Essential Cooking Terms To Know For A Tempting Thanksgiving Meal

What’s cooking?

It’s time to level up your kitchen game. Whether you’re hosting your first gathering this holiday season or cook a turkey like a pro, you’ll want to brush up on your kitchen terminology before setting foot near a stove.

Cooking is said to be an art, but it’s also a science—and you’ve got to follow a recipe as you would a formula. Otherwise you won’t be able to replicate the delicious results! 

If you’ve always been intimidated by food blog or cookbook jargon, worry no more. Read this list, and you’ll be a cuisinier in no time. (Or at the very least, you’ll be able to talk like one when you’re seated next to the foodie in the family.)

WATCH: Food Slang That Will Make You Hungry

brining

Brining (usually a turkey) is basically just the process of adding salt. It can be added through a soak in a water mixture or simply by shaking salt directly on to the turkey.

This is how you avoid that dry Thanksgiving turkey you may remember as a kid. However, don’t tell your mom that!

au gratin

When something is au gratin, it means it’s cooked or baked with a topping of either browned bread crumbs and butter or grated cheese (both if you’re lucky!).

It’s as easy as sprinkling some cheese and/or bread crumbs on top of a dish before popping it into the oven. Now, instead of saying “cheesy potatoes,” you can say “potatoes au gratin” and sound fancy AF.

Some may argue that potatoes are at their finest in “French fry” form. Learn about the different takes on fries across the globe!

al dente

Al dente is considered the ideal texture for pasta. It’s not too soft, but not too firm. The Italian term literally translates as “to the tooth.”

Think of it as pasta with just the right amount of “bite.” It’s not totally raw and crunchy in the middle, but it’s not a pile of mush either. Frequent taste tests during the boiling process will help you learn how to perfect this texture.

béchamel

A béchamel is a white sauce. But, not just any white sauce. It’s one of the five “mother sauces”—the foundation sauce categories that practically all sauces are based upon (in French cooking, anyway). The others are velouté, espagnole, sauce tomat, and hollandaise.

To make most of these sauces, start off with a thick paste called a roux (a cooked mixture of equal parts butter, or other fat, and flour). To transform roux into béchamel, add milk until it reaches a more sauce-like consistency.

And, this is actually a key step in making macaroni and cheese from scratch. Once you have your béchamel and the sauce has thickened to your liking, you can add cheese and cooked macaroni. (How many other dictionaries throw in a free mac-and-cheese recipe? We’ve got your back.)

double boiler

This is the secret to kitchen witchcraft, like melting chocolate on the stove without burning it. A double boiler is a tool that consists of two pots that nest in each other. In the bottom pot, which sits on the stove, add water. As it comes to a boil, it will gently heat the top pot with the power of steam.

Don’t feel like buying an actual double boiler to do this? That’s cool. You can cheaply replicate this by partly filling a regular pot with water. Then, put a heat-safe bowl on top of it (preferably one wider than your pot). Chocolate fondue at this year’s Thanksgiving dinner? Yes, please!

stock vs. broth

Stock and broth. They’re right next to each other at the grocery store, and they seem so similar. It can be tough to know the difference between the two. Is there even a difference?

While both are made by boiling meat, fish, chicken, or vegetables in water for several hours, the process for making stock always includes bones. That said, stock tends to have a thicker, more gelatinous mouthfeel, and it also tends to have more flavor.

If confusable food terms is your cup of tea, then you’ll love reading about stuffing vs. dressing.

poach

They say there are 100 ways to cook an egg. Out of all of them, poaching is probably one of the most frustrating.

Poaching involves cooking something (whether it’s an egg, fruit, fish, etc.) in a hot liquid that’s kept just below its boiling point. The word comes from the Middle French word poche, which literally means “bag” or “pocket.” Poached eggs tend to come out with the still-runny yolk wrapped inside the solid white. (Kind of like a pocket, right?)

boil vs. simmer

Boiling means there will be bubbles, big bubbles. Scientifically, it’s the point where the water (or other liquid) changes from liquid to gas form.

Simmering is when something is cooked in liquid at or just below its boiling point (so no big, rolling bubbles, but maybe some small ones), and it’s generally used to reduce liquid in the mixture you’re creating.

sauté vs. deep fry

When you sauté something, you cook it in a pan with a small amount of oil or other fat, and stir the food by moving the pan to toss it in the air. The word means “jump” in French, so you can think of it as making the food jump as you cook it. This is that fancy signature move you see on all the cooking shows. Pan-frying is basically the same thing.

Deep-frying is totally different. It’s when you use enough oil to cover the food you are cooking. We’d recommend using a tall-sided pot or pan for that. Safety first.

knife skills

Finally, one of the most important things you’ll need to know how to do in the kitchen is handle a knife properly.

• Mincing is cutting something (usually food) into very small pieces. Finely cut the veggie in one direction, then cut across those original slices to make teeny-tiny pieces. Voilà: minced veggies.
• Dicing means cutting something into small cubes (like a six-sided die). Take a potato, trim off the sides so it is now a rectangular potato, and then cut that rectangle crosswise and lengthwise into little cubes.
• Slicing is super basic, but it’s worth noting: to slice is to cut a thin, flat piece … like sliced ham or bread.
• Julienne is a pretty, chef-y way of saying “cut into thin strips or small, matchstick-like pieces.” It can be an adjective (“julienne carrots”) or a verb (“Get out there and try julienning some carrots”).