CULINARY TERMS FRENCH TO ENGLISH


These Culinary terms are very important for the Hospitality students who are pursuing their career in Food Production department. Reference from Modern Cookery by Thangam Philip and from the other sources.

CULINARY TERMS FRENCH TO ENGLISH


Abats : Butchers supplies as heads,hearts, liver, kidney,etc.

Aiguillettes : Thin slices of breast (of poultry) cut lengthwise.

A la: Meaning merely, " in the style of".

A la broche Roasted in front of a fire on a spit or in a Dutch oven.

A la carte: Each dish is ordered and priced individually.

A la diable: The French way of saying "devilled". In other words, any very hot or highly seasoned dish.

A la francais: Dishes that are prepared in the French way.  

Aperitif: A cocktail or other drink served before a meal to stimulate appetite.            

Appetizer: First course of the meal or a titbit served before a meal.
                   A drink such as sherry, cocktail, etc.

Aspic: A transparent savoury jelly, generally made of seasoned meat stock. It is used as a garnish meat or fish, or to make moulds of meat, fish or game.

Au bleu: Applied to fish cooked in fish stock with wine added.

Au four: Baked in the oven.

Au gras: Rich. Applied dishes with the meat in a rich garvy.

Au gratin: Any dish covered with the sauce, breadcrumbs or cheese and afterwards baked or grilled. The food is served from the dish in which it is cooked.

Au maigre: Opposite to au gras. Applied meatless or Lentil dishes.   

Au naturel:  Simply cooked food, or food served raw such as oysters.

Baba: A light yeast cake, usually soaked in rum or spirit.

Bain-marie: A large shallow pan to hold water in which several small saucepans can be heated without their contents boiling. An alternative to the double saucepan, but often used to keep cooked food warm.

Bake, to : to cook by dry heat usually in an oven.

Barbecue: Meat basted with a highly seasoned sauce, e.g. lamb basted with hot red-currant sauce.

Barquette: A boat shape pastry tartlet.

Baste, to: To spoon melted fat or liquid over food during cooking to keep it moist. 

Batter: A mixture of flour and liquid such as milk, egg, etc. of such consistency that it can be beaten or stirred. Used to coat foods for frying or as pancakes, etc. May be sweet or savoury.

Bearnaise:  A rich, sauce resembling a Hollandaise sauce made from butter, egg yolk and vinegar and flavoured with pepper-corns, shallots, cheveril and tarragon.

Beat:, to: To mix air with food by vigorous motions; also used to make a mixture smooth and free from lumps. A wooden spoon is best for best of beating thick mixtures; an egg-whisk for thin ones. 

Bechamel: A rich white sauce.

Beignets: Pancake batter fried in deep fat or fritters of different kinds.

Beurre noire: Browned butter.

Beurre mannie: Equal quantities of flour and butter used for thickening sauces.

Bisque:  A rich, thick, cream soup, usually made from shell fish, e.g. lobster. 

Blend, to: To combine two or more ingredients.

Blanch, to:  Literally to whiten, but used here to mean dipping food into boiling water for a few moments and then into to cold to remove skin. To blanch almonds, boiling water is poured on them to whiten them and to remove the skins.

Bombe glance: A mould lined with one kind of ice cream and then filled with ice cream of a different flavourings.

Bonbon: Sugar confectionery-- sweets.

Bouchees: Small patties of light pastry sufficient for one mouthful.

Bouillon: Unclarified broth or stock made from fresh meat.  

Bortsch: Russain soup containing beetroot.

Bouquet garni: A small bunch of mixed herbs used for flavouring soups, swets, etc. Ideally, this should consist of a sprig each of parsely, thyme, basil, marjoram, with a bay leaf and a strip of lemon peel, tied together with cotton. It must always be removed before the dish is served. When fresh herbs are unobtainable, dried herbs tied in a piece of muslin may be used instead.

Brioche: Verylight French rolls.

Broil, to:  To cook by exposing food directly to the heat: used synonymously with grill.

Browning:  A substitute added to stews and gravies to darken them.

