Culinary Terms B

1.    #Baba : A light yeast cake, usually soaked in rum or spirit.
2.    BABA: A yeast raised cake, soaked in rum before serving.
3.   #BAIN-MARIE : A hot water bath, used to keep the preparations warm or for purpose of poaching and reheating.
4.    BAKE:  To cook by dry heat, usually in the oven.
5.    Bake: To cook by dry heat. usually in an oven.
6.    BARBECUE:  Usually used generally to refer to grilling done outdoors or over an open charcoal or wood fire. More specifically, barbecue refers to long, slow direct- heat cooking, including liberal basting with a barbecue sauce.
7.    Barbecue: Meat basted with a highly- seasoned sauce, e.g., lamb basted with hot red-currant sauce.
8.    #Barquette : A boat-shaped pastry tartlet. filled with chicken. vegetables. oyster, fish mayonnaise. etc.
9.    BASTE: To moisten foods during cooking with pan drippings or special sauce to add flavor and prevent drying.
10.    Baste: To spoon melted fat or liquid over food during cooking to keep it moist.
11.    BATTER: A mixture containing flour and liquid, thin enough to pour.
12.    Batter: A mixture of flour and liquid such as milk. egg. etc.. of such consistency that it can be beaten or stirred which is used to coat foods for frying. or for making pancakes. sweet or savoury.
13.    Beamalse: A rich sauce, resembling a Hollandaise sauce, flavoured with, shallots, chervil and tarragon.
14.    Beat:  To mix air with food by vigorous motion: also used to make a mixture smooth and free from lumps.
15.    BEAT: To mix rapidly in order to make a mixture smooth and light by incorporating as much air as possible.
16.    Béchamel : A rich white sauce.
17.    Beignets: Pancake batter fried in deep fat or fritters of different kinds.
18.    Bertsch: Russian soup containing beetroot.
19.    #Beurre manie :Equal quantities of uncooked flour and butter used for thickening sauces.
20.    Beurre noir : Browned butter.
21.    BEURRE NOIR: Butter heated to a dark brown colour.
22.    #Bisque :A rich, thick, cream soup. usually made from shellfish, e.g. lobster.
23.    BLANCH:  To immerse in rapidly boiling water and allow to cook slightly.
24.    Blanch:Dipping food into boiling water for a few moments, and then into cold. to remove skin.
25.    BLENC: White.
26.    BLEND:  To incorporate two or more ingredients thoroughly.
27.    Blend:To combine two or more ingredients.
28.    BOIL: To heat a liquid until bubbles break continually on the surface.
29.    Bombe glacee:A mould lined with one kind of ice cream and then filled with of a different ice cream.
30.    BOMBE:A frozen dessert.
31.    Bouchees: Small patties of light pastry sufficient for one mouthful.
32.    Bouillon : Unclarified broth or stock made from fresh meat.
33.   BOUQUET GARNI: Leek, Celery, Parsley, thyme & Bay leaf (LCPTB), usually tied together with string and mainly used to prepare soup, stock, and various stews.
34.    #BouquetGarni :A small bunch of mixed herbs used for flovouring soups, stews. etc.consisting of a sprig of herbs and bay leaf, tied together or put in a muslin cloth. It is removed before the dish is served.
35.    #BRINJAL : Egg plant (Baigan).
36.    Brioche: Very light French rolls.
37.    Broil : To cook by exposing food directly to heat: used synonymously with “grill”.
38.    BROIL: To cook on a grill under strong, direct heat.
39.    Browning : A substitute added to stews and gravies to darken them.
40.    BRUNNOISE: Cut into fine dices.
41.    #Brunoise : Very small dices of vegetables.
42.    Brush : A thin, even coating of beaten egg or fat applied to pies. buns, etc. immediately before they are put in the oven. It gives the pastry or bun a glossy appearance and helps it to brown more quickly.

Baba (au Rhum) – A dessert cake made of yeast dough containing raisins, which is soaked in rum or Kirsch syrup after cooking. The cake has its origin in the sweetened yeast cakes, called gugelhupf, of Central Europe. The Polish King Stanislaus enlivened his cakes with a liberal splash of rum and Malaga wine and called his invention Baba, for the hero of his favourite work of literature, The One Thousand and One Nights.

Bagel – A ring of non-sweet, baked yeast dough with a characteristic shiny, hard crust, the result of being boiled in water before baking. The bagel originated in Eastern Europe in the sixteenth or seventeenth century, and became popular with the Jewish community in Vienna, which began producing it commercially. The name comes from a Yiddish word meaning ‘ring’.

