Culinary Terms: What Does that Funny Word in the Recipe Mean?

Some people I know claim they can't cook. I know they can read, so why can't they cook? After all, if you can read a recipe, shouldn't anyone be able to follow the instructions and have positive results? Yet, sometimes a recipe will include a term that the culinary illiterate doesn't understand. The next time you encounter the following terms when reading a recipe, you will know what they are telling you to do.

Blanch: No, Blanch is not the next door neighbor who occasionally comes over to borrow a cup of Splenda. When you blanch something, such as a pear, you are submerging it for just a few seconds, in a large pot of boiling water. Foods are blanched for a variety of reasons, such as to remove odors, the peels, setting color, sealing juices or destroying enzymes before canning or freezing.

Bard: Bard rhymes with lard, which is poetic justice. To bard is to cover meat with a thin layer of fat before roasting. While this technique may be contrary to what many today see as healthy cooking, it is an excellent way to add moistness and flavor to lean meat.

Bruise: How does a person get bruised? Hitting usually works. It is a similar concept in food preparation. To bruise is to crush partially, to release flavor. This is a process you might use with garlic or peppercorn.

Aromatic: What does a recipe mean when it calls for this ingredient? Aromatics are vegetables used primarily to add flavor to a dish, such as onions, celery, carrots or shallots.

Deglaze: This sounds much fancier than it really is. Have you ever baked a roast, and planned to make gravy, only to discover that when the roast was removed from the oven, there was hardly any juice? To deglaze you would add water to the pan (after removing the roast), and scrape up the remaining bits that have accumulated in the pan.

Eviscerate: This sounds really icky. And if I read a recipe that calls for eviscerating anything, I will move onto the next recipe. To eviscerate is to remove the entrails of fish, fowl or other animals.

Clarify: Let me make this perfectly clear. Actually, that is what this process is all about. To clarify is to separate solids from liquids, thus making it clear. You would often hear this process applied to butter.

Macerate: the final term for today is macerate. What will you do when the recipe tells you to macerate the fruit in sugar or wine or lemon juice? Sounds rather kinky, doesn't it? Don't get carried away, this simply means to combine the fruit in the sugar, wine or lemon juice, toss together, and then let stand to absorb the flavors.

Don't let those culinary terms intimidate you. Get to the kitchen and macerate something!