Al Dente: (AL-DEN-TAY) Refers to how pasta is cooked, it is slightly chewy or being tough to the bite.

Au gratin: (OH-GRAH-TAHN) Foods covered with a sauce, sprinkled with cheese or bread crumbs, or both, and baked to a golden brown

Au jus: (OH-JOO-I) Food served with its natural juice

Bake: To cook by dry heat, usually in an oven.

Baste: (BASED) To ladle drippings (the stuff that comes out of the meat when you cook it!) over a piece of meat being cooked as a roast to make it juicy and to prevent dryness

Beat: To lift a mixture with a spoon or an electric mixer to inject air and make the mixture smooth and creamy

Blanch: To scald, make white, to partially cook an item, or to dip vegetables in boiling water in preparation for freezing, canning, or drying

Braise: To cook meat by searing in fat, then simmering in a covered dish in a small amount of liquid or to brown meat or vegetables in hot fat, then to cook slowly in a small amount of liquid

Broil: To cook by exposing the food directly to the heat

Caramelise: Sugar – to heat sugar until it melts and turns a pale brown colour. Onions/garlic: to cook onions in a small amount of oil or butter until they change to a brown colour (the sugars in the onions/garlic actualy turn to caramel). Done over an easy heat and stirred occassionally.

Chop: To cut into small pieces using a knife or other sharp utensil

Cream (as in butter and sugar): a baking technique involving combining butter or margarine and sugar together together to a fluffy consistency. Done by thoroughly beating butter in a bowl, then gradually adding sugar until mixture is fluffy and creamy.

De-glaze: to pour a small amount of liquid into a hot pan in which something has been fried, to clean the pan bottom, especially as for gravy.

Egg wash: brushing the top of a baked item, such as bread, lightly with a beaten egg.

Flambe: (FLARM-BE) Served aflame

Fold: (Nothing to do with computers this time!!)To mix, using a motion beginning vertically down through the mixture, continuing across the bottom of the bowl and ending with an upward and over movement

Knead: (NEED) To place dough on a flat surface and work it, pressing down with your hands, then folding over and over again

Pinch/dash: small, inexact amounts that basically add up to “to taste.”

Poach: To cook in water that bubbles only slightly

Reduce: To concentrate a liquid by simmering for a long time

Rise: in bread-making, to leave the dough in a warm place and allow to double in volume.

Rest: in bread-making, to let the dough sit a few minutes before kneading more.

Roux: (Roo) – The basis of many sauces, and a good thickening agent for soup. Made but melting 1tbls of butter and adding 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of milk. For a thinner consistency, add more milk, for a thicker consistency, add more flour.

Saute: (SAW-TAY) To quickly heat meat or vegetables in fat in an open pan

Scald (as in milk): to heat milk just to the point that steam is rising from it, but not to boiling.

Sear: to quickly brown the outside of meat at a high temperature.

Simmer: To cook liquid just below the boiling point

Whip: To beat rapidly to increase volume and incorporate air