Essential Cooking Terminology and Techniques

English Culinary Terms

Preparation and Mixing Methods

• Beat: To use a spoon, fork, whisk, or electric mixer to mix ingredients together, using a fast circular movement (batir).
• Blend: To combine two or more ingredients until the mixture is smooth and uniform in texture, color, and flavor (barrejar).
• Bread: To coat a food in bread crumbs before frying or baking (rebozar).
• Chill: To put food in the refrigerator for at least two hours (refredar).
• Chop: To cut into little pieces (trocear).
• Dice: To cut into small square pieces (cortar a cuadrados).
• Drain: To remove all liquid – may be done in a strainer or by pressing a plate against the food while tilting the container forward (quitar líquido).
• Grate: To scrape against the small holes of a grater, making thin little pieces (rallar).
• Grease: To coat a pan with oil or margarine so food does not stick when cooking (engrasar).
• Marinate: To soak foods in a flavorful liquid that tenderizes or adds flavor to meat, fish, chicken... (marinar).
• Mash: To squash food with a fork, spoon, or masher (aplastar).
• Melt: To use heat to make a solid into a liquid (fundir).
• Mince: To cut into very small pieces, smaller than chopped or diced (cortar trozos pequeños).
• Mix: To stir together with a spoon, fork, or electric mixer (barrejar).
• Peel: To remove the outside of a fruit or vegetable (pelar).
• Preheat: To turn your oven on ahead of time so it heats up to the temperature needed before cooking (precalentar).
• Shred: To scrape against the large holes on a grater, making long, thin pieces.
• Stir: To mix with a spoon.
• Strain: To remove solid bits from liquid.
• Wash: To clean thoroughly (lavar).
• Whisk: To use a whisk to quickly stir to get lumps out (batidor de mano).

Cooking the Food

• Bake: To cook in an oven (hornear).
• Boil: To heat on the stove until the liquid gets hot enough for bubbles to rise and break the surface (hervir).
• Broil: To cook by direct heat in the broiler of an electric or gas range (rustir).
• Brown: To cook until the color of the food changes to brown (tostar).
• Fry: To cook food in hot fat such as olive oil or butter (freír).
• Roast: The same as bake, but this term is used with cooking meat (rustir en horno).
• Sauté: To cook quickly in a little oil, butter, or margarine (saltear).
• Scramble: To mix up really well (atqvefili kvercxi).
• Simmer: To cook in liquid over low heat, just below the boiling point (hervir a fuego bajo).
• Steam: To cook food using the heat from boiling water without putting food directly in the water (cocinar al vapor).
• Stew: To cook food for a long time with liquid, in a covered pan (guisar).
• Stir-fry: To toss and stir cut pieces of food in a pan with hot oil, cooking it quickly (menear).
• Pinch: Pizca de...