Glossary
151 food words explained in plain language: techniques, table customs, dietary laws and the building blocks of the world's kitchens.
Presented by ClearTrust Free for cooks, travellers and the curious.
A
- A la carte
- Ordering separate dishes from a menu, each with its own price.
- Al dente
- Cooked so that it is tender but still firm when bitten. The phrase is used mostly of pasta.
- Amuse-bouche
- A single bite-sized dish sent out free by the chef before the meal begins.
- Antipasto
- The first course of a traditional Italian meal, usually a plate of cold savoury foods.
- Appellation
- A legally protected name that may be used only for a product made in a defined place by defined methods.
- Astringency
- The dry, puckering, rough feeling in the mouth caused by tannins and similar compounds.
B
- Banchan
- The small side dishes served with rice at a Korean meal and shared by the table.
- Barbecue
- Cooking meat over fire or smoke outdoors. The word covers both quick grilling and very slow smoking.
- Basic tastes
- The five tastes the tongue detects directly: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami.
- Berbere
- The red spice blend at the heart of Ethiopian and Eritrean cooking.
- Bhog
- Food offered to a deity in Hindu worship, and the meal later served from it to devotees.
- Bhuna
- Frying spices, onions and meat or vegetables over steady heat until the mixture is dark, thick and clings to the food.
- Bitterness
- One of the five basic tastes, sharp and often unwelcome at first, found in coffee, cocoa, hops and many greens.
- Blanching
- Putting food into boiling water for a short time, then cooling it quickly in cold water.
- Braise
- Cooking food slowly in a covered pot with a little liquid, usually after browning it first.
- Brine
- Water with a lot of salt dissolved in it, used to season, preserve or ferment food.
- Buffet
- A meal where dishes are set out together and guests serve themselves.
- Bulgur
- Wheat that has been parboiled, dried and cracked. It cooks quickly and is a staple from Turkey to the Levant.
C
- Capsaicin
- The compound in chilli peppers that causes the sensation of burning heat.
- Caramelisation
- The browning of sugar under heat, which gives nutty, bittersweet flavours.
- Charcuterie
- Prepared and preserved meat products, mainly from pork, such as ham, sausage, pate and terrine.
- Chutney
- A South Asian relish, fresh or cooked, served in small amounts to sharpen a meal.
- Comfort food
- Food that gives a feeling of ease and home, often simple, filling and tied to childhood.
- Confit
- Food cooked slowly in fat or sugar syrup at a low temperature, originally as a way to keep it.
- Congee
- Rice boiled in plenty of water until it breaks down into a soft porridge.
- Course
- One part of a meal, served on its own before or after the others.
- Couscous
- Tiny granules of rolled semolina, steamed and served with stew. It is the staple of North Africa.
- Crisp and crunchy
- Textures of food that breaks sharply when bitten. Crisp is light and brittle, and crunchy is harder and louder.
- Curd
- In South Asia, milk set into a soft, sour food by bacteria. Elsewhere it is called yogurt.
- Curing
- Preserving meat or fish with salt, often with sugar, nitrates or smoke, so it dries and keeps.
- Curry
- An English catch-all word for spiced dishes with sauce from South and Southeast Asia, and for dishes inspired by them.
D
- Dal
- Split pulses such as lentils, peas and beans, and the soupy dish cooked from them across South Asia.
- Dashi
- The basic stock of Japanese cooking, most often made from kombu seaweed and dried bonito flakes.
- Deep-frying
- Cooking food by sinking it fully in hot oil, which gives a crisp outside and a moist inside.
- Deglazing
- Adding liquid to a hot pan to dissolve the browned bits left after frying or roasting.
- Dum
- Slow cooking in a sealed, heavy pot over low heat so the food steams in its own juices.
- Dumpling
- A small piece of dough, plain or wrapped around a filling, cooked by boiling, steaming or frying.
E
F
- Family style
- Serving food in large dishes placed on the table for everyone to share.
- Fast food
- Food made and served quickly, usually by chains with a standard menu.
- Fermentation
- The use of microbes such as yeasts, bacteria and moulds to change food, adding flavour and helping it keep.
- Fish sauce
- A thin, salty, amber liquid made by fermenting small fish with salt. It is a key seasoning in Southeast Asia.
- Five-spice powder
- A Chinese spice blend, usually of star anise, cloves, Chinese cinnamon, Sichuan pepper and fennel seeds.
- Flatbread
- Bread rolled or patted thin and cooked quickly. It may be leavened or unleavened.
- Fufu
- A soft, stretchy dough made by pounding boiled starchy roots or plantains. It is eaten with soup in West and Central Africa.
- Fusion cuisine
- Cooking that deliberately combines ingredients or methods from different food traditions.
