The cook dictionary
From foaming to al dente
skimming: An unsightly protein foam that develops during the boiling of soups, broths or sauces, which is skimmed off with a skimmer.
sweat: Flour is lightly roasted in fat (butter or clarified butter). The addition of liquid creates a sauce.
Scare off: A hot dish is briefly poured over with cold water after cooking: rice and noodles, so they do not stick together. Boiled eggs are quenched to make peeling easier. Roast them with cold water to form a brown crust.
deglaze: Stewed meat, gravy or roasted vegetables are doused with meat broth, water or other liquid.
al dente: Tough cooking. Pasta, vegetables or rice are only cooked until they have a solid core, so they are not too soft.
From Bardieren to Blondieren
Bardieren: Cover or wrap a roast with slices of bacon so that it stays juicy and does not dry out when cooked.
Blanching: When blanching food, especially vegetables, dipped briefly in boiling water and then quenched with ice water. Vegetables get their color through blanching, it stays crisp and longer lasting. Tomatoes are easier to skin. The surface of meat takes on blanching a whitish color, hence the name (French: blanchir = make white).
Blanch tomatoes:Cut out the stalk and flower tips of the tomatoes and cut the tomato skin crosswise on the other side. Immerse in bubbly boiling water for about 20 seconds. Then immediately put the tomatoes in a bowl of ice water to quench. Now the skin of the tomatoes is easily peeled off.
bleaching: Light tanning of onions, garlic etc. in hot fat.
From chili to stewing
Chili: Chili peppers actually need a leaflet: Well dosed, they make every dish special, a little too much of it, and it quickly becomes inedible. When chiling, pay attention to undamaged, crisp goods, which can be recognized by the fresh, not dried stalk. Fresh chili peppers stay in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator for a week. Never store in plastic or airtight containers. It is best to pierce small holes in the foil of the original packaging.
Fresh chili peppers should be handled only with thin rubber gloves (preferably vinyl disposable gloves from the pharmacy) because of the sharpness - the active ingredient capsaicin sits in the intermediate and septal walls - when washing and cutting or removing seeds. Beware of eye contact. If it gets too hot: do not use water, but with cold milk, yogurt or milk ice cream. This is how it works: Rinse chili peppers, halve lengthways, core seeds and cut the pods into strips.
Decanting: Transferring a wine from the bottle to a carafe.
steaming: Very gentle cooking method in which the vegetables are not cooked with water, but only in hot steam. Both minerals and vitamins remain largely intact. The food is in a sieve a few inches above the boiling water. For steaming, there are special steam cookers with matching sieve insert.
dips: Savory cheese and mayonnaise creams used to dunk appetizers, crackers, vegetables or potato chips. to dip.
stewing: Gentle preparation for fruit, vegetables or fish, in which the food is cooked in a little liquid (water, juice, wine, etc.) and with the addition of a little fat in a closed pot.
Separate from eggs until deep frying
Separate eggs:Gently beat the egg at one edge of the bowl and break apart. Alternately, slide the yolk from one half of the bowl to the other while the egg whites flow into a bowl.
Egg custard: Popular insert for soups. This is how it works: Beat 2 eggs, season with pepper and salt and mix with 1/8 l broth. Put in a well-greased dish and let simmer for 20-25 minutes on a low heat bath. After cooling, cut into strips or cubes as desired.
Farce: Savory filling for pate, fish, meat or vegetables.
astound: Cooling of drinks or food, either between pieces of ice or in the fridge.
Frappe: Ice-cold drink.
fond: The basis. Liquid that is produced when cooking food and serves as the basis for good sauces, because it contains essential valuable flavors.
fry: Cooking method in which meat, fish, potatoes, French fries or breaded vegetables are fried in hot fat. You can fry in a pot, a deep pan or a fryer.Tip: The temperature of the frying fat is correct when small bubbles form on a dipped wooden spoon handle.
Clean vegetables until gelatine dissolves
Clean the vegetables:
Mushrooms: It is usually sufficient to clean the mushrooms with a kitchen towel. Sandy 'feet' must be cut off.
Chicory: Cut off the lower third. Divide the leaves, rinse and pat dry.
Spring onions are also called spring onions or spring onions. The thick white end is used in the tender green leaves. The dark green does not taste so good raw, but it gives spice when cooking.
Cleaning peppers means removing the cores, the white partitions and the stem. Simply quarter the peppers and work with a small sharp knife.
Leek: Cut off the dark green leaves and the roots. Cut the leek bar lengthwise to the last 5 cm, press the leaves apart and rinse under running cold water.
Divide the salad apart, separating withered leaves and brown spots. Rinse the lettuce with water, place in a dishcloth and pat dry gently.
Asparagus comes in three different colors. White is the pale asparagus, which grows under the ground in the dark, violet, on the other hand, stain the heads, which have already received sunlight. Pale asparagus should be washed and peeled. This can be a potato knife, but best used as an asparagus peeler. Peeled off the top down. Cut off the lower ends. Green asparagus grows above the earth in contrast to its white or purple cousins. The bars are thinner, the taste is spicier. Wash asparagus, cut off woody ends and peel only the lower third.
glazing: Food is given a shiny surface, either through its own juice or by the addition of heated butter, sugar or honey. Tip: Slightly shake or pan the vegetables during cooking in the pan or pot to allow the coating to spread. For glazing are especially onions, carrots or chestnuts.
