Reg in slippers
Well-Known Member
render
Words that baffle the amateur cook
- Thread starter mrsfran
- Start date
boozybirdie
New Member
Making cocktails I was told to 'muddle the raspberries', how the fuck is a normal person meant to know that muddling means to gently squash them 
secretsquirrel
Respectable married lady
How exactly is a jus different from bloody gravy/sauce?! 
mrsfran
Well-Known Member
Okay, here are a couple of the ones I've done so far. bear in mind that I am not looking for the Ultimate Definition, just a clear, simple guide to what I mean when I use these terms.
Reduce
Reducing a liquid means just what it sounds like – making what there is smaller. You do this by simmering or boiling the liquid so that the water evaporates. This concentrates the liquid so it has more flavour. It’s not an exact science, so if a recipe says “reduce by half”, you simply simmer or boil it until you think there is half as much liquid as there was in the beginning.
When making stock, it can be useful to reduce the liquid right down if you’re not going to use it straight away because it saves room in your fridge or freezer. When you want to use the stock you can then add water to bring it up to its former concentration. For example, if you’ve made 500ml of nice stock and then reduced it by half so that it’s 250ml, when you want to use it you add 250ml of water to restore it to the right concentration.
Al dente
This means, literally, “To the teeth”. What it means in practice is that when you bite into it, it should still be slightly firm. For example, when cooking pasta, the pasta should still be slightly undercooked in the centre and should provide some resistance when you bite it. When pasta is overcooked it is soft all the way through and feels a bit soggy.
Blanching Tomatoes
To blanche tomatoes, you immerse them in boiling (or just-boiled) water for a short period (only about 15 seconds) and then immediately pop them into some cold water to stop the tomatoes cooking any further. You can then peel off the skin much easier.
What do you think?
Reduce
Reducing a liquid means just what it sounds like – making what there is smaller. You do this by simmering or boiling the liquid so that the water evaporates. This concentrates the liquid so it has more flavour. It’s not an exact science, so if a recipe says “reduce by half”, you simply simmer or boil it until you think there is half as much liquid as there was in the beginning.
When making stock, it can be useful to reduce the liquid right down if you’re not going to use it straight away because it saves room in your fridge or freezer. When you want to use the stock you can then add water to bring it up to its former concentration. For example, if you’ve made 500ml of nice stock and then reduced it by half so that it’s 250ml, when you want to use it you add 250ml of water to restore it to the right concentration.
Al dente
This means, literally, “To the teeth”. What it means in practice is that when you bite into it, it should still be slightly firm. For example, when cooking pasta, the pasta should still be slightly undercooked in the centre and should provide some resistance when you bite it. When pasta is overcooked it is soft all the way through and feels a bit soggy.
Blanching Tomatoes
To blanche tomatoes, you immerse them in boiling (or just-boiled) water for a short period (only about 15 seconds) and then immediately pop them into some cold water to stop the tomatoes cooking any further. You can then peel off the skin much easier.
What do you think?
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
Sautée confuses me - it just means fry doesn't it?
High Voltage
In the top 97% of Urban's most interesting posters
secretsquirrel said:How exactly is a jus different from bloody gravy/sauce?!
You know when you get the bill!!
Gravy - Free
Jus - How much!!!!
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
Oh, it's been done already
What about fricasée?
What about fricasée?
Sauteeing's all about moving the pan a lot isn't it. Hence sautee pans tend to have higher sides than your average frying pan, allowing you to swash the food about a little more. Frying's more static in my book - things stay in the same position in the pan and are typically turned over only occasionally.
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
What's confusing is that it is a measurement of volume rather than weighttrashpony said:
story
Gone for a Burton
the cup is a standard American measurement, as trashpony says.
But in some recipes, where things are in proportion to each other, the size of the cup doesn't matter at all.
So there's a recipe for a cake that goes something like "3 cups of flour, 2 cups of sugar, 1 cup of shortening". I'm not a baker so I don't know if my memory of this recipe is accurate. But the point is that since all the measurments are in cups, you can use any sized cup, so long as you use the same one the whole time.
Another confusing this is that, since a cup of something is the volume of the thing, powders (like flour) and fluids (like milk) and shortenings (like butter) all come out at different weights.
Google is your friend....
ETA as Orang Utan already said, while I was waffling away
But in some recipes, where things are in proportion to each other, the size of the cup doesn't matter at all.
So there's a recipe for a cake that goes something like "3 cups of flour, 2 cups of sugar, 1 cup of shortening". I'm not a baker so I don't know if my memory of this recipe is accurate. But the point is that since all the measurments are in cups, you can use any sized cup, so long as you use the same one the whole time.
Another confusing this is that, since a cup of something is the volume of the thing, powders (like flour) and fluids (like milk) and shortenings (like butter) all come out at different weights.
Google is your friend....
ETA as Orang Utan already said, while I was waffling away
pembrokestephen
New Member
250mlPingu said:
Ms Ordinary
randompointlesschemistry
Broil is
That sounds so just plain wrong (even if its right
).
In my head, 'broiling' sounds like it should involve at least some boiling water.
pembrokestephen said:
That sounds so just plain wrong (even if its right
).In my head, 'broiling' sounds like it should involve at least some boiling water.
Spion
I hear ya
tarannau said:
I harbour a theory that sauteeing has become a fashionable substitute name for frying over the past few years when so many neg connotations have been associated with the latter.
In my book there's deep frying and shallow frying and all the degrees from gentle to vigorous that can entail
