Glossary of Cooking Terms

A term meaning sharp flavored, spicy or sour in taste.

piquante,

Grape varietal native to the Languedoc area of France with a history dating back to the 17th century.

A pointed (piquillo means "little beak") pepper grown only in the Navarra region of Northern Spain along the Ebro River.

A fish paste made from anchovies and sardines. It is used as a topping for a French onion tart, referred to as a pissaladière, which is similar to a pizza or a savory pie.

A French onion tart that is similar to a pizza or a savory pie. It is often served as a main dish or an hors d'oeuvre in Nice, France where it originated.

A distinctively green, full-flavored nut containing crunchy meat that has a mildly sweet flavor.

1. The seed or stone in the middle of various foods such as olives, peaches, cherries, apricots, avocados, and plums.

A type of versatile flat bread that is soft and slightly chewy and often features a pocket inside, which is a result of baking the bread in a hot oven.

Also spelled "pitaya". One variety grown in the American tropics on a climbing cactus is an egg shaped, bright pink or red-skinned fruit, which measures more than 3 inches long.

The white fleshy layer on citrus fruit that lies between the peel and the flesh....

An olive that has had its pit or stone removed. They are generally stuffed with an ingredient such as a pimiento, jalapeno, dried tomato, garlic or onion.

A baked dish originating in Italy, which consists of a flat, round, crispy leavened dough covered with a layer of sauce and a layer of one or more toppings, such as meat, seafood, vegetables, and fruit, which is often topped with a layer of cheese.

The dough that serves as a base for the pizza that is prepared, formed into a circular, square or rectangular shape, baked and then topped with pizza ingredients.

A curved or circular cutting blade with a handle that serves as a cutting tool to cleanly slice pizza, lasagna, flatbread crusts, brownies, and other similar foods into smaller pieces.

A large, almost oval-shaped wooden or metal contoured sheet, which is used to hold a pizza when placing it into and removing it from an oven.

A traditional Italian food, known as Pizza Ripiena, which is most often served during the Easter holiday.

A type of Italian yeasted flat bread made with white flour that is similar to a crispy pizza crust.

A round, square or rectangular type of bakeware that is used to hold pizzas as they bake in an oven.

Any of the ingredients added over the pizza and the pizza crust. Often, a tomato sauce is spread over the crust and then one or several ingredients, such as cubed meats, ground meats, pepperoni sausage slices, Canadian bacon, Italian sausage, seafood such as anchovies or shrimp, vegetables such as peppers, or fruit such as pineapple, may be added as a topping.

A thin, crispy Italian wafer cookie that is cooked in a pizzelle iron, similar to a waffle iron.

Pizzichi means "pinched pasta." This pasta is a short diagonally cut pasta with rippled edges.

Thick, flat noodles made from buckwheat. They are generally a long noodle sold in nests but are also found cut in short lengths.

A medium to large size variety of apple, which is a cross between a Golden Delicious, Cox's Orange Pippin, and the Duchess of Oldenburg.

Plaice is a flatfish, which is characterized by a very flat body and like other flatfish, have both eyes located on one side of the body.

A method, passed down by Native Americans, of cooking meat or fish on a seasoned wooden board.

A large "cooking banana" that is flatter and longer than the common Cavendish banana.

A lightweight clear material produced in very thin thicknesses that can be used for covering foods being stored or prepared.

(Scientific Name: Pleurotus ostreatus complex) An Asian fan-shaped mushroom that is white, light gray, light gray with a bluish tinge, pale yellow or pinkish in color.

A mild flavored Cervelat, consisting of three-quarters beef and one quarter pork, which is ideal for sandwiches.

A smooth, shiny-skinned fruit first grown in Asia centuries ago that are now grown in all regions of the world.

Traditionally made in England during the 14th century to be served during Christmas, this dessert was originally prepared as porridge with a pudding-like consistency that was thickened with bits of dried fruits, spices, meat (beef or veal), wine or sherry, eggs, and breadcrumbs.

A thick, sweet-and-sour Chinese sauce, which is used as a condiment for Asian foods.

An oval, egg-shaped tomato with good flavor and thick flesh, which makes it a good tomato for sauces, cooking and canning.

A specialty fruit, which is a cross between a plum and an apricot with equal parts of plum and apricot parentage.

To restore the moisture of a product that has had the moisture removed by drying or dehydration.

Descriptor of wine that is nearly a synonym for “fat”, though considered a step below when describing fullness in the mouth.

A hybrid stone fruit that is a cross between a plum and an apricot. The fruit is predominantly a plum, being 3/4's plum and 1/4 apricot with a smooth red to black outer skin that covers a bright orange juicy flesh.

To cook a food, such as eggs, fish or meat in a liquid that has been heated to just below the boiling point so the liquid is barely moving while the food is being cooked.

An egg cooked in water that is heated to a temperature slightly below the boiling point.

A dark blackish green, triangular-shaped pepper, 3 to 5 inches long, with a wide top that tapers to a blunt end.

Varieties of legumes that are among a family of peas, which consist of fresh, field, or pod peas.

Produced on the Italian island of Sardinia (Sardegna), this cheese is made using a blend of pasteurized cow's and sheep's milk.

An Italian cornmeal dish that is generally enriched with eggs, butter, cream or cheese.

A type of rye bread of Polish origin that can be prepared with a number of different recipes.

A type of sausage that is made with processes and ingredients typical of those used to make Poland's "kielbasa" (sausage).

Rice that has been processed to completely or partially remove the outer hull, or bran, of the kernel.

A French term referring to the serving of breadcrumbs, chopped eggs, chopped parsley and melted butter sprinkled over a cooked food, generally vegetable, such as cauliflower or asparagus.

An ingredient often used in Italian cooking that consists of crushed tomato that are processed through a sieve to create a slightly chunky mixture.

The variety of compounds present in grapes that determine a wines color, body, and pungency.