Southern Cooking Glossary
The language of baking clarifies what techniques and methods are needed for each recipe. Once you learn this language, you're on your way to mastering any recipe.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Bake:
To cook in an oven with dry heat. The oven should always be heated for 10 to 15 minutes before baking.
Bake-Through Cobbler:
With this dessert, the batter goes in the bottom of the baking dish and the fruit on the top. The batter bakes up through the fruit, producing a golden brown crust.
Batter:
A mixture of flour, liquid and other ingredients that is thin enough to pour.
Beat:
To thoroughly combine ingredients and incorporate air with a rapid, circular motion. This may be done with a wooden spoon, wire whisk, rotary eggbeater, electric mixer or food processor.
Biscuit Cobbler:
A biscuit cobbler is fruit topped with rich biscuit dough, either dropped, rolled out in strips or cut with a biscuit cutter, then baked.
Blanch:
To partially cook food by plunging it into boiling water for a brief period, then into cold water to stop the cooking process.
Boil:
To heat a liquid until bubbles rise continually to the surface and break.
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Caramelize:
To heat sugar until it is melted and brown. Caramelizing sugar gives it a distinctive flavor.
Chop:
To cut into small pieces using a sharp knife, appliance or scissors.
Coats spoon:
When a thin, even film covers a metal spoon after it has been dipped into a cooked mixture and allowed to drain.
Combine:
To stir together two or more ingredients until mixed.
Cool:
To come to room temperature.
Cracklings:
The crisp pieces left after rendering pork fat. They are added to breads in many countries, and known as cracklin's in the South. They are often added to cornbread. If cracklin's aren't available, substitute with crisp cooked bacon.
Cream:
To beat one or more ingredients, usually margarine or butter, sugar and/or eggs, until the mixture is smooth and fluffy.
Crimp:
To seal the edges of two layers of dough with the tines of a fork or your fingertips.
Crisp Cobbler:
A crisp cobbler, or a crisp, is fruit sprinkled with a crumbly mixture of flour and butter (often with nuts or oatmeal) and baked.
Cutting-In:
Cut in means to distribute small chunks of a solid fat (butter or shortenings) into flour before adding the liquid (usually milk or water). You do this using a pastry blender or two knives in a crisscross cutting motion. This technique is used when baking biscuits or pastry so they are tender and flaky. When the dough is baked, the fat melts in pockets which produces the flaky layers. You can recreate the flaky biscuits available at fast-food restaurants by leaving the fat in larger pea-size chunks.
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Dash:
A measurement less than 1/8 teaspoon.
Dough:
A soft, thick mixture of flour, liquids, fat and other ingredients.
Dot:
To distribute small amounts of margarine or butter evenly over the surface of pie filling or dough.
Drizzle:
To drip a glaze or icing over food from the tines of a fork or the end of a spoon.
Dumplings:
Historically, dumplings were an economical way for cooks to extend a stew and make it more substantial. In fact, dumplings are a form of biscuit, cooked in a pot instead of the oven. There are two types of dumplings, rolled and dropped. For rolled dumplings, the dough is rolled to about 1/8-inch thickness, cut into strips or squares and gently lowered into simmering broth. Even easier to prepare, drop dumplings are made with a softer biscuit dough that's simply dropped by spoonfuls into the pot.
Dust:
To sprinkle lightly with sugar, flour or cocoa.
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Flute:
To make or press a decorative pattern into the raised edge of pastry.
Fold in:
To gently combine a heavier mixture with a more delicate substance such as beaten egg whites or whipped cream without causing a loss of air.
Glaze:
To coat with a liquid, thin icing or jelly before or after the food is cooked.
Grate:
To shred with a hand-held grater or food processor.
Grease:
To rub fat on the surface of a pan or dish to prevent sticking.
Grind:
To produce small particles of food by forcing food through a grinder.