G
- Garam masala
- A north Indian blend of warming spices, usually added toward the end of cooking.
- Garum
- The fermented fish sauce of ancient Greece and Rome.
- Ghee
- Butter that has been simmered until its water is gone and its milk solids are removed, leaving pure golden fat.
- Gluten
- The stretchy protein network that forms when wheat flour is mixed with water and worked.
- Grilling
- Cooking food quickly with strong, dry heat from directly above or below, often over charcoal.
H
- Halal
- Arabic for permitted. In food, anything Muslims may eat or drink under Islamic law.
- Harissa
- A hot chilli paste from Tunisia, used across North Africa.
- Haute cuisine
- The elaborate, highly skilled cooking of top French restaurants and the tradition that grew from it.
- Heirloom variety
- An old variety of crop that has been saved and handed down by growers for generations.
- Hors d'oeuvre
- A small savoury item served before a meal or at the start of it.
I
- Iftar
- The evening meal with which Muslims break the daily fast in Ramadan.
J
K
- Kashrut
- The body of Jewish religious law about which foods may be eaten and how they must be prepared.
- Kebab
- Meat grilled or roasted, often on a skewer. The word covers many dishes from the Middle East to South Asia.
- Kimchi
- Korean salted and fermented vegetables, most often napa cabbage with chilli, garlic and ginger.
- Kneading
- Working dough by pressing, folding and stretching it to develop its structure.
- Koji
- A mould grown on steamed rice, barley or soybeans, used to start many East Asian ferments.
- Kokumi
- A Japanese term for the sense of richness, body and lasting flavour in food.
- Kosher
- Fit to eat under Jewish dietary law.
L
- Lacto-fermentation
- Fermentation by lactic acid bacteria, which turn sugars into the acid that makes foods sour.
- Lamination
- Folding and rolling butter into dough many times to build thin layers that puff apart when baked.
- Langar
- The free community kitchen of a Sikh gurdwara, where anyone may eat.
- Leavening
- Anything that makes dough or batter rise by filling it with gas.
- Lenten fast
- The Christian season of fasting and restraint in the weeks before Easter.
M
- Maillard reaction
- The chemical reaction between amino acids and sugars that browns food and creates roasted, savoury flavours.
- Marinade
- A seasoned liquid or paste in which food is soaked before cooking to add flavour.
- Masa
- Dough made from maize that has been treated with lime and ground. It is the base of tortillas and tamales.
- Masala
- A South Asian word for a mixture of spices, dry or wet, and for the spiced base of a dish.
- Meze
- A spread of small dishes served together in the eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East and the Balkans.
- Mirepoix
- A French base of diced onion, carrot and celery cooked gently in fat.
- Mise en place
- Having every ingredient measured, cut and ready, and every tool to hand, before cooking starts.
- Miso
- A Japanese paste of soybeans fermented with salt and koji, used for soup and seasoning.
- Mole
- A family of thick, complex Mexican sauces made from chillies, spices, nuts, seeds and often fruit or chocolate.
- Mouthfeel
- The physical sensations a food or drink produces in the mouth, apart from its taste and smell.
N
- Naivedya
- In Hindu worship, food presented to a deity before anyone has eaten it.
- National dish
- A dish widely seen as standing for a country and its food.
- Nixtamalisation
- Soaking and cooking dried maize in an alkaline solution, usually limewater, before grinding it.
- Noodle
- Strips or strands made from unleavened dough and cooked in boiling water or broth.
O
- Offering food
- Food set before gods, spirits or ancestors as an act of worship, thanks or remembrance.
- Omakase
- A Japanese way of ordering in which the guest leaves the choice of dishes to the chef.
P
- Paneer
- A fresh, unaged South Asian cheese made by curdling hot milk with an acid.
- Pareve
- In Jewish dietary law, food that is neither meat nor dairy and may be eaten with either.
- Peasant food
- Dishes created by poor rural people from cheap, local and leftover ingredients.
- Pescatarian
- A person who eats fish and other seafood but no other meat.
- Pickling
- Keeping food in an acid liquid such as vinegar, or in brine or oil, so that it lasts and turns sharp in taste.
- Pilaf
- Rice cooked in seasoned stock, often with meat or vegetables, so that the grains stay separate.
- Pit roasting
- Cooking food in a hole in the ground lined with hot stones or coals and covered over with earth.
- Poaching
- Cooking food gently in liquid kept just below a simmer.
- Polenta
- A porridge of ground maize from northern Italy, eaten soft or left to set and then sliced.
- Prasad
- Food that has been offered to a deity and is then shared among worshippers as a blessing.
- Prix fixe
- A meal of several courses sold at one set price.
- Proofing
- Resting a yeast dough so that it fills with gas and rises before baking.
