Top 25 Culinary Terms Every Student Should Know

There are many different terms used in the culinary world. The following are the top 25 culinary terms every student should know as they are training to become a chef:

  • Bind: Thickening soups, sauces or gravies by adding egg yolks, cream, flour, starch or blood.
  • Blanch: Immersing foods in boiling water to part-cook or clean them.
  • Braise: Slowly cooking meats or vegetables in a small covered quantity of aromatic liquid.
  • Compote: Preparing fruits and/or vegetables by slowly cooking in a light sweet stock.
  • Confit: Meats that have been slowly and gently cooked in fat.
  • Emulsion: Mixing two incompatible liquids by dropping one slowly into the other in a continuous phase.
  • Decoct: Extracting the essence of something by boiling it.
  • Deglaze: Dissolving caramelized juice at the bottom of a saucepan by moistening with liquid.
  • Dilute: Adding liquid to adjust the consistency of an overly thick sauce or puree.
  • Julienne: Very thin strips of vegetables or cooked meat.
  • Knead: Pressing, folding and stretching to work dough into a uniform mixture.
  • Line: Arranging 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: Roughly chopped vegetables added to flavor stock; usually celery, onions and carrots.
  • Poach: Simmering in a liquid that is kept just below the boiling point.
  • Reduce: Simmering a liquid or sauce down to a concentrated liquid.
  • Roux: Combination of flour and butter cooked to white, golden or dark as specified.
  • Saute: Frying quickly in a small amount of hot fat or oil.
  • Score: Creating small incisions on the skin of meat or fish to help it cook.
  • Shrink: Sweating off moisture and juice of ingredients until they contract.
  • Simmer: Boiling gently and consistently using low heat.
  • Stew: Cooking ingredients in a closed container with almost no liquid, or no liquid at all.
  • Sweat: Cooking an ingredient covered and over low heat until it loses its juices.
  • Trimmings: Cut-off pieces left over after trimming an ingredient.
  • Whisk: Adding volume to substances like egg whites, sauce, cream or hollandaise.

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