Grits:
Grits are related to corn meal, since both are made from dried corn. Grits are just more coarsely ground than corn meal. White grits made from white corn are the most familiar; however, yellow grits made from yellow corn also are available. Whole ground grits are made by grinding the whole corn kernel, including the bran, germ and hard starchy endosperm. Quick and regular grits, the two most popular types, cook much more quickly. They're made by tempering dried corn, removing the brand and germ, then grinding the hard starchy endosperm. Instant grits are cooked and dehydrated before packaging and are prepared by adding hot water.
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Knead:
To fold, push and turn dough or other mixture to produce a smooth, elastic texture.
Lukewarm:
A temperature of about 105 degrees F. that feels neither hot nor cold.
Mix:
To stir together two or more ingredients until they are thoroughly combined.
Mix until just moistened:
To combine dry ingredients with liquid ingredients until the dry ingredients are thoroughly moistened, but the mixture is still slightly lumpy.
Partially set:
To refrigerate a gelatin mixture until it thickens to the consistency of unbeaten egg whites.
Peel:
To remove the skin of a fruit or vegetable by hand or with a knife or peeler. This also refers to the skin or outer covering of a fruit or vegetable.
Pones:
In common usage in the south a "pone" is used to describe any small individual serving of cornbread (which can include dressing) usually formed into a small oval portion. However, some people refer to a skillet of cornbread as a pone as well.
Pot Likker:
Pot Likker is the broth created when greens or beans are boiled in salted water flavored with a ham hock or bacon drippings. This unglamorous delicacy has sustained the thrifty and the hungry for generations. When the last of the pintos or turnip greens are gone, the remaining pot likker spooned over crispy cornbread makes a meal.
Proof:
To allow yeast dough to rise before baking. Or, to dissolve yeast in a warm liquid and set it in a warm place for 5 to 10 minutes until it expands and becomes bubbly.
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Red Eye Gravy:
Red Eye Gravy isn't really gravy at all. It's Southern au jus made from the browned bits left in the skillet after frying country ham. Some cooks just add water to the hot skillet. Others add water and a little coffee for color.
Refrigerate:
To chill in the refrigerator until a mixture is cool or a dough is firm.
Rind:
The skin or outer coating of foods such as citrus fruit or cheese.
Rolling boil:
To cook a mixture until the surface billows rather than bubbles.
Rounded teaspoon:
To mound dough slightly in a measuring teaspoon.
Scald:
To heat a mixture or liquid to just below the boiling point.
Score:
To cut slits in food with a knife, cutting part way through the outer surface.
Self-Rising Corn Meal:
Baking powder and salt have been blended with regular corn meal for convenient, foolproof baking. Self-rising corn meal is available made with white or yellow corn.
Softened:
Margarine, butter, ice cream or cream cheese that is in a state soft enough for easy blending, but not melted.
Shred:
To cut food into narrow strips using a sharp knife, grater or food processor fitted with a shredding disk.
Soft peaks:
To beat egg whites or whipping cream to the stage where the mixture forms soft, rounded peaks when the beaters are removed.
Steam:
To cook food on a rack or in a wire basket over boiling water.
Stiff peaks:
To beat egg whites to the stage where the mixture will hold stiff, pointed peaks when the beaters are removed.
Stir:
To combine ingredients with a spoon or whisk using a circular motion.
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Tasso:
Tasso is a highly seasoned smoked Cajun ham used for flavoring and is available in specialty food stores outside Louisiana.
Toss:
To mix lightly with a lifting motion, using two forks or spoons.
Whip:
To beat rapidly with a wire whisk or electric mixer to incorporate air into a mixture in order to lighten and increase the volume of the mixture.
Zest:
The colored outer peel of citrus fruit, which is used to add flavor. The zest is often referred to as grated peel in recipes. To create zest, choose the diagonal-hole side of a box grater—it will give you a cleaner zesting than if you use the nail-hole side—and rub lightly to avoid getting the white pith, which is bitter. For broader strips of zest, use a swivel-blade peeler or a sharp knife to cut away the peel.
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