Brunoise fashion: To cut a product into small dices.

Brush, to: A thin, even coating of beaten egg or milk applied to pies, buns, etc., immediately before they are put in the oven. It gives the pastry or buns a glossy appearance and help it to brown more quickly and deeply. Pastry brushes are sold for this purpose. Dried egg is especially useful for brushing, as a very small quantity can be mixed instead of whole egg.

Cafe au lait:  Coffee with milk (white coffee).

Canapes:  Small pieces of toast, fried bread or pastry on on which little savouries
 are served.


Carte de jour: Menu for the day.

Cannelons:  Small pastry rolls filled with mince. (Italian).

Capon:  A castrated male chicken. It grows large and has tender meat.

Caramel: A substance made by heating sugar until it turns dark brown. Used for coating moulds, flovouring dishes, etc.

Caramelize:  To heat sugar until it turns brown.

Casserole:  A baking dish with a well-fitting lid used for cooking stews, etc., in the oven. Usually made of fireproof earthenware or glass, or of heavy enamel. The food is usually served from the casserole.

Cassolette:  A kind of hot hors d' oevre moulded to the shape of a small drum.

Caviare:  Salted roe of sturgeon or similar fish.

Cepes:  A kind of mushroom.

Cereals:  Grains, such as wheat including semolina, oats, barley, rye, rice, etc.

Charlotte:  A sweet made of alternate layers of fruits and either breadcrumbs or slices of bread and butter.

Chaudfroid: A cold sauce used for coating meat, game or fish.

Cheese fondue: Grated cheese melted in white wine, seasoned with pepper and flavoured at the last minute with little kirsch.

Chiffonade: Mince of sorrel, lettuce, etc. Wash the leaves, remove veins, roll and cut into fine strips with a sharp knife.

Chinios: A conical shape.

Chippolata: A kind of small sausage.

Choux: A kind of pastry. Used for such things as cream buns and eclairs.

Chowder: An American soup made with pickled pork, shellfish, fish, potatoes, and the other vegetables.

Cisel: Finely chopped vegetables.

Coat, to: To cover with a thin layer.

Compote: Fruit stewed in syrup.

Condiments: Spices and seasonings.

Confiture: Jam or fruit preserves.

Congalaise: Garnish of poached oysters and shrimps cohered with normade sauce.

Consistency: The thickness or texture of mixture, such as cake or batter mixture.

Consomme: A light-coloured clear soup.

Cotelettes: Cutlets

Coupe: A cream or water ice served with fruits.

Court-bouillon: A well flavoured cooking liquor for fish.

Cracking: The rind of roast pork.

Crepe: Pancakes.

Croissants: French rolls, crisp and light.

Croquettes: Left-over meat, fish, poultry or game, finely minced and rolled into small sausages shapes. These are coated with egg whites and bread crumbs and fried to golden brown.

Croutes: Ovals or rounds of fried breads.

Croutons: Bread cut in small dice or fancy shapes and fried or toasted. Used as a garnish for serving with soup.

Cuisse: Leg of poultry.

Custard: A cooked or baked mixture made of milk and eggs, it may be served as dessert. if served as an entree it may be falvoured with cheese, fish,etc.

Cut and Fold method: To mix flour very gently into a mixture.

Dariole: A small Cup Shaped mould.

Darne:  A middle size of Fish.

D'uxelle: A mixture of parsely, mushroom and shallots used for flavoring sauces and purees or as a forcemeat.

Ecarlate: Salted meat is said to be a l'ecarlate when it is covered with a coat of red jelly.

Eclair: Choux pastry filled with custard or cream. can be coated with chocolate.

Emince: Finely sliced or shredded.

Entree: A dish served in the first part of a dinner, usually a made-up dish with sauce. Or it can be the main dish of a less formal meal.

Entremets: Cold or Hot sweets.

Escalopes: Thin slices of meat dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and then fried.

Estouffade: Brown Stock.

Espagnole: A rich brown stock.

Farce: Any kind of stuffing.

