Glossary

Food glossary

536 definitions · page 7 of 9.

Parboil: This means to boil vegetables until they’re just slightly cooked. It’s a technique that’s used to part-cook potatoes and other hard root vegetables prior to roasting them at a high temperature to ensure the inside is cooked while the outside crisps up well…
Parmesan: Originating from around Parma in the north-west of Italy, this is one of the world’s best-known cheeses. It's stamped with the official Parmigiano Reggiano mark as a guarantee of origin. Fragrant and tangy, it has a hard, grainy texture and a buttery yellow…
Parsley: No kitchen should be without a good supply of this multi-purpose herb. It can be used as a garnish and flavouring and as a vegetable. There are two main varieties: curly leaf and flatleaf. Both can be used for the same purposes, although flatleaf parsley has…
Paskha: A Russian dessert traditionally served at Easter. It’s a creamy set pudding with a similar consistency to cheesecake, made from curd, cream or cottage cheese, eggs, sugar and dried fruit and flavoured with vanilla. The sides of the cake are sometimes…
Passata: Passata is made from ripe tomatoes that have been puréed and sieved to remove the skin and seeds. It's sold in jars and can be smooth or chunky depending on the level of sieving. It's useful to keep in the cupboard to use in soups, sauces, pasta dishes…
Pasta: Made from a dough of durum-wheat semolina, water and sometimes eggs, which is kneaded and cut into a wide variety of shapes. There are basically two types - fresh or dried. Fresh pasta is often made with eggs, giving it a richer flavour and texture than the…
Pâté: A rich paste made of liver, pork, game or other meats, cooked in a terrine or wrapped in pastry and cooked. Fish can also be used as the basis of a pâté, combined with soft cheese, mayonnaise or soured cream. Pâté can be smooth or coarse and is delicious…
Patty pan: A small, round flattish summer squash, yellow, green or white in colour with pretty fluted edges. It's sometimes known as a custard squash or custard marrow and can be cooked in a similar way to courgettes. They don't need to be peeled, just washed clean and…
Patty tin: A baking tin with six, nine or 12 shallow round compartments used for making individual pies and tarts.
Peanut: Also known as a groundnut or monkey nut. This edible nut is the seed of a member of the pea family, so is not a true nut. The pods mature underground and each contain two to four seeds. Peanuts can be roasted, salted and eaten whole or used in cooked dishes…
Pecan: Also known as a hickory nut, the pecan is related to the walnut and grown mainly in North America. It’s a delicious nut with a toffee-like taste that’s perfect for just eating as it is. In cooking it’s probably best known as the basis for pecan pie, but it…
Pectin: A natural gelling agent found in ripe fruit. Pectin is an important ingredient in making jams and jellies. The levels of pectin vary from fruit to fruit. Some fruits, such as citrus fruit, blackberries, apples and redcurrants have high pectin levels. Others…
Penne: Ridged pasta tubes shaped like quills and cut at a diagonal. Penne is a good pasta to serve with fairly thick creamy or tomato-based sauces as its shape holds the sauce well. It’s also good for using in pasta bakes. Rigatoni makes a suitable substitute.
Périgeux: Périgeux sauce is a demi-glace sauce made with the addition of finely diced or chopped truffles. It's served with small cuts of meat, poultry or game. You can replace the chopped truffles with truffles sliced into discs and the sauce is then known as…
Perry: An alcoholic drink, similar to cider, made from specially grown varieties of pears. Look out for single variety perry, which is still made in small amounts by artisan producers; otherwise, sparkling perry is available in supermarkets. A subtly flavoured…
Pesto: An Italian dark green sauce for pasta originating in Genoa. It's made from pine nuts blended with fresh basil, parmesan or pecorino cheese, garlic and olive oil. Red pesto is made similarly but is based on either sun-dried tomatoes or grilled red peppers…
Petit fours: A small French fancy biscuit or cake often served at the end of a meal. Strictly speaking they're oven-baked little cakes ('four' is French for oven) and were classically made with choux pastry or flan pastry. However, a selection of petits fours these days…
Pilchard: An adult sardine, pilchards are an oil-rich fish. They're rarely available fresh and are mainly sold processed and canned. You're most likely to find them fresh during the summer months. If you do, cook them as you would sardines. They're particularly…
Pine nut: Also called pine kernels, pine nuts are the edible seed of about a dozen species of pine trees. The cones are sun-dried, then threshed to shake out the seeds, which are then hulled. Pine nuts are oily and rich in protein, so they tend to go rancid quite…
Pink fir apple: A knobbly, pinky beige-skinned, waxy potato, good for use in salads.
