Cooking terms glossary

Question

Following this question, I propose to build a glossary of common (and not so common) cooking terms in english, so everybody can communicate on the same terms and resolve disagreements or misunderstandings.

I've divided words according to a set of subjects and I expect that a definition will follow each word (I'll start by adding some as time permits) and hopefully an image, if one usable exists to show what it's all about.

Answer 1

Here goes a first tentative list, edit away with confidence. I'd put a definition and if possible an image next to each word.

Taking things apart

• Cutting: This is the generic term to separate things with a instrument such as a knife, there are a lot of forms to cut food, many of which will be described in what follows.

• Slicing: It's a culinary cut in which the food piece is cut in long, thin stripes (slices). It is used when the food portions should be felt in the dishes, it releases less of the flavour, but retains more of the consistency. It is done in one long pulling motion starting at the top and finishing with the knife tip on the cutting board.

_{Pic credit: Eran Finkle on flickr}

• Dicing: Is a culinary cut in which the food piece is cut in small cubes (blocks or dice). It is used to ensure even cooking or to spread the flavor uniformly in a dish. The size of the cube varies depending on the intended use and the original food item.

_{Pic credit: austinevan on flickr}

• Mincing: It's another type of cut, similar to dicing, but the food item is cut in very small pieces.

_{Pic credit: morydd on flickr}

• Julienne: A cut where the item (vegetable) is cut in very thin stripes.

_{Pic credit: little blue hen on flickr}

• Brunoise: Another type of cut producing very small cubes, first by cutting the item in julienne and then cutting each stripe many times with the knife in a 90 degrees angle with respect to the stripe. Typically used referring to vegetables like carrot and celery.

_{Pic credit: kaplanbr on flickr}

• Chopping: A specific knife motion that involves pushing away from the body with the knife tip resting on the board and the food being fed to back part of the knife, typically used with the "claw" hand to protect against cuts and aid percision.

• Puree-ing (to)

• Crushing
• Smashing

• Filleting

• Paring: (to pare) To cut food down to size, this is typically done with a paring knife and includes removing the skins from fruits and vegatables and removing non-edible bits or reshaping food for either cooking or aesthics.

• Shred

Putting things together

• Mixing
• Stirring
• Shaking
• Blending
• Kneading
• Combining
• Whisking
• Fold; Fold in

Heating things

• Cooking
• Grilling
• Roasting
• Frying
• Sautee-ing (to)
• Deep frying
• Shallow frying
• Sweat-ing (to)
• Braising
• Steaming
• Parboiling
• Poaching
• Baking
• Simmering
• Bain-Marie
• Barbecue
• Toasting (to)
• Temper (to)
• Stir-fry
• Pan-fry
• Blind bake

Cooling things

• Freezing
• Refrigerating
• Cooling
• Resting

Miscellaneous

• Frosting
• Topping
• Sauce
• Stock
• Suet
• Broth
• Soup
• Deglaze
• Roux
• Dough
• Aioli
• Reduce
• Marinate

Measurement units

• Teaspoon: This is about 5 millilitres. Typically you actually use a real teaspoon, like

_{Pic credit: buddyat40 on flickr}

• Tablespoon: This is exactly 3 teaspoons or about 15 millilitres. You typically use a real tablesppon, like

_{Pic credit: blentley on flickr}

• Cup
• Pound
• Gram
• Milligram
• Millilitre
• Ounce
• Inch
• Centimetre
• Pint
• Quart
• Gallon
• Litre
• Kilogram
• Fluid ounce

Because there are so many variations, should this link to something like Cooking weights and measures

Culinary Equivalents (UK - US)

- I've put this here for now, it can be moved later.

• aubergine - eggplant
• beetroot - beet
• biscuit - cookie
• capsicum - bell pepper
• chicory - Endive
• clingfilm - plastic wrap
• coriander - cilantro
• corn flour - cornstarch
• courgette - zucchini
• demerara sugar - light brown cane sugar
• greaseproof paper - waxed paper
• icing - frosting
• mangetout - snow/sugar peas
• marrow - squash
• mince - ground beef
• muslin - cheese cloth
• plain flour - all-purpose flour
• powdered sugar - icing sugar
• spring onion/green onion - Scallion
• swede - Rutabaga
• tinfoil - aluminum foil
• treacle - molasses

These might be useful, too

• slow cooker - crock pot
• casserole - dutch oven
• grill - broiler
• hob - cooktop

Answer 2

i don't mind editing this here but shouldn't most of these be linkable questions on the main site? I mean, How do you properly parboil or what is the diffrence between a chop and a dice seem like exactly the kind of questions that we are trying to put together here.

Answer 3

As I just posted on the main (non-meta) site in a comment to Kev's reply to my question on language differences:

If you said to make a full fledged multi-lingual thesaurus, sure, but a glossary, especially one edited by multiple people is more likely to lose the subtlety of differences in languages; when the words are homonyms, it's more obvious, but polysemous terms when in one culture the term isn't as all-encompassing as another starts getting tricky. A thesaurus would also help track relationships and a multi-lingual one could track preferred terms for different cultures.

(if it's not obvious ... I hold a degree from a library school, although it's in information management, not library science).