There are many different terms used in the culinary world. The following are the top 25 culinary terms that every student should know as they prepare to become a chef:
- Bind: thicken soups, sauces, or broths by adding egg yolks, cream, flour, starch, or blood.
- Blanching: Submerging food in boiling water to partially cook or clean.
- Stew: Slow cooking of meats or vegetables in a small amount covered in aromatic liquid.
- Compote: Preparation of fruits and/or vegetables slowly cooked in a light sweet broth.
- Confit: Meats that have been slowly and gently cooked in fat.
- Emulsion: Mix two incompatible liquids by slowly dropping one into the other in a continuous phase.
- Decoction: Extract the essence of something by boiling it.
- Deglaze: Dissolve caramelized juice in the bottom of a saucepan moistening with liquid.
- Thin: Adding liquid to adjust the consistency of a sauce or puree that is too thick.
- Julienne: Very thin strips of vegetables or cooked meat.
- Knead: Press, fold and stretch to work the dough into a uniform mixture.
- Line: Arrangement of slices of ingredients on the bottom and sides of a utensil.
- Marinate: Soaking meat, poultry, or fish in an acidic liquid to flavor and/or tenderize it.
- Mirepoix: coarsely chopped vegetables added to the broth for flavor; usually celery, onions and carrots.
- Poaching: Simmering in a liquid that stays just below boiling point.
- Reduce: Cook a liquid or sauce over low heat until it becomes a concentrated liquid.
- Roux: Combination of flour and butter cooked to white, golden, or dark as specified.
- Sauté: Quick fry in a small amount of hot fat or oil.
- Marking: Create small incisions in the skin of meat or fish to facilitate cooking.
- Shrinkage: Remove moisture and juice from ingredients until they shrink.
- Simmer: Boil gently and consistently using low heat.
- Stew: Cook the ingredients in a closed container with almost no liquid or no liquid.
- Sweat: Cook an ingredient covered and over low heat until it loses its juices.
- Trimmings: Cut pieces that are left over after trimming an ingredient.
- Whisk: Adds volume to substances such as egg whites, gravy, cream, or hollandaise sauce.