Piri-piri: Piri-piri is an African word for chilli and also a hot chilli sauce used in Portuguese, African and Brazilian cookery. The Portuguese introduced chillies to their African colonies after discovering them in Brazil, so piri-piri plays a major part in the fiery…
Pistachio: A pale green nut encased in a creamy coloured shell, pistachios have a sweet flavour and are eaten as a snack or used in cooking. The green colour makes pistachio a popular flavouring for ice creams, desserts and sweets, such as nougat and halva. In savoury…
Pithaya: The fruit of a Central and South American cactus, the pitahaya has a knobbly yellow skin and a deep-pink, dense flesh. The fruit can be cut in half and the flesh, which has a mild, sweet flavour, eaten with a spoon (along with the seeds) - a squeeze of lemon…
Pitta bread: An oval-shaped Middle Eastern flatbread. It can be opened up to form a pocket which can be stuffed with a variety of fillings. Throughout the Middle East, pittas are served alongside main dishes or cut into wedges and used to dip in mezze dishes such as baba…
Plaice: An orange-spotted flat sea fish. It's available fresh or frozen, whole or in fillets and has a mild sweet flavour. Fry or grill it on the bone, poach whole fish or fillets and use the poaching liquor to make a sauce, or coat fillets of plaice in egg and…
Polenta: A golden-yellow Italian cornmeal made from ground maize, and also the name given to the savoury cornmeal porridge that's made from it. Polenta can be coarse or fine. The type most widely available in the UK is the instant or quick-cook powdered variety…
Porcini: Porcino is the Italian word for the mushroom that the French call the cep, Boletus edulis (called 'penny bun' in Britain). This mushroom is generally agreed by connoisseurs to be among the finest eating mushrooms. A related variety, Boletus aureus, is called…
Portobello mushrooms: Also known as field mushrooms (and spelled ‘portabella’, ‘portobella’, and ‘portabello’), these are flat, dark open-capped mushrooms which can be 8cm to 10cm (3in to 4in) wide. They have a robust meaty texture making them good for roasting, baking and…
Poussin: A small, immature chicken, sometimes called a spring chicken, and weighing about 400g to 500g. Because the bird is only four to six weeks old, the flavour hasn't developed and there isn't much flesh on the bones, but one bird is perfect for a single serving…
Praline: A brittle sweet made of almonds and caramelised sugar. It can be eaten as a sweet, served as an after-dinner treat with coffee, or crumbled or ground and used in desserts as an ingredient, filling or crunchy topping.
Prawn: A type of shellfish. Called shrimp in the US, prawns are available fresh or frozen, in or out of their shells. In the UK, the prawns seen most commonly in supermarkets are small and pink. These have already been cooked. Fresh, raw prawns are grey and have a…
Preserved lemons: Preserved lemons are used extensively in North African cooking. They're whole lemons that have been preserved by being packed in tall jars with salt, flavoured with herbs and spices, covered with lemon juice or brine and left to cure for a few weeks. Before…
Prickly pear: The fruit of a type of cactus and also called a Barbary pear, cactus pear, Indian pear or Indian fig. The fruit contains yellow or red flesh with a sweet mild flavour that's similar to watermelon. The prickles are usually removed before they're sold but if…
Profiterole: A small bun made with choux pastry, filled with crème pâtissière and dipped in melted chocolate. A croquembouche is a traditional French wedding cake consisting of a cone-shaped tower of profiteroles glazed in caramel rather than chocolate. It’s also…
Prosciutto: Prosciutto means 'ham' in Italian and is a term particularly used to describe ham that has been seasoned, cured and air-dried. 'Prosciutto cotto' is cooked and 'Prosciutto crudo' is raw although, because it has been salt-cured, it's ready to eat. Prosciutto…
Puff pastry: A very light pastry made in layers that expand when cooked, leaving large air pockets inside. Used for sweet or savoury dishes. Puff pastry can be bought ready-made either chilled or frozen. Look for all-butter varieties for the best flavour.
