| Name | Power | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Corn-starch Cornflour | 1.0 | Good all-around thickener, but with relatively strong flavor. It makes sauces glossy but somewhat cloudy. Liquid must be at boiling when added, but long cooking after adding will break it down, as will stirring while re-heating. Make a slurry with an equal amount of water before stirring in to avoid lumps. It does not take well to freezing and doesn't work well with acidic foods. It will do better if taken off the heat before acids are stirred in. 1 teaspoon will thicken about 1/2 cup of sauce. |
| Potato Starch | 2.0 | A good, powerful thickener, but its thickening power is quickly weakened by boiling. Add at the end of cooking and avoid boiling. In Chinese recipes, do not substitute for cornstarch where the coating is also the thickener for the sauce or you'll end up with far too much sauce. Potato starch thickened sauces reheat better than cornstarch thickened, but don't bring to a full boil. Potato starch is preferred for baking as it withstands higher temperatures. It is acceptable for Passover. |
| Sweet Potato Starch | 0.1 | Sweet potato starch is seldom used for thickening - it is used mainly for coating meats and vegetables for frying where a crisp surface is desired. It is sold in Asian markets as a powder and as granules for this purpose. It is also made into noodles. |
| Tapioca Starch | 2.0 | Thickens well at lower temperatures than cornstarch. It is often used to correct the thickness of a sauce at the last minute. Freezes well. Add to hot liquids at the last minute because it breaks down with heat faster than potato starch and a lot faster than cornstarch. No flavour and makes a clear but rather glossy sauce. Sub: instant tapioca (grind to powder unless you desire some texture); glutinous rice flour; potato starch (not for freezing). |
| Arrowroot | 1.5 | Flavour neutral and better for thickening acidic foods than cornstarch. Freezes well and is more resistant to breaking down from heat than cornstarch. It will thicken well below the boiling point so can be used for fragile sauces. It produces a clear sauce and the appearance is less glossy than cornstarch. It is relatively expensive but that's not really significant for home use. Arrowroot should not be used in dairy based sauces as it turns them slimy. It should be made into a slurry with cold water before adding to hot liquids. |
| Glutinous Rice Flour | Actually "gluten free", this thickener freezes well. Do not confuse it with regular rice flour. This flour can be sprinkled over simmering liquids and stirred in without clumping until you have the right thickness. Sub: tapioca starch. | |
| Wheat Flour | 0.5 | A good thickener for sauces and gravies which does not make them look glossy (but also they will not be clear). Very stable and holds about the same as it cools. It thickens at boiling temperature and must be thoroughly cooked before or after adding. Most commonly this is done by cooking in butter to make a roux, but too much cooking will weaken its thickening power. A dark roux has very little thickening power. Cake flour has the most thickening power, bread flour the least, but all-purpose flour is usually used. |
| Beurre manié | 0.5 | This is a kneaded mixture of butter and flour, but it isn't pre-cooked, so it must have sufficient cooking time in the soup or sauce. |
| Sago | 2.0 | Made from the inner pulp of a palm. Sometimes found in Asian markets. It needs to be cooked fairly long to develop its thickening power, but is thus rather heat stable. There is another Sago starch made from the inner pulp of a Cycad, but it is seldom found in commerce. |
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| Beat |
Stir rapidly and repeatedly with a wooden spoon.
Example: Eggs are beaten into a mixture of boiling water, butter and flour when making choux pastry for éclairs or profiteroles. Whole eggs are also beaten when making sweet omelettes. |
| Blend |
Place ingredients into a food processor, vitamiser or blender to purée and thoroughly mix together.
Example: When making praline, caramelised sugar and nuts are poured onto a marble slab until the mixture cools. It is then broken into small pieces and placed into a food processor to be blended into a powder. |
| Chemise |
To line or coat a mould or coat an item with jelly or jam.
Example: Dariole moulds are sometimes lined with jelly before being filled with a bavarois mixture. Some sponge-based desserts are chemised with a mixture of jam and jelly just before service. |
| Cream |
The process of beating sugar and fat together for the purpose of incorporating air, dissolving the sugar and whitening the mixture.
Example: Sugar and butter are usually creamed as a base when making biscuits or steamed puddings. The creamed mixture must be beaten until it is light and fluffy, smooth and a vivid white in colour. |
| Crimp |
Give a decorative edge to pastry.
Example: Crimping is usually performed on the edge of pastry when making pasties, fruit turnovers, fruit mince pies or the classical pithivier, a disc-shaped puff pastry pie filled with a mixture of almond meal, butter and sugar. |
| Desiccate |
To dry out, remove all moisture.
Example: The shredded coconut that is used to surround lamingtons and some cakes is purchased commercially desiccated. When making crispy egg white meringue shells (vacherin) or bird’s nests, the meringue is piped into the desired shape and then desiccated in a warm oven until they become crisp. |
| Dredge |
To sprinkle, douse or coat with sugar, cocoa powder or flour.
