Healthy Southern Cooking

Al Dente – Italian term used to describe pasta, when the pasta is not cooked soft but semi soft with a slight resistance when you bite it.

Aromatics – Fragrant ingredients; garlic, onions, shallots, ginger, herbs  and spices.

Bake – To cook with dry heat, usually in the oven.

Barbecue – Long, slow direct heat cooking method that takes place outdoors over hot coals or wood.

Baste – The method of moistening food during the cooking process with either pan drippings or with sauce to prevent food from drying out.

Batter – A mixture that contains both flour and liquid that is thin enough to pour.

Beat – To mix rapidly in order to make a mixture light and smooth while incorporating as much air as possible.

Blanch – To immerse in rapidly boiling water and cooking slightly.

Blend – To incorporate two or more ingredients thoroughly.

Boil – Heating a liquid until bubbles break on the surface continually.

Bone – To remove bones from poultry, meat or fish.

Bread – To cover meat, poultry, fish and sometimes vegetables with a flour or breadcrumb mixture.

Broil – To cook under strong, direct heat.

Brown – Usually done in a pan over the stove to remove pink from meats, poultry and fish over a moderate-high heat which usually renders color but meat still is not cooked through.

Caramelize – The process of heating naturally sugary foods that will break down, become soft with a nice brown finish.

Chop – To cut into pieces.

Clarify – To separate and remove solids from liquid, such as butter, making it clear.

Core – To remove the core from certain fruits containing cores, such as pineapple, pears and apples.

Cream – To soften a fat, such as butter, by beating it at room temperature.

Cube – To cut into bite size pieces.

Cure – The act of preserving meats.

Cut in – To add a solid ingredient, such as butter, a piece at of time into other ingredients.

Dash – A small sprinkle, such as salt or hot sauce.

Deglaze – To dissolve the browned bits on the surface of a pan where food has been cooked by adding liquid over high heat and reducing down to a sauce.

Degrease – Removing fat from the surface of liquids such as stocks and soups.

Dice – To cut food in small uniform cubes.

Dissolve – Blending a dry ingredient into a liquid,

Dollop – A shapeless blob, usually dropped by spoon and not measured.

Dot – To scatter in bits over food.

Dredge – To coat with flour or other fine substance.

Dress – To prepare food to look as good as possible.

Drippings – the remains in a pan after food has been roasted, fried or sauteed.

Drizzle – to sprinkle with drops of liquid.

Dry Rub – Much like marinating but done without liquid.

Dust – To sprinkle food with dry ingredients such as cocoa powder, flour, powdered sugar, etc.

Fillet  – A boneless piece of meat, poultry or fish.

Flake – To break, usually with a fork, into small pieces.

Flambe – To douse food with alcohol and setting it on fire.

Fold – To incorporate a delicate substance into another gently without releasing air bubbles.

Fricassee – Cooking by braising.

Fry – Too cook in hot oil.

Garnish – To decorate a completed dish.

Glaze – To cover with a thin, shiny icing or sauce.

Grate – To rub on a grater that shreds.

Grease – To apply oil, butter, nonstick cooking spray, etc. to pans and sheets to keep foods from sticking.

Grill – To cook over intense heat, can also be on a barbecue.

Grind – To process solids and reduce them to small particles.

Ice Bath – Used to stop foods from further cooking.

Julienne – To cut into thin strips.

Knead – To work and press dough, developing the gluten in flour.

Lukewarm – Usually room temperature, not hot and not cold.

Macerate – To soak in a flavored liquid; usually refers to fruit.

Marinate – Moisturizing and add flavor to meats, poultry, seafood and other foods by soaking in a liquid mixture of aromatics.

Mince – To cut into very tiny pieces, smaller than diced.

Mix – To combine ingredients, usually by stirring.

Parboil – To boil until partially cooked.

Pare – to remove skin from vegetables of fruit.

Peel – Like pare but to remove peel rather than skin, like oranges.

Pickle – The preservation of fruits, vegetables and meat in a brine solution.

Pinch – Scant amount, much like a dash.

Pit – To remove the large seed, pit, from fruits.

Planked – Cooking on a thick hardwood plank.

Plump – To rehydrate dried fruits by soaking in water until they swell.

Poach – To cook gently in hot liquid.

Puree – To smooth foods, usually with blender or food processor.

Reduce/Reduction – To boil down and reduce in volume.

Refresh – To run cold water over food to stop the cooking process, also an ice bath.

Render – to make a solid fat, such as butter, into a liquid by melting it slowly.

Roast – Cook by dry heat in an oven.

Roux – a 50/50 mixture of fat and flour used to thicken sauces.

Saute – To cook in a small amount of fat.

Scald – Heat just below the boiling point.

Score – To cut narrow grooves partway through the outer surface.

Sear – To brown very quickly by intense heat.

Shred – To cut or tear into long, narrow pieces.

Sift – To pass dry ingredients through a sieve of sifter.

Simmer – Cook slowly in liquid over low heat.

Skim – To remove impurities that rice to the top of the liquid that is cooking.

Slurry – cornstarch mixed with liquid, usually water and used to thicken sauces and gravies rather than using a roux.

Steam – To cook in steam, over boiling water.

Steep – To extract color and flavors by immersing into hot water.

Sterilize – To clean with boiling, dry heat or steam.

Stew – To simmer slowly for a long time.

Stir – To mix ingredients in a circular motion.

Toss – To combine ingredients with a lifting motion.

Whip – To beat rapidly to incorporate air.

Whisk – To beat by hand with whisk.