Cooking Terms

Some terms you might encounter in these recipes or ones from home.

Baste        To moisten food with a liquid or fat while cooking.  Think of turkey.

Beat           Combine ingredients vigorously until the mixture is smooth and a uniform consistency.  This is often needed to put air into the mixture.  Think cake batter, meringue, or scrambled eggs.

Blend         Combine ingredients until smooth.  This is similar to beat but not as hard.  Sometimes the different ingredients might still be identifiable.  Think blended drinks, cookie dough, soups, or sauces. 

Braise         Cooking tougher cuts of meat in an covered pan with the addition of water

Brown        Cook something at high heat until the surface turns brown.

Cut in         This refers to the method of combining solid fats into dry ingredients when making pastries or biscuits.  The butter is cut or chopped with a pasty blender or two butter knives and then covered with the flour, repeatedly until the consistency is similar to corn meal or peas.

Dredge        To coat meat, seafood, or vegetables in a flour mixture before browning or frying.

Fold            Gently spoon one mixture over another mixture until combined in order to prevent the loss of air.  Think whipped cream in a pie mix, or beaten eggs in a souffle.

Fork Tender     If a fork can easily penetrate and/or cut the item, it is done.  Usually for vegetables.

Hard Boil      Different degrees of boiling refer to how fast the bubbles rise to the surface, pop, and release steam.  Hard boil is sometimes considered rolling boil.  For this definition, the bubbles are so fast, that stirring the pot will not cause the bubbles to slow down.

Knead         Folding and squishing of dough on a floured surface to improve the gluten content (Air pockets and rising) of the dough.  This is essential for yeast doughs, however over kneading some biscuits can make them tough.

Mix            Combining ingredients less vigorously than beating.  Often stated mix until moist, or just combined.  This is often used for biscuits  some cookies, non-yeast breads, or alternatively items that are too big to loose their uniqueness like chopped vegetables in a one pot meal.

Poach         Cooking something in liquid that is at a simmer.  Eggs, fish, and chicken are the most common examples.

Saute          Cooking in hot fat over medium heat with lots of tossing and turning.

Sear            Similar to browning.  Usually used in reference to meat.

Simmer        Cook liquid just below the boiling point, bubbles will slowly rise and  pop below the surface of the liquid

Tenderize     To make meat easier to cook or chew by softening the tissues by pounding, with chemicals, or by covering in acidic juices (vinegar, lemon juice, apple juice...)

Whip            Beating ingredients for the sole purpose of adding air and increasing volume.


Sources:
http://www.bettycrocker.com/tips/glossary-page/techniques
Cooking, BSA 1999 printing
Mrs. Herrera