1. Gently cooking while partially submerged in liquid
   Cooking under high, intense heat
2. Baking uncovered
   Cooking submerged in flavored liquid

Braise is a French term, and while most often you hear about meat being braised, it can be done to vegetables as well. The dish is often heated first by sautéing or searing it, and then it's finished in a braising liquid.

1. Over done
   Cooked in a sauce
2. Tender and firm but not hard
   Unsalted

Ideally, you want your pasta to be "al dente" because it is tender and slightly firm but not hard. This is pasta that is perfectly done, as opposed to overdone — which is no longer firm — or underdone — which may still have crunch. It's Italian for "to the tooth."

1. A high fat content
   Overcooked
2. With cheese
   In the Greek style

Food served a la grecque is served in the Greek style, which is to say it was made with the common Greek ingredients, like lemon and olive oil, as well as specific seasonings and perhaps even vegetables common to Greek cuisine.

1. Whip lard into a batter
   Cook with moist heat
2. Cover meat with a layer of fat
   Cook in an oven

Barding is what you call it when you cover meat with a layer of fat. That may sound unappealing, but it's also the term used for when you thoroughly wrap something in bacon, which means barding is more popular than people realize.

1. It's ready to eat.
   It was boiled until it was partially cooked.
2. It was steam heated.
   The water was heated but not hot enough to boil

Parboiling is a method of preparing not just rice but vegetables and other ingredients. The food is boiled until it is only partially cooked but not fully cooked. Afterwards it is usually finished in some other manner.

1. A technique for pie-making
   A lemon oil
2. A light meringue
   Finely chopped or shredded herbs or veggies

You would use the technique known as a chiffonade for leafy vegetables and herbs, to finely slice them into long and thin strips. Though rare, you can also use this technique with something like an omelette by rolling it up and slicing it.

1. Quickly boil it, and then immerse it in ice water.
   Trim it.
2. Lightly fry it in oil.
   Boil until it gets soft.

Blanching is almost always done to vegetables, but you can also do it to fruit in some cases. It involves a very quick dip in boiling liquid that will brighten the color and lock in flavor but then putting it quickly in an ice bath to stop the cooking process.

1. A soup
   A whipped dessert
2. A thick type of fruit or vegetable-based sauce
   A pan for frying

A coulis is made from a puree of either fruits or vegetables and, as such, can be either sweet or savory. It can be used as a sauce for meats and vegetables, as an entree, or it can be a garnish as part of a dessert as well.

1. Mixing sugar and butter to make caramel
   Cook until the natural sugars have browned
2. Slightly burn
   Fry with a small amount of butter

Caramelization occurs when sugars brown. You can add sugar to make this happen or, as with onions, allow the natural sugars to brown on their own by cooking at a low heat with oil. Anything with some amount of sugar can technically be caramelized.

1. Separating them
   Combining them without stirring or changing their consistency
2. Mixing them to incorporate air
   Mixing them to remove pockets of air

Folding is a much more gentle mixing technique than string or beating and is used when you want to combine without stirring or changing the consistency. For instance, if you want to fold flavoring into a whipped cream, you wouldn't want to stir or beat at the risk of overworking the whipped cream.

1. You add hot and cold ingredients together
   You add fat to a mixture
2. You merge liquid and solid
   You whisk together two things that don't normally mix

You emulsify two things when you mix ingredients that don't normally mix, most often something like oil and vinegar, like in salad dressing. The two substances will normally separate immediately so an emulsification forces a blend, even if it's only a temporary one.

1. To thin slice
   Remove seeds from a fruit or vegetable
2. To remove the bone
   To remove the vein from a shrimp

The vein in a shrimp is actually the little creature's digestive tract, which means it's decidedly unclean and undesirable. All shrimp and prawns should be deveined before cooking and serving.

1. Soak in flavored liquid
   Break off the tips and remove the string
2. Split lengthwise
   Dice unevenly

Effiler is a very French term that refers to a specific preparation for beans. The tips are to be snapped off with your fingers and that long, string-like thread that can get stuck in your teeth is pulled away.

1. Deep fry in low-temperature oil
   Mash with a fat, like sour cream
2. Add alcohol, like cognac, to a pan hot enough to cause the alcohol to make a flame
   Whip until frothy

Flambé in most people's minds means fire, and that is essential to how it works. Most flambé happens in the pan when alcohol is added and then ignited to burn the alcohol off and leave the flavor. It can also be done table side to something like a dessert.

1. Folding, pushing, and working dough to mix and produce gluten
   Patting and warming dough to promote yeast growth
2. Mixing the ingredients together
   Adding dry to wet ingredients in proper proportions

Kneading dough is a much more scientific process than some people realize as the process of pushing and pulling the dough causes two proteins called glutenin and gliadin to form gluten which is essential for the texture in most breads.

1. Finely slice
   Grate it
2. Roughly chop
   Cut into strips

Concasse refers to a very rough chop of something that has been peeled and seeded, often a tomato. The tomato you'll find in a bruschetta is a type of concasse tomato. It can be a small or large chop, depending on your needs.

1. Heavily spice
   Cook with a sauce
2. Inject with flavor
   Soak in a flavored liquid

Typically meat is what you would marinate, but the process works with some vegetables as well. It involves letting the meat soak in a favored liquid for an extended period of time so that the tissue is infused with flavor.

1. Cook low and slow
   Cook over indirect heat
2. Season with a heavily spiced mixture
   Moisten food with some type of liquid or fat as it cooks.

