AL DENTE
Fully cooked, but left with a bite of firmness. Mostly associated with pasta cooking, but can also refer to rice or bean tenderness.

AU GRATIN 
Sprinkled with breadcrumbs and cheese, or both, and browned. The French translation means “by grating” or “with a crust”.

AU JUS
Thin sauce created from the juice of the meat you're cooking. Obtained by roasting the meat, the sauce is then reduced, seasoned and served with it.

AU SEC
Liquid that has been reduced until it’s almost nearly dry, a process often used in sauce making. Usually the "acid" component, like vinegar or wine. Reducing it adds maximum flavor.

BARDING 
Covering a meat with a layer of fat before cooking, it maintains the moisture of the meat while it cooks to avoid overcooking.

BASTE
The act of pouring melted fat or juices over meat or other food while cooking to keep it moist. Often done with a spoon in a repetitive motion.

BLANCH
Scalding something in boiling hot water for a short period of time and then refreshing it in ice cold water. Typically used for veggies, this ensures that it retains its bright color and a good firm texture.

BROIL
Normally a cooking term used in the States, broil is what we know as grilling. Basically, you preheat the hot rod or grill at the top of your oven until it gets exceptionally hot. Place the food on an oven tray under the preheated grill until it browns and has some incredible flavor.

BRAISE
Braising is an old French method of cooking meat. It uses a combination of dry and moist heat, dry being when the meat is seared at a high heat and moist when it’s gently cooked in a liquid. This cooking method is ideal with sinewy, tougher cuts of meat.

BRINING
Submerging a cut of meat into a solution of salt and water. It adds flavor, seasoning from the inside out, but it also changes the meat's physical nature. The salt in brine denatures the meat's proteins to allow the cells to retain more moisture.

BLEND
Combining two or more ingredients so that they become smooth and uniform in texture, losing their individual characteristics.

BONE
To remove the bone from meat.

BUTTERFLY
To cut it horizontally almost but not entirely in half & then to open it like a book. Typically referring to meat or poultry, this will help cook it more evenly and more quickly

CARTOUCHE
A parchment-paper lid that allows for some evaporation during braising while keeping the meat (or other food) submerged. It's a French technique that's also handy for poaching fruit and other long-simmering applications, when you want just a bit of liquid to escape.

CHINESE FIVE SPICE
The ingredients and amount of spices vary greatly from region to region and even from household to household depending on personal tastes and preference, but the most common ingredients are: Star Anise, Fennel Seeds, Szechuan Peppercorns ( or regular peppercorns), Whole Cloves & a Cinnamon Stick.

CLARIFY
Gently melting unsalted butter, allowing the milk solids & water to separate & rise. They are then skimmed out, leaving almost 100% pure butter fat.  Clarified butter tastes silkier, richer, and has a more intensely creamy, buttery taste. It also has a very high smoke point, so it is less likely to burn while cooking.

CODDLE
Cook food in water, just below boiling point. More commonly, the term applies to eggs using a device called a coddler. The low cooking temperature produces a much softer egg than if you were to boil it.

CONSOMMÉ 
A type of clear liquid that has been clarified by using egg whites and flavored stock to remove fat.

CORING
To remove the central section of some fruits, seeds and tougher material that is not normally consumed. You can buy a core tool anywhere that sells kitchen equipment.

CONFIT
Regularly recognized with duck, but can include other meats, where the meat is cooked in its own fat (or other fat if necessary) at a low heat.

CURE
A non-heated method of cooking where the food item is packed with a salt mixture and left so that the moisture draws out.

CURDLE
When egg-based mixtures are cooked too quickly and the protein separates from the liquids, leaving a lumpy mixture behind.

CUT IN
A method of blending, usually for pastry, where a fat is combined with flour. The method often refers to using a pastry blender to mix butter or shortening into the flour until the mixture is the size of peas.

DICE
A knife skill cut – the exact measurement changes but the shape is always a small square.

DOLLOP
A small amount of soft food that has been formed into a round shape. Yogurt, whipped cream and mashed potatoes are all examples of foods that can be dolloped.

DREDGING
Coating moist foods with a dry ingredient before cooking to provide an even coating.

DRESS
Meaning 1 - To coat foods (mostly salad leaves) in a sauce.
Meaning 2 - Meat, poultry & chicken butchery. Breaking them down off of their carcasses, removing the innards and sectioning the meat.

DEEP FRY
Cooking food in a deep layer of hot oil.

DEGLAZE
Adding liquid such as stock or wine to loosen bits of food that have stuck on the bottom of a pan.

EFFILER
Removing the ends and the string from green beans.

FLAMBÉ
Cooking off alcohol that’s been added to a hot pan by creating a burst of flames. The fumes are set alight and the flame goes out when the alcohol has burnt off.

FILLET
Most commonly known as a very tender cut of beef, but can also refer to the meat of chicken and fish.

FLAKE
Breaking off small pieces of food, often for combining with other foods. For example, you would flake cooked fish to combine with cooked, mashed potatoes to make fish cakes.

FRENCHING
The process of removing all fat, cartilage, and meat, from rib bones on a roast by cutting between the bones, often referring to lamb, beef, or pork rib.

GRILL
Grilling food is applying dry heat to food either from above or below. In South Africa, grilling refers to cooking food under the grill in your oven (in the States this is called broiling) or can also refer to cooking food in a pan with grill lines.

GLAZE
A glaze is a sticky substance coated on top of food. It is usually used in terms of baking or cooking meats where a marinade will be brushed over the food continuously to form a glaze.

GRATIN
A gratin is a topping that is often either breadcrumbs or grated cheese that forms a brown crust when placed under a hot grill.

GREASE
Refers to applying a fat to a roasting tray or cake tin to ensure that food doesn’t stick.