Baguette (French bread) – A long thin crusty loaf of bread made of bleached white flour. The baguette originated in Paris and is the every day bread of France – it appears on the table at every meal and its price is set by law.

Bake: To cook foods by surrounding them with hot dry air. Similar to roast, but the term baking usually applies to breads, pastries, cakes and rolls.

Baked Alaska: A dessert consisting of ice cream on a sponge cake base covered with meringue and browned in the oven.

Blind Baking– To partially or fully bake a pie shell before filling with a mixture, which would otherwise make the bottom soggy, or with fruit that does not need to be cooked. The pastry should be weighted with dried beans, rice, or macaroni to prevent it from rising during baking.

Baking Powder – A raising agent consisting of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), an acid (usually cream of tartar) and starch or flour, used for cooking cakes and biscuits. The bicarbonate of soda reacts with the acid to produce bubbles of carbon dioxide, causing the mixture to rise and become porous.

#Baklava – A cake consisting of alternate layers of filo pastry and chopped nuts, which is doused in syrup while still hot and then cut into triangular pieces. Of Greek origin, baklava first appeared during the time of the Ottoman Empire, about AD 1300. It is popular in the Middle East.

Banbury Tart – A small tart consisting of puff or flaky pastry filled with mincemeat (finely chopped dried and fresh fruit) and sometimes flavoured with rum and grated nutmeg. The cake originated in the seventeenth century in the English market town of Banburry.

Bannock – A flat cake originated in Scotland, made with oatmeal, barley or wheat flour and cooked on a griddle or in a frying pan.

Bap – A light, white bread roll with a soft, floury crust. It is split open and spread with butter and a filling while still hot. The bap originated in Scotland where it has been known since the sixteenth century.

#Barquette – A small, boat shaped tart made of either shortcrust or puff pastry, shaped in a small tin mould and baked blind before being filled with sweet or savoury ingredients.

Batter – A mixture of flour and liquid, which can be cooked by it-self, in pancakes, waffles, doughnuts an Yorkshire pudding, or used to coat foods such as fritters and battered fish before they are fried. The practice of dipping fish in batter before deep frying probably originated in china. In North America the term is also used for a cake mixture. The word comes from the French battre, to beat.

Bavarois (Bavarian Cream) – A dessert made from egg custard, gelatine and whipped cream, flavoured with pureed fruit, chocolate, coffee or liqueur. Its name may be linked to the numbers of French chefs who worked at the Bavarian (German) court during the time of the Wittelsbach kings (1806 to 1918).

Beat: To move a whisk or spoon rapidly back and forth to blend products together to achieve a smooth texture.

Beer Bread – Bread made using beer, instead of yeast, as a raising agent.

Beignet Soufflé – Small, fluffy fritter made of deep-fried choux pastry, usually served with a sweet sauce. The term ‘beignet’ also refers to food that has been coated in batter and fried, such as beignets d’aubergines, eggplant fritters, and beignets de pommes, apple fritters.

Bicarbonate of Soda (Baking Soda) – A fine white powder that is the alkaline component of baking powder. When used on its own it has no leavening properties, but when combined with an acid or acid salt (such as cream of tartar, the other main ingredient of baking powder) and then moistened, it produces carbon dioxide.

Bind: To cause two or more items to combine, unite or hold together.

Biscuit (cookie) – A dry, flake cake, either sweet or savoury. The name comes from the French bis twice, cuit cooked, because they were originally returned to the oven to make them crisper and thus improve this keeping properties, in the United States the term biscuit is used for small, light, bread-like cakes (similar to plain scones) which are served warm, split open and spread with butter. Savoury biscuits are called crackers in United States and other parts of the world. Biscuits have come a long way since their dearly use as a staple (but apparently barely edible) item in the provisions of soldiers and sailors (Pliny felt that those issued to the Roman legions would last for centuries and in the army of Louis XIV biscuit rations were called pain de pierre ‘stone bread’.)

Blackberry – The black, juicy berry of a prickly shrub. Freshly picked they can be eaten with a dusting of sugar and a little cream, or can be cooked as jams, jellies, preserves and fillings for tarts and pies. The blackberry is also known as a bramble.

#Blackcurrant – The black, rather sour juicy fruit of a northern European shrub. The blackcurrant is the basis of the French liqueur cassis, flavours cordials and syrups, and is cooked as jams, jellies and fillings for tarts.

Black Forest Cake – A rich chocolate cake moistened with Kirsch, filled and topped with whipped cream and decorate with cherries and shaved chocolate.

Blancmange – A dessert made form a mixture of cornflour (corn starch) and milk that has been cooked, sweetened and flavoured, and set in a mould.

