Combining Ingredients
This page is to capture the meanings of all the terms related to how ingredients are combined:
- stir
- This generally applies to mixing with a spoon - if the thing you are mixing is a batter, use a wooden spoon. If used with other implements (e.g. "stirred with a fork") it implies a fast circular motion.
- blend
- This can be an alternate to stir, but does not require a spoon. In Quick Breads recipes, dry ingredients and wet ingredients are often blended with a fork. This introduces a tiny bit of air into the batter and helps it mix faster with less gluten development than a spoon. (Is this right? It sounds right...) It implies slightly more vertical motion than "stir".
- whisk
- Use a whisk to stir very quickly and introduce as much air as you can. "Whisk" is often used to mix heavy ingredients into much lighter ingredients so that the heavier element is incorporated but the batter doesn't lose too much air.
- beat
- This has several meanings, depending on context. An "egg, beaten" or "beaten egg" in the ingredients list means that the egg has been stirred with a fork until the yolk is broken and mixed into the white. "Beat until soft peaks form" means that an egg white should be beaten with a mixer or beaters until small peaks form when the beaters are stopped and pulled away from the mixture. "Beat until stiff peaks form" means that an egg white should be beaten with a mixer until large peaks form that almost stop drooping at their tips. When used in reference to batter, it generally means that the cook should use a very fast motion or an electric beater. The purpose of "beat" is to introduce air into the batter.
- cut in
- Hard ingredients are "cut in" to dry ingredients in some biscuit recipes. This means that the hard fat is dropped into a bowl of dry ingredients and cut into pieces in the bowl using a pastry cutter. This technique gives the cook the ability to define the size of the pieces of fat and ensure they all get covered in the dry ingredients before liquid is added to the mixture.