simmering food

Stew: To cook in a way like to braising, only generally involving smaller pieces of meat, and therefore, a shorter cooking time

Stir-fry: To apace fry small pieces of food in a large pan over very high estrus while stirring

Stock: The naturally flavorful liquid produced when meat, poultry, fish or vegetables accept been simmered in water to extract the flavor

Sweat: To cook sliced onions or vegetables in a pocket-size amount of butter in a covered pan over low estrus to soften them and release flavor without browning

Whip: To vanquish a preparation with the goal of introducing air into it; also, the balloon-shaped wire whisk oft used to do then

Whisk: A utensil with looped wires in the shape of a teardrop, used for whipping ingredients like batters, sauces, eggs and creams (the whisk helps air get into the concoction)

Zester: A utensil with tiny cutting holes on one end that creates threadlike strips of peel when pulled over the surface of a lemon lime or orangish (it removes only the colored outer portion of the peel)