Blend – To combine two or more ingredients into a smooth mixture.

Blintz – A pancake with either a savoury or sweet filling. It is first cooked on one side until just set, the filling is placed in the centre, and the pancake is folded over the edges pressed together, the whole is refried. Blintzes are a traditional Jewish food.

Bloom: A measure of the strength of gelatine, also a whitish layer that forms on chocolate due to the separation of cocoa butter.

Blueberry – The small dark, purplish-blue berry of an evergreen shrub related to heather, native to North America. It is also known as a huckleberry can still be collected in the wild. North America produces some 75 percent of the world’s blue berry crop. They can be eaten raw, cooked as a pie filling or added to muffin batter.

Bombe – A frozen dessert set in a mould, usually consisting of an outer layer of ice-cream and a centre of custard, mousse, fruit puree, or cream. It is named after the spherical mould in which the dessert was originally made.

Borek – A pastry with a savoury filling, traditionally a cheese mixture, served hot as an appetizer, Boreks are usually in small cigar shapes and tiny half moons, and are originally from Turkey.

Bouchée – A small round, puff or choux pastry case, filled shortly before serving with a hot or cold savoury or sweet mixture.

Boysenberry – The large, juicy, purplish- black fruit of a hybrid of the blackberry, loganberry and raspberry developed in California in the 1920s by Rudolph Boysen. It is cultivated in North America, Australia, and New Zealand. Boysenberries can be eaten fresh, cooked jam or as a filling for pies and tarts.

Brandy – A spirit distilled from wine and used in cooking to flavour a variety of sweet and savoury dishes including sauces, casseroles, pâtés and terrines, consommés, fruit cakes and fruit desserts, and in flambés.

Brazil Nut – The hard-shelled, creamy-fleshed, nut of a tall tree native to tropical South America. Most of the world’s supply comes from trees growing in the wild along the Amazon. Brazil nuts can be eaten fresh cooked in fruitcakes or coated in chocolate or toffee.

Bread – A food made of a kneaded mixture of flour and water, usually with the addition of leaven (raising agent), which is then baked. Flat cakes of grain pastes cooked on hot stones (unleavened bread) are the oldest known form of prepared food, dating from more than 10,000 years ago, varieties of unleavened bread are still made in India and the Middle East. The Egyptians are thought to have been the first to make leavened bread, discovering the aerating effects of fermentation on dough. In the Middle Ages became common throughout Europe.

Brioche – A slightly sweet bread roll with a soft, spongy texture made from a yeast dough enriched with butter and eggs. Brioche is a popular breakfast in France, where it is eaten warm, spread with butter and jam. It is often baked in the shaped of a plump cup-cake with a smaller ‘head’ on top-the brioche à tête of Paris.

Brownie – A rich chocolate cookie popular in North America. It ranges in texture from heavy and chewy to light and cake-like.

Buckwheat – The triangular seeds of a plant native to Central Asia. It id not appear in Europe until the Middle Ages, probably introduced by the Arabs, for in many regions it was known as ‘Saracen Wheat’. The seeds are roasted and made into flour used in pancakes (especially the Russian Blini), crisp thin cakes, and Asian soba noodles.

Bun – A small, rounds yeast roll, usually slightly sweetened and sometimes containing spices and dried fruit. Typically are the hot cross buns traditionally eaten on Good Friday.

Butter – A dairy product made by churning cream into a solid fat. In most countries, by law, butter must contain at least 80 percent fat and more than 16 percent water. Butter is used as a cooking medium and as an ingredient in a wide range of savoury and sweet dishes. It is salted to improve its keeping qualities. Unsalted (sweet) butter is also available. Clarified butter has been heated to remove the water content by evaporation and then strained to remove any non-fat solids.

The first to make butter from cow’s milk were probably the Sumerians, although most early butter was made from the milk of goats and sheep, as cattle which were worked hard as draught animals gave little milk. The ancient Greeks and Romans did not use butter in their cooking, preferring olive oil, but appreciated its medicinal properties as an ointment. Butter was produced by the Gaul’s, and its use was spread throughout northern Europe by the Norman’s.

Butter Cream: An icing made of butter and/or shortening blended with confectioner’s sugar or sugar syrup and sometimes other ingredients.

#Buttermilk – Originally the thin liquid left over cream has been churned into butter. Today buttermilk is make from pasteurized skim milk, to which a culture has been added to thicken it and increase its lactic acid content. It is used as a drink (usually mixed with fruit juice), in baking and confectionery, and it can be added to hot sups and casseroles or used as a low fat substitute for oil or cream in salad dressings.