Cooking Terms
This page covers the meanings of the different terms used to describe the various ways things are heated up.
- sauté
- To cook in a frying pan over high heat in a small quantity of oil or fat while stirring with a spatula, so that the ingredients brown quickly on the outside.
- bake
- A generic term for "put in the oven at a given temperature"
- roast
- Equivalent to "bake", but used for meats rather than cakes or cookies.
- proof
- Hold at around body heat to allow yeast to rise. The environment can't be too cold, or the yeast won't rise, but it can't be too hot or the yeast will die. Around 85°F is good.
- broil
- Cook using very high temperatures (around 500°F is typical) generally using heat radiated from above the food. You put a cake in an oven but you put a steak under the broiler.
- grill
- Cook (preferably outdoors) on a metal rack suspended above hot coals.
- fry
- Cook in a frying pan, usually with a little bit of hot fat to stop the food from sticking to the pan and add flavor.
- deep frying
- Cook in a pan or special deep fryer in hot oil. The oil should be very hot (the recipe should specify a temperature), and it should be deep enough for the food to float in it. The hot oil cooks the food from the outside in.
- blanch
- The food is first boiled for a fixed, short amount of time, and then immediately immersed in cold water. This is often a prelude to removing a thin skin (blanched almonds have their skins removed using this method).