Fennel: A fragrant herb, can be used for flavouring sauces is also saunf (also the part of mukhwaas) in hindi.

Fillets: Fish with bone removed. Undercuts of veal or beef. Slices from the breast of a bird.

Flan: A pastry case made in a flat tin and afterwards filled with sweet or savory mixture.

Flute: a long crisp roll of bread ( french) used to garnish soups or to serve with soup.

Forcemeat: Savoury stuffing.

Frangipane : Confectioner's custard.

Frappe: Sweetened fruit juice, half frozen.

Fricandelles: Braised game or meat in very small pieces.

Fritters: Fruits, meat vegetables or fish coated with batter & fried (deep fried).

Frosting: A cooked or uncooked sugar icing used to cover & decorate the cakes, etc.

Fumet: A kind of essence extracted from fish, game, etc.

Galantine: Cooked meat that has been boned, pressed into a mould with jelly & served cold.

Galette: A large quoit made from puff paste or short paste.

Garnesh: To decorate.

Garniture: Decoration.

Gateau: This can be cake, an ice cream, or anything made in the shape of a cake and lavishly decorated.

Gelatine: A product made from refining cow's hoofs. Used for jellies . Sold either granulated or in sheets. The strength varies with each brand. Allow from 1/2 oz. to 3/4. to each pint of liquid. 

Giblets: The heart, liver and gizzard of poultry. Used to make gravies, soups, and pies.

Gild, Gliding, Gilded: To cover an object with beaten eggs by means of a brush.
Or can also be framed: To give a golden sheen to objects by means 
                                      of heat.

Glace: An ice.
Glace: To make smooth or glossy with icing or jelly. Also crystallized or frozen foods.

Glaze: Meat glaze is made by reducing (by boiling) stock or gravy to the cosistency of jelly. It is used for improving the appearance of cold meats,etc. Sugar and water glaze is brushed over fruit pies, buns,etc., when they are taken from the oven, to improve their space appearance. Egg and water galze is brushed on to savoury pies, buns, etc., before they are put in the oven.                

Goulash: Hungarian meat stew, flavoured with paprika.

Haggis: A kind of bag pudding, made in Scotland, from liver, sheep's head, etc., finely minced and mixed with oatmeal, herbs,etc.

Hash: A made-up dish of meat that has been diced or minced. Usually a way of using "leftovers".

Hollandaise: A rich sauce of Dutch origin made with butter, or cream, egg yolks and lemon or vinegar served hot or cold with many kinds of vegetables or fish.

Hors d' oeuvre: Small savoury titbits, usually cold, served as an appetizer at the beginning of a meal.

Indienne: A dish served in the Indian manner.

Infusion: The liquid extraction after siping a substance such as coffee, tea, herbs, etc.

Jardiniere: Garnish of vegetables.

Julienne: Vegetables/Food cut into long strips. A clear soup of this name contains finely shredded vegetables.

Junket: Milk coagulated by the addition of rennet. This makes a very light and digestible sweet. It can be served with fruits, and is a valuable nursery food.

Jus: Gravy

Kabab: Small pieces of meat fixed on a skewer, brasied or curried.

Kedgeree: Indian dish of cooked fish, often salt or smoked, with rice, eggs, etc. Sometimes curried.

Kirsch: A favourite drink of the Continent is cafe kirsch; this is made with half a cup of black coffee and half a cup of cherry brandy. Also cherry cordial.

Knead, to: To work a dough lightly by bringing the outside of the dough into the centre, using the knuckles of the hand.

Kromeskies: Croquettes dipped in an yeast batter and fried.

Langoustine: A small variety of spinny Lobster.

Laision: Mixture of eggs and cream used for thicking white sauces and sopus.

Lard : To place strips of fatty substance such as fat bacon over the top of lean meat or on the breast dry bird.
           To run strips of fat bacon through lean meat with the larding needle.

Macaroons: Small cakes made from almond paste, coconut,etc.

Macedoine: A mixture, usually consisting of vegetables or fruits.