Dissolve gelatin: Soak the leaf gelatin in plenty of cold water and let it swell for three to five minutes. Heat some liquid (about 6 tablespoons of water or juice for 6 sheets). Remove the gelatine from the water, squeeze it carefully, add it to the liquid and dissolve with stirring. Caution: the liquid must not cook! Add the cream spoonful to the hot gelatine.
From yeast to passing
yeast makes the dough nice and airy: you let the dough "go" - this fermentation produces carbon dioxide, which increases the dough volume. For this yeast needs "food" in the form of carbohydrates (flour, sugar) and additional heat. In addition to the fresh yeast, which is only about 2 weeks in the refrigerator, there are also dried baking yeast. But also pay attention to the expiration date, the driving force will eventually be lost.
Alloy: (tie). A liquid - especially soups and sauces - is made creamy with the help of a binder (yolk and cream). With egg yolk sauce and soups become extra creamy. It is important that the egg yolk is always stirred first with some sauce in a cup and then added to the sauce (temperature compensation). After that, do not boil the sauce any more, because otherwise the egg yolk can coagulate and flocculate. The sauce is then no longer creamy.
puree means to process food to Mus: either with the blender or blender, a rammer (mashed potatoes) or a press. Fruits and vegetables are also pushed through a strainer. For mashed potatoes peeled and boiled potatoes are squeezed or crushed by a potato press. If fruits and vegetables are mashed for ice cream, sorbets, soups etc., the washed berries and fruits or cooked vegetables are finely chopped using the blender. Soft fruits and berries can also be spread through a fine-meshed sieve.
Happen: Press or brush fruits, cooked vegetables or liquids through a sieve or press through a cloth.
From poaching to Poëlieren
Poach This is called the slow Garziehen at a temperature of 75-98 degrees. The liquid must not cook anymore.
Poach eggs: Bring salted water to a boil with 1 tablespoon of vinegar. Separate the eggs one at a time into a cup or ladle and let them slide successively into the hot but no longer boiling water. After four to five minutes, lift the eggs out of the water with a foam trowel and quench with cold water. Important: The eggs must be fresh and well chilled, then keep their shape and do not break apart.
Bread: Meat or fish pieces are wrapped in breadcrumbs or grated white bread. To do this, turn the pieces first in flour, then in a lightly beaten and spiced egg and finally in breadcrumbs.
Breaded schnitzel: Whisked eggs, breadcrumbs and flour, mixed with salt and pepper, put on a plate.Thinly tapped Schnitzel from both sides first in the flour, then in the egg and finally turn into breadcrumbs and tap. Then fry the schnitzel in plenty of hot clarified butter from both sides until golden brown.
Poëlieren: Light brown. Cooking method between roast and stew. Fine pieces of meat and poultry are doused with butter and cooked in a casserole in the oven, covered.
Melt from chocolate to carving
Melt chocolate: For glazes or to cover pastries, chocolate must be melted. It's easy in a water bath: chop the chocolate into pieces and place in a bowl or cup. Place the jar in a pan of boiling water and stir occasionally. Make sure that no water gets in contact with the chocolate so that it does not become lumpy. It's easier and faster in the microwave: 100 grams of chocolate melt at 600 watts in just a few minutes.
braising: This is where fat, liquid and steam are combined: First, the meat is seared vigorously in hot fat to close the pores. Subsequently, with the addition of liquid in a closed pot or in the oven is further cooked. You can also stew vegetables such as cucumber, cabbage and leek.
Carving: Cut or split meat, poultry or fish into slices (French = Tranche). You usually use special carving forks and carving knives and a wooden carving board. The large, pointed and very sharp knife is not pressed when cutting, but only slightly pulled. When roasting, the meat is cut transversely or obliquely to the fiber. Small poultry is halved, halves are served with club and wings.
With large poultry such as goose or turkey, the clubs are separated with the adjacent meat at the hip joint, as are the wings with the breast meat in the shoulder joint. For this, the meat is cut with the knife to the bone and club / wing bent with a jerk to the side until the bones come off the meat. The joints are severed with the knife to completely detach the clubs. The breast fillet is loosened from the back with the knife or poultry shears, where the knife is cut along the breast bone and the meat is lifted off. If necessary, halve the piece lengthwise and cut diagonally into 1 cm thick slices.
From vanilla to cinnamon
natural vanilla is incomparably good and gives cakes and desserts a great taste. The best are thick, soft vanilla pods, which are offered in the supermarket or in the health food store with the spices. The best are the pods of bourbon vanilla. The name comes from the French colonial island Bourbon in Indian Ocean (today: Réunion). To get to the pith, the pods are slit lengthwise with a kitchen knife and the pith then scratched out.
zests The thin strips are obtained from the shell of citrus fruits (orange, lemon zest) or vegetables (vegetable zest). It uses a special kitchen appliance, the zester. This makes it possible to peel off the right amount of shell very quickly.
cinnamon is one of the oldest known spices and was already used in ancient times. The sticks are made of shoots of the cinnamon tree, the bark of which is inserted into each other. A distinction is made between tender, light brown Ceylon cinnamon (Kaneel) and darker, thick-shelled cinnamon from China (Kassia). In addition to this so-called bar cinnamon is also ground cinnamon in the trade.
