Cooking is the art of preparing
food for
ingestion, commonly with the application of differentiated heating. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely across the world, reflecting unique environments, economics, cultural traditions, and trends. The way that cooking takes place also depends on the skill and type of training of an individual cook as well as the resources available to cook with, such as
good butter which heavily impacts the meal.
A culinary term indicating a
garnish of
almonds. A dish served amandine is usually cooked with butter and seasonings, then sprinkled with whole or flaked, toasted almonds.
Foods served au jus, typically meat or sandwiches, are served with an unthickened sauce made from roast meat drippings, commonly in a separate side dish.
au poivre
Foods served au poivre, typically steak, are crusted with ground
black pepper prior to cooking.
A cooking technique used in
Pakistani cuisine and
Indian cuisine in which cooking oil is heated and spices are added to fry. The oil is then added to a dish for flavoring.
A technique by which a fresh food such as a vegetable or fruit is briefly immersed in boiling water, removed after a timed interval, and then plunged into iced water or rinsed with cold running water (shocking or refreshing) to halt the cooking process.
A combination-cooking method that uses both wet and dry heats: typically, the food is first seared at a high temperature, then finished in a covered pot at a lower temperature while sitting in some (variable) amount of liquid (which may also add flavor).
The process of partially cooking the surface of
meat to help remove excessive
fat and to give the meat a brown color crust and flavor through various
browning reactions.
The preparation of
candies and
sugar confections by dissolving
sugar in water or milk to form a
syrup, which is boiled until it reaches the desired concentration or starts to
caramelize.
A cooking device consisting of a series of grates or ribs that can be heated using a variety of means, and is used in both residential and commercial applications for a variety of cooking operations.
A set of methods and techniques traditionally used in
Chinese cuisine.[9] The cooking techniques can either be grouped into ones that use a single cooking method or a combination of wet and dry cooking methods.
red cooking
Also called Chinese stewing, red stewing, red braising, and flavour potting.
A slow
braising technique that imparts a red color to the prepared food, frequently used in Chinese cuisine.
clay pot cooking
A process of cooking food in a pot made from unglazed and natural clay.
To rough chop any ingredient, especially vegetables. The term is particularly applied to
tomatoes, where tomato concasse is a tomato that has been peeled, seeded (seeds and skins removed), and chopped to specified dimensions.
conche
A surface-scraping mixer and agitator that evenly distributes
cocoa butter within
chocolate, and may act as a "polisher" of the
particles.
The breaking of an
emulsion or
colloid into large parts of different composition through the physico-chemical processes of
flocculation,
creaming, and
coalescence. Curdling is intentional and desirable in making cheese and tofu, but may be unintentional and undesirable in making other foods such as sauces and custards.
Any of a wide variety of food preservation and flavoring processes used for foods such as meat, fish, and vegetables, by the addition of a combination of salt, nitrates, nitrite, or sugar. Many curing processes also involve
smoking, the process of flavoring, or cooking. The use of food dehydration was the earliest form of food curing.
The production of
Gruyère cheese at the
cheesemaking factory of Gruyères, Canton of Fribourg, Switzerland
Cooking of Svadbarski Kupus (wedding cabbage) in
clay pots, Serbia
A technique by which a food is completely submerged in hot fat or oil (as opposed to ordinary
frying, which involves placing the food in a shallow pool of oil).
Any of a variety of processes by which a food is preserved by removing moisture, often by the use of a modern
food dehydrator or by the traditional method of allowing sunlight and fresh air to evaporate moisture.
A cooking technique associated with the
Awadh region of India, in which meat and vegetables are cooked over a very low flame, generally in sealed containers.
A
Dutch oven is well suited for long, slow cooking, such as in making roasts, stews, and
casseroles. Virtually any recipe[11] that can be cooked in a conventional oven can be cooked in a Dutch oven. They are often used in outdoor cooking, such as when camping.
The process of cooking a food or beverage at altitudes well above sea level, where lower atmospheric pressure causes most foods to cook more slowly and may necessitate the use of special cooking techniques.
The process of extracting chemical compounds or flavors from plant material in a solvent such as water,
oil, or
alcohol, by allowing the material to remain suspended in the solvent over time (a process often called
steeping). A common example of an infusion is
tea, and many
herbal teas are prepared in the same way.
J
jugging
The process of
stewing whole animals, mainly
game or
fish, for an extended period in a tightly covered container such as a
casserole dish or an
earthenware jug.
A
Japanese cooking technique in which various foods — most often chicken, but also other meat and fish — are
deep fried in oil, similar to the preparation of tempura, but with a dredge in starch, rather than a liquid batter.
The technique of soaking a food in a seasoned, often acidic, liquid (known as a marinade) prior to cooking. Marination is generally used as a means of adding or enhancing flavor or
tenderizing tough cuts of meat, and the process can vary greatly in duration. It is similar to but distinct from
brining and
pickling.
A process for the preparation of
maize (corn) or other
grain in which the grain is soaked and cooked in an
alkaline solution, usually
limewater, and then
hulled.
Preparing and cooking all the meals you need for an entire month in a single day.
outdoor cooking
Cooking in outdoor environments, which often demand specialized techniques and equipment for preparing food. Equipment used includes
mess kits and
portable stoves, among others.
Partially or incompletely
boiling a food, especially as the first step in a longer cooking process. Parboiling involves cooking a food in boiling water only until it begins to soften, removing the food before it is fully cooked. The cooking is then often finished by a different method, such as
braising or
grilling.
A skin or coating of proteins on the surface of meat, fish, or poultry, which allows smoke to better adhere to the surface of the meat during the
smoking process.
The process of cooking food, using water or other cooking liquid, in a sealed vessel known as a pressure cooker, which does not permit air or liquids to escape below a pre-set
pressure.
The process of assembling a palatable food product from processed sources (for example, adding water to concentrated juice or forming meat slurry into chicken nuggets).
A technique used in
grilling,
baking,
braising,
roasting,
sautéing, etc., in which the surface of the food (usually meat, poultry, or fish) is cooked at high temperature until a crust forms from
browning.
Poultry or
game that has been prepared for roasting or grilling by removing the backbone (and sometimes the sternum) and flattening it out before cooking.[14]
1.
Tempering (chocolate), a method of increasing the shine and durability of chocolate couverture.
2.
Tempering (cooking), bringing meat to room temperature before cooking; or bringing food up to temperature slowly as in
sous vide.
3.
Tempering (spices), a cooking technique and garnish used in the cuisines of
India,
Bangladesh, and
Pakistan, in which whole
spices (and sometimes also other ingredients such as minced
ginger root or sugar) are fried briefly in oil or
ghee to liberate essential oils from cells and thus enhance their flavours, before being poured, together with the oil, into a dish.
tenderizing
A process to break down
collagens in meat to make it more palatable for consumption.
A technique which involves coating pieces of raw meat or poultry in a mixture of cornstarch and liquid prior to cooking, frequently used in Chinese cuisine.