Kathy Davidson - The 5-Ingredient College Cookbook Easy, Delicious, and Healthy Recipes for the Hungry Student

Heres a list of the most common: Al dente This Italian phrase refers to the texture of pasta. It literally translates into to the tooth, meaning your pasta still has a little bite to it, so it isnt soft and mushy. On the back of pasta boxes, there will usually be a suggested time for al dente noodles. Bake You bake food in the oven, so it gets cooked using a dry heat. When baking something like a casserole or meat, the recipe might ask that you cover it with foil or a lid. Baste When youre cooking meat, usually roasting or grilling, the top can get dried up.

This is when youll baste, which means brushing the top of the meat with a sauce or marinade during the cooking process. Beat This is a pretty self-explanatory term, and usually refers to eggs. When youre asked to beat them, it just means whisking them with a whisk or fork until the yolks and whites are blended together. Depending on the recipe, you might beat yolks or whites separately. Blanch Blanching is when you cook vegetables (and sometimes fruit) very quickly in hot water, keeping them submerged for just a minute or so, and then dunking them in ice water to stop the cooking process. If youre freezing fresh vegetables, youll often blanch them first.

Boil This refers to the temperature of a liquid. You can eyeball it. A rolling boil is a very strong boil, with steam rising, while just boiling means the water is just starting to consistently bubble. Braising Braising is done using wet and dry heat. First, the food gets sauted at a high temperature (thats the dry heat), and then put into a pot with some liquid. This pot is covered, and the food finishes cooking at a lower temperature.

Its a slow-cooking technique. Caramelize Caramelizing a food (like onions) means cooking them until they become brown, but not burned. The browning occurs when the carbs and sugar in a food get heated to 300-degrees or higher. Chop You know what chopping means - its just cutting stuff - so you really just want to look at the word that comes after or before it. Youll be asked to finely or roughly chop stuff like vegetables and fruit. Theres a little more to know about chopping, but well get into that when we talk about knife skills shortly.

Cream This term is used a lot in baking, and refers to how you mix butter and sugar together. You know theyre combined properly when the mixture is light and fluffy. Cut in When you come across this term, it means to incorporate solid butter into flour, until you get a texture like coarse sand, with little pieces of butter. Its often done with forks, two knives, a pastry cutter, or even your hands. Deglaze In recipes, you might be asked to deglaze a pan. This means adding a liquid of some kind, like broth or wine, so the stuck-on bits of food dissolve into the liquid.

Often times, youll make a sauce from this delicious mixture. Dice When youre asked to dice something, imagine what dice look like. The recipe wants you to chop the food into small, even cubes. Egg wash An egg wash is when you mix beaten eggs and water or milk. This is then brushed on top of baked goods like pies or pastries, so when baked, theres a shiny glaze on top. Emulsify Youll see this word a lot in recipes for homemade salad dressings.