cooking+terms

Cooking Terms

Bread- First dip food in a liquid, then roll food in crumbs.

Baste- Use a large spoon or baster to pour liquid over a food while it is cooking, the liquid used may be pan drippings or cooking sauces.



Dredge- foods are dredged by coating them with a dry ingredient. First place dry ingredient in plastic bag, then piece of food, to finish shake it until coated.

Mash- Use a up-and-down motion with a potato masher until food has a smooth texture.

Pare- use a paring knife or a peeler to remove the outer covering of foods.



Peel- Peel and pare are often used to mean the same thing, but peeling is usually done by hand.

Chop- Use a sharp knife, food processor, or blender to cut foods into small, uneven pieces.



Cube- Use a sharp knife to cut food into small, even cubes, half to 1 inch in size.

Core- Use a paring knife to remove the center, or core, of a food.

Dice- Cut foods into small, even cubes,about 1/4 inch in size.



Grate- Use a grater to cut food into very fine pieces.

Mince- Use a knife or kitchen shears to cut food into very tiny pieces.

Shred- Use a knife or the shredding section of a grater to cut food into thin strips.

Slice- Use a knife to cut foods into flat pieces of even widths. Your recipe should tell you how thick they need to be.

Combine- Use a spoon to mix two or more ingredients together.



Stir- Move your spoon in a circular motion to mix ingredients.

Beat- Mix ingredients with a fast up and over motion, bring contents to the top of the bowl and then down again. Use a spoon, rotary mixer, or electric mixer.

Blend- Stir ingredients so they are completely combined but not beaten.

Whip- Use the same up and over motion used in beating but work much faster, this adds air to the mixture. This is done with a wire whisk, rotary beater, or electric mixer.

Cream- Use an electric mixer or spoon to beat mixture until it is soft and smooth.

Cut in- Use two knifes to cut through the shortening until it looks like coarse crumbs.



Fold- Cut through it then turn it over, this is a gentle process.



Toss -Mix ingredients by tumbling them lightly with a spoon and a fork. Push spoon down one side and fork down the other meeting in the center.