Maitre d' hotel: A piquant sauce or butter flavoured with parsley and lemon.

Marinade: A mixture of vinegar, or wine, oil, herbs, spices, etc., in which fish or meat
 (and vegetables/paneer) is soaked before cooking to improve flavour & texture.

Marinate: To soak meat or fish or veggies/Paneer in a marinade.

Marjoram: A lemon-scented herb.

Marzipan: A sweet or icing made of ground almonds bound to a paste with egg.

Mask to: To coat a dish with sauce or line a mould with jelly.

Matignon: A mixture of finely minced carrot, celery, onion, ham, thyme & crushed bayleaf used to cover joints or poultry before being roasted or cooked to impart a good flavour.

Mayonnaise: A thick sauce made of egg yolks, oil, vinegar, mustard, etc. Used as a
dressing for salads of all kinds. It can also be used in sandwiches, Burgers, pizzas.

Menu: A list of the dishes served at a meal; bill of fare; List of fare.

Meringue: A mixture of stiffly beaten egg white & sugar, often used as a garnish when browned in the oven, or it can be made into small sugar cakes and afterwards filled with cream.

Mignonette pepper: White peppercorns, coarsley ground. 

Minestrone: Italian soup with many vegetables and macaroni added.

Mirepoix: Roughly cut onions, carrots, celery and a sprig of thyme & bayleaf.

Mise-en-place: (Means: Putting in Place) The preparation and layouts that are set up and used by line cooks at their stations in a commercial or restaurant kitchen.

Mocha: A flovouring usually made with a coffee infusion.

Mousse: A sweetened dessert with whipped cream as a base, often stabilized with gelatin and chilled in a mold - chocolate mousse.
 OR
A light spongy dish, made with sweetend and flavoured cream, then whipped & frozen. It can also be made with the mixture of meat, vegetables,etc., mixed with gelatine. 

Mousseline: Same as Mousse but moulded in small quantities at a time enough for one person.

Muffin: A drop batter baked in small individual moulds and eaten hot with butter.
OR
A flat circular spongy bread roll made from yeast dough and eaten split, toasted, and buttered.
OR
A  small quick bread made with flour or cornmeal, eggs, milk, etc., and baked in a pancontaining a series of cuplike molds.

Navarin: Mutton or lamb stewed with turnips.

Noodles: Aflour paste served with small fancy shapesor in thin stringlike tubes. Often fried in Chienese fashion.
OR
A very thin, long strip of pasta or a similar flour paste, eaten with a sauce or in a soup.
(can be eatten in boiled or fried form)

Naugat: A sweet of a fairly rich kind made with almonds, sugar, nuts, cherries and honey.

Pailles: Potato straws.

Panada: A thick paste of flour and liquid or flour and butter with a little liquid used to bind together ingreadients which would fall apart by themselves.

Paner, to: To egg and breadcrumbs.

Parboil: To boil the food until only partly cooked.

Pare,to: To peel.

Parfait: Ice cream served in a tall glass and decorated with a variety of nuts and fruits.

Parmesan: A very hard cheese made in Italy from cow's milk. Used mainly for cooking.

Pate: Pie, pastry or raised pie, or a paste.

Paysanne: To cut into even, thin pieces, triangular or round or square.

Pimento: Red or green pepper pods used in salads or often as colorful garnish.

Piquante: Subtly falvoured, usually the word is applied to mustard or a sharp sauce.

Pistachio: Green coloured nut kernels. Used as a garnish.

Plat du jour: Special dish of the day.

Pluck, to: To remove feathers from poultry and birds.

Poach, to: To cook just below boiling point in hot liquid in an open pan.

Poel: Roasts done entirely or almost entirely in butter. It is a simplified process of old cookery. The joint or poultry is first fried and coated with thick layer of matignon, wrapped in slices of pork fat and covered with butter paper or aluminium foil and cooked in the oven. It is basted with melted butter.

Potage: A nourishing broth or soup.

Pot-au-feu: A beef soup made with vegetables, and poured over French bread or toast.


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