GRIND
To break something down into much smaller pieces, for example, coffee beans or whole spices.

HULL
The husk, shell or external covering of a fruit. More specifically, it is the leafy green part of a strawberry.

INFUSE
To allow the flavor of an ingredient to soak into a liquid until the liquid takes on the flavor of the ingredient.

JACQUARDING
Poking holes into the muscle of meat in order to tenderize it, also. called "needling".

JUS LIE
Meat juice that has been lightly thickened with either cornflour or any binding thickener.

JULIENNE
Refers to a knife skill cut where the shape resembles matchsticks.

KNEAD
Work dough into a soft, uniform and malleable texture by pressing, folding and stretching with the heel of your hand.

LARDING
The process of inserting strips of fat into a piece of meat that doesn’t have as much fat, to melt and keep the meat from drying out.

LIAISON
A binding agent of cream and egg yolks used to thicken soups or sauces.

MACERATE
The soaking of an ingredient, usually fruit, in a liquid so that it takes on the flavor of the liquid. Can also be used to soften dried fruit.

MARINATE
Soaking or coating food. Usually requires some time to allow the flavors to develop. It imparts lasting flavor & helps tenderize a cut of meat.

MINCE
To finely divide food into uniform pieces that are smaller than diced or chopped foods.

MISE EN PLACE
The preparation of ingredients, such as dicing onions, chopping veggies or measuring spices. Getting everything ready, before starting to cook. 

NAPPE
Coating a food with a thin, even layer.

NEEDLING
Injecting fat or flavors into an ingredient to enhance its flavor.

PAR COOKING
The process of not fully cooking food, so that it can be finished or reheated later.

PAUPIETTE
A thin, flattened piece of meat, rolled with a stuffing of ingredients i.e, vegetables, which is then cooked before served.

PANÉ
Coating in breadcrumbs.

PANADE
A mixture of starch and liquid that’s added to ground meat for hamburger patties/meatballs. Usually a mixture of bread, breadcrumbs or panko with milk, buttermilk or yogurt.

PARBOIL
To boil food only slightly, often used to soften foods like potatoes before roasting them. Helps to speed up the cooking process.

POACH
To cook in gently bubbling liquids such as a stock or a broth.

PURÉE
Cooked food, usually vegetables, that have been mashed or blended to form a paste-like consistency.

PICKLE
The process of preserving food in a brine, which is a salt or vinegar solution.

REDUCE
Simmering or boiling a liquid, usually a stock or a sauce, to intensify the flavour or to thicken the consistency.

RENDER
Using a low heat to melt the fat away from a food item, usually a piece of meat. This rendered fat can then be used to cook with.

ROAST
Dry cooking a piece of meat, where the hot air envelopes the food to cook it evenly and to allow it to caramelize.

ROUX
Flour and fat mixture cooked together, which acts as a thickener in soups, stews and sauces.

RECONSTITUTE
Restoring a dried food to its original consistency, or to change its texture, by letting it soak in warm water.

REFRESH
To halt the cooking process, usually that of vegetables after being blanched, by plunging them into ice-cold water.

SAUTÉ
Meaning ‘to jump’ in French, sauteeing is cooking food in a minimal amount of oil over a rather high heat.

SCALD
To heat a liquid so it’s right about to reach the boiling point, where small bubbles start to appear around the edges.

STEEP
Similar to infuse, steeping is the process of allowing dried ingredients to soak in a liquid until the liquid has taken on the flavor of the ingredient.

SHALLOW FRY
To cook food in a shallow layer of preheated oil.

SIMMER
Process of cooking in hot liquids kept just below boiling point.

SKIM
To remove a top layer of fat or scum that has developed on the surface of soups, stocks or sauces.

STEAM
Method of cooking food by using steam.

SEAR OR BROWN
Cooking food over a high heat until caramelization forms on the surface. This is often done before braising the food, to give it added flavor and is not usually intended to cook the food all the way through.

SWEAT
This refers to the gentle cooking of vegetables in butter or oil under a lid, so that their natural liquid is released to aid the cooking process. Often vegetables cooked this way will end up looking translucent.

SCORE
Shallow, diagonal cuts made on the surface of meat and vegetables for the purpose of rendering fat, encouraging crispiness and flavor absorption.

TEMPER
Adding a small quantity of a hot liquid to a cold liquid in order to warm the cold liquid slightly. This is often be done before adding delicate ingredients to a hot mixture, where their format may be affected. An example of this would be adding eggs to a hot mixture – in order to prevent them curdling or scrambling you would add a little of the hot mix to the eggs and incorporate before adding the eggs into the heated mixture. Another example would be adding a cornflour slurry to a hot mixture; a little of the hot mixture is added to the slurry to temper the temperature before adding the mix back to the main mixture.

TOURNER
To cut and peel ingredients such as parsnips or potatoes into a barrel-like shape. For aesthetic purposes but also to ensure that they cook properly.

TRUSS
To bind the legs and wings of a bird to its body, ensuring it maintains an even shape so that none of the extremities dry out.

ULTRA-PASTEURIZATION
Heating up milk products to 137 degrees celsius for a few seconds and chilling it down rapidly, resulting in milk that’s 99.9% free from bacteria and extending its shelf-life.

VANDYKE
To cut a zig-zag or decorative pattern around fruit or vegetables to create decorative garnishes for food presentation.

VELOUTÉ
Savory sauce in which a light stock, such as chicken or fish, is thickened with a flour that is cooked and then allowed to turn light brown, thickened with a blond roux.

WHIP
The process of beating food with a whisk to incorporate air and to increase volume.

WHISK
Using a tool called a "whisk" to incorporate air into food or to blend ingredients together smoothly.

ZEST
Removing the outer part of citrus (called the zest) either by using a grater, a peeler or a knife.