Brine - To brine simply means to salt ahead of time.Blanching them first reduces the amount of time they’d need to saute. This is a great technique to use when you’re sauteing very hard vegetables, like broccoli or cauliflower, because they would need to be sauteed for quite a while to cook through. It also preserves the color so they stay bright green. Why? Most commonly done with vegetables, blanching (and refreshing) allows vegetables to cook just enough to make them tender without getting mushy.Usually followed by “refreshing,” which means to sink the food into a bowl of ice-cold water to quickly stop cooking.

Blanch - To blanch means to flash-boil something in salted boiling water, literally just a few seconds to a few minutes.

Second, basting can add more flavor to the food by allowing it to absorb more of the flavorful liquid over time. First, it can help keep the food moist while cooking to keep it from drying out.

This liquid could be melted fat, butter, or its own juices. Baste - Basting just means to bathe a food in liquid while it’s cooking.Why? Because this gives the pasta a more pleasing feeling in the mouth, and it allows you the opportunity to cook the noodles in your sauce for a few minutes (which gives it more flavor) without overcooking.Al dente means there should be a little bit of toothsome texture left in the noodle - as in it’s 90% cooked through, but not 100%. Al dente - Usually used in reference to pasta, this terms literally means “to the tooth” in Italian.:) Beginner Cooking Terms and Definitions I’ll be creating an advanced list of cooking terms soon. I’ve compiled them all here for you in one place. Well, two places, actually - this is the list of beginner cooking terms. While there are an endless number of cooking terms to learn (this book has 850+ pages of them! – affiliate link) there are only a few you really need to know to become a better cook. These are words, phrases, and techniques that might cause confusion if you run across them while cooking. Today we’re going to talk about some of the most commonly misunderstood cooking terms you’ll see in recipes. Confusing cooking terms can even trip up pro chefs sometimes. Unknown cooking terms can cause all sorts of havoc in the kitchen.īut don’t worry. Have you ever sat down determined to cook a recipe, only to come across one or two mystery cooking terms or words that stops you cold in your tracks? Like, “sweat the onions,” “brine the meat,” or “fold the batter?” And from there, you’re totally lost.

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