Purée: A word used to describe either the act of making a smooth sauce or paste from various ingredients (verb), or the final result of such a process (noun). Meats, fruits and vegetables can all be puréed. Purées can be made in seconds if you have a blender or…
Puy lentils: A small slate-green lentil with a delicate blue marbling. Puy lentils are considered by many to be the best lentil because of their unique peppery flavour and the fact they hold their shape during cooking. They're the only lentil to be identified by area of…
Quenelle: A fine minced fish or meat mixture formed into small portions and poached in stock and served in a sauce, or as a garnish to other dishes. The term quenelle is also used to describe the decorative shape of the portions - a neat, three-sided oval (a bit like…
Quiche: An open flan or tart with a savoury custard filling, usually of egg and milk with other ingredients added to taste - fish, meat or vegetables. Originally from the Lorraine region of north-east France (hence quiche Lorraine with bacon, onion and cheese), the…
Quince: Quince (Cydonia oblonga) belongs to the same family as apples and pears. It has a shape that's similar to a pear, but larger. It has lumpy yellow skin and its hard flesh is quite bitter so it shouldn't be eaten raw. When fully ripe, the quince has a…
Quinoa: Dating back to the Incas, this grain is still grown in Bolivia and Peru. It's extremely rich in complete protein, so is excellent for vegetarians. The small round grains look similar to millet but are pale brown in colour. The taste is mild, and the texture…
Radicchio: A member of the chicory family sometimes known as red chicory, radicchio has distinctive pink-red leaves with white veins and a bitter peppery taste. It's generally used in salads mixed with other salad leaves.
Ragout: A French stew of meat, poultry, fish or vegetables. 'Ragout' (ragù in Italian) is French for stew but the term can also refer to a sauce.
Raised pie: A pork, ham or game pie moulded entirely from hot water crust pastry - top crust, walls and bottom. It can be served hot or cold and is ideal for taking on picnics.
Rambutan: A relation of the lychee, but slightly bigger in size, this exotic fruit has a brown leathery skin with soft red spines and a white, translucent flesh that resembles the lychee in taste and texture.
Ras-el-hanout: A Moroccan dried-spice mixture. The mixture can be used in couscous, rice, meat and vegetable dishes; as with garam masala, the mixture of spices in ras-el-hanout depends on the maker and the spices available, but may include a wide variety of spices, such…
Ratafia biscuits: Light biscuits made with almond essence, very similar to the Italian amaretti biscuit but usually smaller and a little darker in colour. They can be used in trifles or crumbled into puddings or served after dinner with coffee.
Ratatouille: A rich vegetable Provençal stew, made from aubergines, courgettes, sweet peppers, tomatoes, onions and garlic simmered in olive oil with herbs. It can be eaten hot or cold, as a main course or served as an accompaniment to meat dishes. It also makes a good…
Reduce: To evaporate by fast boiling a flavoured liquid, such as a sauce or syrup, in order to concentrate the flavour or to thicken it.
Reform sauce: An English sauce based on poivrade sauce (which contains shallots, red wine, herbs and vinegar). Reform sauce has the rich combination of port, gherkins, tongue, mushrooms and hard-boiled egg whites, and is best served with either lamb or game.
Relax: In pastry-making, this means to set aside the pastry in a cool place after rolling to allow the gluten to contract (because it will have expanded during rolling). This reduces the danger of the pastry shrinking in the oven. It's also a term used to refer to…
Rennet: An extract from the stomach of cows or sheep, used to curdle milk for cheese-making. A vegetarian alternative to rennet is used in making vegetarian cheese. Vegetarian cheeses are becoming more widely available and there are now vegetarian alternatives to…
Rice flour: Rice flour is made from ground raw rice and is used to make rice noodles and some pancakes, such as south Indian appams. It can be used to thicken soups and stews, as well as providing an alternative to wheat flour in cakes and biscuits. It's gluten-free so…
Rice vinegar: Wine vinegar made from rice used in Chinese and Japanese cookery. Rice vinegar, whether of the red or black variety, tends have a mild taste and is relatively low in acidity. If you can't find rice vinegar, use wine vinegar but dilute with water, using three…
Rice wine: An essential ingredient in Chinese cooking and other oriental cuisines. Rice wine is made by fermenting freshly steamed glutinous rice with yeast and spring water. It's relatively low in alcohol and, as well as being drunk, it's used in cooking and in…
Ricotta: A soft Italian curd cheese made from whey which is drained and then lightly cooked. It's light and creamy with a slightly grainy texture. It has a delicate flavour and is quite low in fat, making it a good substitute for mascarpone. Ricotta can be used on…
Risotto: An Italian dish that was originally eaten by peasants for breakfast, but which has risen in stature to become a highly regarded restaurant dish. It's simple to make at home, but requires a bit of attention. Risotto is made from risotto rice cooked with…
Rissole: Savoury little patties made from chopped meat or fish mixed with breadcrumbs, shaped into balls or cakes and shallow-fried.
Rock salt: Salt crystals derived from the huge seams of impacted salt that have formed below dried-out, underground saline lakes. The crystals are quite large and hard so are best used in a salt mill. Cooking salt is refined rock salt and table salt is finely ground…