A Handy Glossary of Cooking Terms

The next time you’re reading a recipe you may come across a term that you’re not familiar with, so to help here’s a short glossary of some regularly used cooking terms and what they mean.

Au gratin
This is simply food that is coated with a sauce, and sprinkled with breadcrumbs and sometimes grated cheese too.   Then browned in the oven or under the broiler.

Bake Blind
This is to bake a pastry crust without a filling.  The simplest way to do this is to line a flan pan with pastry, then to prick the base all over with a fork.  Brushing the pastry base and sides with a little beaten egg will help to keep it crisp.  Incidentally, a good tip is to put pastry dough in a plastic bag, then to chill it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes before rolling it out.

Baste
Basting means to spoon or ladle hot fat or/and meat juices over food while it’s cooking – so that it keeps moist.

Blanch
Blanching usually means to put food into cold water, bring it to the boil and then to drain off the water.  But it can also mean to plunge the food into boiling water – this method is sometimes used to prepare food for freezing.

Blend
Blending means to mix until smooth.  But it can also mean to mix together a powder with a little cold liquid.

Bouquet garni
Traditionally in muslin but nowadays usually with kitchen twine, a bouquet garni is a small bunch of herbs tied together.  Typically made with a sprig of parsley, a sprig of thyme and a bay leaf, a bouquet garni  is generally used to flavor soups and stews

Hope you find this short cooking term glossary helpful.  Happy cooking!