Nan Frans Cooking Definitions
October 21, 2011 
Nan Fran 
Cooking Definitions
What do all these cooking words mean?
- Bake: to cook in an oven.
- Batter: a mixture of liquid, flour and other ingredients that can vary in thickness often used to batter food like onion rings.
- Boil: to cook a liquid in a saucepan usually on the stove until bubbles rise.
- Chill: to refrigerate until cold.
- Chop: to cut food into small pieces.
- Combine: mixing two or more ingredients together.
- Cream: beat together butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until a creamy mixture.
- Cut in: to combine solid fat with dry ingredients using a knife then the mixture is gently rubbed together by hand, usually pastry.
- Drain: to strain away unwanted liquid.
- Fold: to gently mix ingredients by using a spatula and moving food from centre and lifting towards edge of bowl turning bowl as you go.
- Garnish: to decorate food with items like sliced fruit or herbs.
- Grease: to rub the inside of baking pans with butter, margarine or baking sprays to stop it from sticking.
- Knead: to work dough firmly by pressing and folding with the palms of your hands usually done on a flat surface.
- Let it rest: to let baked goods cool down on a wire rack wile it’s still baking.
- Marinade: a mixture in which you soak meat or fish (usually overnight in the fridge) before cooking it making it tender plus giving it lots of flavour.
- Mash: to mash foods with a fork or potato masher.
- Melt: to heat a solid food until it turns to liquid.
- Preheat: to prepare oven to correct temperature prior to baking.
- Roll out: to lightly roll dough with a rolling pin to required thickness.
- Rub in: to mix fat with flour or sugar using fingers until mixture has the texture of breadcrumbs.
- Scrape: to use a bendy spatula to remove as much of the mixture as possible from a bowl or saucepan.
- Seal: to seal the outside of food like sealing meat in a frying pan.
- Season: adding salt, pepper or herbs to food giving it more flavour.
- Simmer: to cook liquids over very low heat just bubbling but not boiling.
- Sieve: to remove lumps from flour or icing sugar by pushing through a sieve.
- Toss: to mix salad ingredients lightly in a bowl.
- Whisk: to mix two or more ingredients together vigorously.
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