Most of us knowing basting from a holiday turkey. The process involves moistening the food with its own juices or maybe a marinade of some kind as it cooks. A baster will allow you to suck up the hot liquids and squirt them back over the food.

1. Cut into thin strips
   Poach in spiced liquid
2. Fry at low heat
   Make into a salad

Julienne is a type of knife cut that results in long, thin strips of whatever you're cutting. To be done properly, the food should all be cut to the exact same thickness and length when it's done for a uniform appearance.

1. Cook in hot oil
   Boil eggs out of the shell
2. Cook quickly in liquid
   Submerge food in hot but not boiling liquid to cook

Poaching is very similar to boiling but the difference is temperature. Poaching requires hot water of around 160–180°F but not boiling. It's a more gentle way of cooking, which is why it's suitable for something like a poached egg.

1. Grate the food
   An extremely fine, uniform cut
2. Mashed into a paste
   Chop roughly

A mince is finer and smaller than a chop or even a dice, and is essentially as small as you can get something when you use a knife. A food processor could also be used to mince ingredients. Any more extreme chopping could turn it into a paste.

1. Dump some out.
   Lower the temperature.
2. Cook it down until it is more concentrated.
   Make it thinner with water.

Reducing is how sauces build flavor. It allows the sauce to cook down and concentrate, making it more flavorful by boiling off water and leaving more of whatever flavor compounds are present. It needs to be done carefully lest it reduce too far and become inedible.

1. Cook small pieces over high heat in a small amount of oil
   Cook in a wok
2. Cook over low heat in a lot of oil
   Brown on one side and then the other

People will often use the words "fry" and "sauté" interchangeably. A proper sauté requires small pieces being cooked in a small amount of oil over high heat to allow for browning. The food should be moved or tossed to allow even browning, and the pan will often be deglazed to make a sauce at the end.

1. Burn
   Getting grill marks
2. Cooking the fat out
   Cooking at high temperature to form a brown crust

Searing meat involves getting a brown crust to form at high temperature. It's not caramelization because that requires sugar, A sear in meat is the result of something called the Maillard reaction that happens when amino acids and certain natural sugars reduce in heat.

1. Cooked just below boiling
   Left on low heat to stay warm
2. Boiled at low heat
   Cooked in a sauce

Once food boils, the directions will often tell you to reduce to a simmer. This is a temperature just below a boil that allows it to continue cooking more gently without risking the food getting too tough or breaking apart like it might at a constant boil.

1. Ingredients are whipped by hand
   Flatten the ingredients
2. Fill and then roll pastry or meat
   Gelatin is added to a sauce

Roulades are generally prepared in one of two ways. One is a meat-based entrée, like a thin steak wrapped around a filling, and the other is a dessert made with cake wrapped around a whipped cream or jam filling like you'd find in a Swiss roll.

1. Stir it quickly
   Use an electric mixer
2. Roll it thin
   Pierce it with needles

Jaccarding is also called needling, and it's a process used to tenderize meat. There are generally two ways to tenderize meat. This is one of the mechanical ways as opposed to chemically, which is done with marinades.

1. Bread and fry the food
   Soften or break with a liquid
2. Finely dice
   Shred on a mandolin

Recipes that require you to macerate an ingredient need you to soften or break them with a liquid. Macerated cherries, for instance, are usually cherries that are coated in sugar or maybe left in an alcohol or other liquid to bring out more flavor.

1. 1/16 teaspoon
   Just a dash
2. A spoonful
   Whatever you like

A pinch is about as vague a measurement as you can get and comes literally from the amount of salt you can pinch between two fingers. That said, it does have a corresponding measurement which is roughly 1/16 teaspoon.

1. Cook with grill marks
   Cook over charcoal
2. Cook to nearly burnt
   Barbecue

If sear means to brown, and burn means to thoroughly blacken, then char is in the middle. It's when food is almost burnt but hasn't quite gotten there yet. It shouldn't have a bitter taste to it, but there should be some dark color. This is ideal for a barbecue steak, for instance.

1. Braise with protein
   Dice meat and cook it in a flavored liquid
2. Slow cook in oil at low temperature
   Steam with herbs

You've probably heard of duck confit, but you can confit pretty much anything. It involves cooking in oil but at a lower temperature than frying. It's a slow cooking method and should take a bit of time to do properly.

1. Coat it in a dry mixture
   Dunk it in oil
2. Cook it under sauce
   Cook while stirring

A dredge is a dry mixture used to coat something like chicken, other meats and even vegetables. Typically, you'll first dip the meat in something like milk or an egg mixture, then coat it in flour, seasoning, breadcrumbs or whatever else, to form a crust when it cooks.

1. A red sauce
   A simple cheese sauce
2. A spice mix
   A sauce base or thickener made from flour and fat

Any dish, like a stew or even home made mac and cheese, will require a roux which is typically a fat, like butter, and flour. The mixture will thicken, and then when something like milk is added, it becomes the base for a creamy, thick sauce. Add cheese and it's a mac and cheese sauce.

1. Hit them with the blunt side of a knife
   Turn into paste
2. Crush
   Bend but don't break

You can bruise many herbs, including lemongrass, to release their natural aroma and flavor by hitting them with the blunt side of a knife. It releases oils that make a dish more aromatic and flavorful than if the herbs weren't bruised.

1. Acid needs to be reduced.
   It's cooked not with heat but an acid, like vinegar.
2. Acid needs to be added.
   It's too sweet.

You acidulate a dish by adding an acid such as vinegar or lemon juice — not enough to overpower the other flavors, rather as a way to sharpen the other flavors and make them pop more than they would otherwise. It can also help tenderize meats.