Essential Culinary Techniques: A Comprehensive Guide

Cooking Techniques

Moist-Heat Techniques

Methods in which heat is conducted to foods by water or other liquid or by steam:

• Simmer: To cook in water or other liquid that is bubbling gently (85-96°C). Similar to poaching, the only difference is the time.
• Steam: To cook by direct contact with steam.
• Boil: To cook in water or other liquid that is bubbling rapidly, about 100°C at sea level and at normal pressure.
• Poach: To cook gently in water or other liquid that is hot but not actually bubbling (71-82°C).
• Blanch: To cook an item partially and very briefly in boiling water or in hot fat. Usually a pre-preparation technique, as to loosen peels of vegetables, fruits, and nuts, to partially cook French fries or other foods before service, to prepare for freezing, or to remove undesirable flavors.

Dry-Heat Cooking Methods

Methods in which heat is conducted to foods without the use of moisture: by hot air, hot metal, radiation, or hot fat:

Without Fat

• Griddle: To cook on a flat, solid cooking surface called a griddle.
• Bake: To cook foods by surrounding them with hot, dry air. Similar to roasting, but the term bake usually applies to breads, pastries, vegetables, and fish.
• Barbecue: To cook with dry heat created by the burning of hardwood or by the hot coals of this wood. Loosely, to cook over hot coals, such as on a grill or spit, often with a seasoned marinade or basting sauce.
• Broil: To cook with radiant heat from above.
• Grill: To cook on an open grid over a heat source.
• Pan-Broil: To cook uncovered in a skillet or sauté pan without fat.
• Roast: To cook foods by surrounding them with hot, dry air in an oven or on a spit in front of an open fire.
• Smoke-Roast: To cook with dry heat in the presence of smoke, as on a rack over wood chips in a covered pan.

With Fat

• Deep-Fry: To cook submerged in hot fat.
• Fry: To cook in hot fat.
• Sauté: To cook quickly in a small amount of fat, usually while mixing or tossing the foods by occasionally flipping the pan.
• Pan-Fry: To cook in a moderate amount of fat in an uncovered pan.
• Stir-Fry: To cook quickly in a small amount of fat by tossing cut-up foods in a wok or pan with spatulas or similar implements. Similar to sauté, except the pan is stationary.

Mixed Cooking Techniques

• Stew: To cook completely covered in a liquid, usually after preliminary browning. To cook certain vegetables slowly in a liquid without preliminary browning.
• Braise: To simmer or braise a food or foods in a small amount of liquid, which is usually served with the food as a sauce.
• Papillote: Wrapped in paper (or sometimes foil) for cooking so the enclosed food is steamed in its own moisture. (Could be categorized as moist or mixed.)
• Glaze: To give shine to the surface of a food by applying a sauce, aspic, sugar, or icing, and/or by browning or melting under a broiler or salamander or in an oven.

Steps

• Sweat: To cook slowly in fat without browning, sometimes under a cover.
• Sear: To brown the surface of a food quickly at a high temperature.
• Reduce: To cook by simmering or boiling until the quantity of liquid is decreased, often to concentrate flavors.
• Deglaze: To swirl a liquid in a sauté pan, roast pan, or other pan to dissolve cooked particles of food remaining on the bottom.