- Pungency
- The hot, sharp or biting sensation caused by chilli, pepper, ginger, mustard and similar foods.
Q
- A Taiwanese term for a springy, bouncy, pleasantly chewy texture.
R
- Ramadan fast
- The fast Muslims keep from dawn to sunset every day of the month of Ramadan.
- Reduction
- Boiling or simmering a liquid so that water evaporates, leaving it thicker and stronger in flavour.
- Rendering
- Melting the fat out of meat or fatty tissue by heating it slowly.
- Roti
- An unleavened flatbread of wholemeal wheat flour, cooked on a griddle. It is the daily bread of much of South Asia.
- Roux
- Flour cooked in fat, used to thicken sauces, soups and stews.
S
- Salsa
- Spanish for sauce. In English, it usually means the Mexican table sauces of chilli, tomato and onion.
- Sambal
- A chilli-based paste or relish from Indonesia, Malaysia and nearby countries.
- Sattvic diet
- A diet from Hindu and yogic tradition built on foods thought to promote clarity and calm.
- Sauerkraut
- Finely shredded cabbage fermented with salt until sour.
- Sauteing
- Cooking food quickly in a small amount of hot fat in an open pan.
- Scoville scale
- A scale that measures how hot a chilli is, in Scoville heat units.
- Side dish
- A smaller dish served alongside the main item of a meal.
- Slow Food
- A movement, begun in Italy in the 1980s, that defends local food traditions and unhurried eating.
- Smoking
- Flavouring, cooking or preserving food by exposing it to smoke from smouldering wood.
- Sofrito
- Chopped aromatic vegetables cooked slowly in oil as the flavour base of a dish.
- Soul food
- The traditional cooking of African Americans, rooted in the rural American South.
- Sourdough
- Bread raised by a culture of wild yeasts and bacteria instead of packaged yeast.
- Souring agent
- An ingredient added to a dish to give it sourness.
- Soy sauce
- A dark, salty liquid seasoning made by fermenting soybeans, usually with wheat, in brine.
- Spice blend
- A fixed mixture of ground or whole spices and herbs, used as one seasoning.
- Staple food
- A food eaten so regularly that it supplies a large share of a people's energy.
- Starter
- A live culture of microbes kept to begin a new batch of bread, yogurt or another fermented food.
- Steaming
- Cooking food in the hot vapour above boiling water, without letting it touch the water.
- Stewing
- Simmering small pieces of food fully covered in liquid until they are tender and the liquid thickens.
- Stir-fry
- Cooking small pieces of food quickly in a little hot oil while stirring or tossing them all the time.
- Stock
- A flavoured liquid made by simmering bones, meat, fish or vegetables in water.
- Street food
- Ready-to-eat food and drink sold by vendors in streets, markets and other public places.
- Suhoor
- The meal Muslims eat before dawn during Ramadan, ahead of the day's fast.
- Swallow
- A West African, mainly Nigerian, name for soft starchy doughs eaten with soup and swallowed without chewing.
T
- Table d'hote
- A restaurant menu offering a complete meal of several courses at one fixed price, with few choices.
- Tahini
- A smooth paste of ground sesame seeds, used widely in the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean.
- Tandoor
- A deep clay oven, heated by charcoal or wood at the bottom, used to bake flatbreads and roast meat.
- Tapas
- Small savoury dishes served in Spanish bars, usually with a drink.
- Tasting menu
- A long meal of many small courses chosen by the chef to show the range of a kitchen.
- Tempeh
- A firm cake of whole soybeans bound together by a mould. It comes from Java, Indonesia.
- Tempering
- Frying whole spices briefly in hot oil or ghee and pouring them, with the fat, over a dish.
- Terroir
- The idea that soil, climate, landscape and local practice give a food or drink its particular character.
- Thali
- An Indian meal of many small dishes served together on one round platter.
- Tofu
- A soft white food made by curdling soy milk and pressing the curds into blocks.
- Tortilla
- In Mexico, a thin round flatbread of maize or wheat. In Spain, a thick omelette of eggs and potato.
- Treif
- Food that is not kosher and so is forbidden under Jewish dietary law.
U
- Umami
- The savoury taste of broths, aged cheese, mushrooms and cured meats. It is one of the five basic tastes.
V
- Vegan
- A diet that leaves out all animal products, including dairy, eggs and honey.
- Vegetarian
- A diet without meat, poultry or fish. Many vegetarians eat dairy products, eggs or both.
W
- Wok hei
- The smoky, seared flavour that food picks up when it is tossed in a very hot wok.
Y
- Yeast
- A single-celled fungus that turns sugar into carbon dioxide and alcohol. It raises bread and ferments beer and wine.