Food preparation

Ways of preparing food. Slicing and dicing, roasting and mashing, and some other fancy techniques.

You grate food by rubbing it against a grater. A grater is a board that has lots of holes in it with sharp edges, and it scrapes small pieces of the food off with these sharp holes. The result is a pile of finely grated food. The most commonly grated foods are cheese and carrots.

Gis forGrill

A grill is a metal grid that is placed over intense heat or open fire which is used for cooking food, typically meat.

Gis forGut

Gut is a slang word for your stomach and intestines or just that part of your body - the man in the picture has a large gut. When you are preparing a whole animal to be cooked, the process of gutting it is the process of removing its internal organs, including its stomach and intestines.

Iis forIcing

Icing, or frosting, is a very sweet decorative layer that is put onto cakes and cookies. Icing can be made into any color, and varies from a soft spread to a very hard consistency. Icing is most commonly made from a mixture of icing sugar and butter, with coloring and flavors added.

Jis forJulienne

Julienning is a way of cutting food into thin, even sized pieces that are similar in size to matchsticks. Hard vegetables like carrots are most frequently julienned.

Kis forKnead

Kneading is a way of mixing ingredients together to form dough. Kneading warms the dough slightly, and breaks the proteins in the flour down into gluten strands. When dough is kneaded enough it has a smooth, elastic texture. Dough that hasn't been kneaded enough won't rise as well when it is cooking, and will be hard instead of soft and fluffy.

Mis forMarinade

A marinade is the liquid used to marinate food. soy sauce is a popular marinade.

Mis forMarinate

Marinating is the process of soaking food in a flavored liquid called a marinade before it is cooked. Meat is often marinated, but vegetables can be marinated too. Marinades are often acidic, which helps soften meat that is a bit tough.

Mis forMash

When you mash something, you change its consistency to be soft and mushy, but not completely smooth. The most common kind of food that is mashed is boiled potato, which is mashed with milk and butter and called simply mashed potato.

Mis forMenu

A menu is a list of choices. It most commonly means a list of meals available at a restaurant.