Example: It is common to dredge sweet soufflés and crepes with icing sugar just prior to service. Another example is chocolate truffles dredged in bittersweet cocoa powder or icing sugar. |
| Flambé |
To ignite cooking liquid to burn off alcohol.
Example: Crepes flambéed in Cointreau, sugar and orange to make crepe suzette is one of the best known examples of this technique. Many fruits can be flambéed in a suitable liqueur and served as a dessert in their own right accompanied by ice cream. Common examples include peeled grapes in Chartreuse, banana in rum, and strawberries in brandy. |
| Fold |
To gently combine delicate ingredients together without letting incorporated air escape. This is usually done with a gentle flicking action using a wooden spoon or a whisk.
Example: When making a mousse, cream is gently folded into the lightly whipped, flavoured egg mixture with care so that the trapped air does not escape. Sifted flour is gently folded into a whipped whole egg and sugar sabayon when making génoise sponge. |
| Glaze |
To brown under the salamander or to give food a shiny and glossy appearance by coating it with a liquid such as syrup or heated jam.
Example: Baked egg custard is dredged with icing sugar and then browned to a glaze under the salamander. The fruits on the top of a fruit flan are usually glazed with flan gel to improve appearance and to keep their quality. |
| Hull |
To remove the green stem from berries.
Example: Strawberries need to be hulled before they are added to a fruit salad or flambéed. |
| Knead |
Repeatedly stretch and press dough to mix ingredients, incorporate air, improve the texture and/or to develop gluten.
Example: Mixing all ingredients and working them into a smooth dough when making scones, sweet pastry or pasta. |
| Macerate |
To soak fruit in liqueur in order to soften or flavour it.
Example: Pineapple soaked in kirsch or strawberries soaked in Cointreau and sugar. |
| Mask |
To coat food with a sauce, icing, marzipan or jelly.
Example: Steamed puddings are usually masked with a flavoured crème anglaise to give moisture and flavour. A chocolate mud cake is masked with chocolate icing. |
| Pipe |
To place a semi-liquid substance into a piping bag and then squeeze the mixture out in a decorative fashion.
Example: Tempered couverture finely piped into geometrical shapes on greaseproof paper to set and be used as a decoration. Other examples include a piped rosette of cream as a garnish to a dessert or choux pastry piped into neat small balls to make profiteroles. |
| Prove |
To allow yeast dough to rest or ferment in a warm place so that the yeast can divide and grow, forming ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide gas.
Example: Fruit bread, savarin, baba and brioche doughs and yeast batters are just some dessert mixtures that require proving before they are ready for use. |
| Purée |
To pass food through a sieve or blender to make a smooth thick pulp.
Example: Raw and cooked fruits are commonly puréed to make sweet sauces or pie fillings and blanched chestnuts may be puréed to make icing or a pastry filling. |
| Rain |
Sprinkle solids such as rice into a liquid slowly enough so that the pieces don’t stick together.
Example: Rice is rained into boiling sweetened milk when making creamed rice pudding or rice condé. |
| Reduce |
Allow a liquid to simmer away and evaporate to half its volume to intensify flavours and consistency.
Example: Many flavoured sauces are created with a reduction syrup made from sugar, water and fruit juices. |
| Set |
To leave a mixture to stand at room temperature or under refrigeration with the purpose of letting the mixture become firm.
Example: Bavarois, mousse and terrine are examples of sweets that are placed under refrigeration to set. Tempered chocolate is an example of food setting at room temperature. |
| Sieve or sift |
To pass through fine mesh in order to remove lumps, break down or retain coarser matter.
Example: Flour is usually sifted to break down lumps, to lighten it by mixing in air and to remove any unwanted foreign matter. When mixing baking powder with plain flour, it’s best to sift the mix twice to evenly distribute the baking powder throughout the flour. |
| Steep |
To place food into a hot or cold liquid in order to soften it, replace lost moisture, give additional colour or to extract some of the flavour.
Example: Dried figs and apricots may be steeped in hot liquid so that they soak up some of the liquid to replace moisture that was lost during the drying process. Crunchy sweet biscuits may be soaked in alcohol, brewed black coffee or liquid cocoa. This both softens and flavours them in preparation for other processes, as is the case when making tiramisu. |
| Whip |
To beat with a whisk in order to stretch protein strands to the point where they have trapped sufficient air so that the mixture holds its shape.
Example: Whipped cream and egg white meringue are two common uses of this technique. |
| Whisk |
To beat into a froth or evenly disperse two or more liquids together using a wire utensil.
Example: The word whisking is often interchanged with whipping. The only real difference is that to whisk something may simply require two liquids to be mixed together rather than whipped to a firm or frothy texture. |