Know the lingo

Italian for “to the tooth” this term refers to the proper texture for cooked pasta, it should be tender but not mushy, and still have a bit of bite to it.

Blanching is a technique for cooking vegetables that requires a short dip in boiling water, then a “shock” in ice water, both to preserve the color and stop the cooking to keep the vegetable firm. This method is typically used for vegetables like green beans, edamame, and other ingredients that require just a short cooking time and are going to be served cold or room temperature.

While boiling is cooking something in a large amount of water, braising is when something is seared or browned, then simmered in a shallow amount of liquid like a broth or sauce. It’s typically used for larger cuts of meat but can also be used for veggies, beans, and tofu.

Butterflying food refers to slicing something through the center without cutting all the way through, so you can open it like a book. We love this trick for large chicken breasts to reduce the cooking time and increase the surface area (for more sauce, of course)!

Charring refers to the deep caramelization that happens when sugars, proteins, or fat (or a combination of these) are cooked over very high heat and nearly blackened. You’ll often see this term accompanying recipes that call for grilling, those black marks on the food after grilling are called char marks, and are super flavorful!

You may have seen this term in our Knife Skills video, it refers to the style of cutting ingredients into small cubes or squares. The sizes range from large dice (three quarter inch) to small dice (about one quarter inch).

Dredging is a technique usually done before frying, and can be as simple as lightly dusting something in flour, or a more complex breading method in which an ingredient is dipped in a wet ingredient, like egg, before being coated in flour or breadcrumbs to form a crust.

Besides the action of drizzling sauce, which is a favorite pastime of ours, we also use drizzle as a term in many of our recipes where olive oil is used, and it equates to about 2 teaspoons of oil.

Many of our recipes also call for a glug of oil, often when heating oil in a pan or lightly dressing vegetables before roasting. We don’t expect you to pull out a measuring spoon every time you go to cook (but if you want to, that’s ok!) so we estimate a glug is about 2 tablespoons worth of oil.

We know not everyone has access to an outdoor cooking space or equipment, so our recipes are formulated both for outdoor grilling (gas, charcoal, or electric) and indoor grilling, which is done on a grill pan that’s typically made of cast iron with a lined texture made to mimic the grates of a grill.

To cut something in the hasselback style, you’ll cut it into thin slices, stopping about ¼ inch before you reach the bottom surface. This allows the ingredient (like a squash or potato) to stay intact, but creates lots of surface area, nooks, and crannies for sauce and seasonings. We love this method for all kinds of potatoes, butternut squash, and even loaves of bread.

Also called matchsticks, this is a cut we use often in salads and quick sautes for ingredients like carrots, peppers, and cucumbers.

All of our recipes tagged as keto were verified by a nutritionist. A ketogenic diet is a high-fat, low-carb way of eating, and the definition of keto (per the Paleo foundation) is a recipe that has less than 10g of net carbohydrates per serving.

To marinate is to impart a mixture of flavors into an ingredient, and can sometimes require a bit of time. While we usually don’t ask you to do this for too long, it can really help with tenderizing and flavoring tougher cuts of meat, or seasoning more neutral ingredients like tofu.

A French term meaning “everything in it’s place” this term is a gentle reminder to get everything together and prepped before you start working on your recipe, so you can cook stress-free and enjoy the process.

A paleo diet consists of foods that might have been eaten during the paleolithic era, before modern agriculture emerged. This dietary plan includes whole food ingredients like fish, lean meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. It excludes processed foods like dairy, legumes, grains, and refined sugars.

Pan-frying, sometimes called shallow frying, is cooking something in a small amount of hot oil. The oil typically reaches about halfway up the sides of the ingredient, as opposed to being fully submerged (which is referred to as deep frying).

Pickling is an age-old technique that can describe many methods of preservation, either through fermentation, salt curing, or by soaking in vinegar. The pickles you’ll see in our recipes are typically referred to as “quick pickles” and require just a quick soak in a seasoned brine of vinegar, sugar, and salt.

A pinch of salt is a generous three fingered pinch, and equates to about ⅛ of a teaspoon of kosher or sea salt.

While boiling happens with high heat and rolling bubbles, poaching is a term for gently cooking something in a barely simmering water or stock. Poached eggs are classic, but this method can also be used for lean cuts of meat like chicken breasts to make sure they stay tender and juicy.

You’ll often see this term in our recipes, and it’s a crucial step in getting the most juicy, tender result after cooking proteins like beef and chicken. It’s simply waiting, for about 5 minutes or so, before slicing into your protein. As you cook meat, the natural juices reach a boiling point and come to the surface. As the meat rests, the juices redistribute into the meat instead of running out as soon as you cut into it.

So many of our recipes call for this technique, which is a basic term for dry cooking in hot air. This is typically done in an oven at a high temperature, and allows for edges to become golden or browned and crispy. You’ll see us roasting everything from chickpeas to potatoes and other veggies, as well as proteins like chicken and fish.

French for “to jump”, sauteeing is a high-heat cooking method that is done with a minimal amount of oil and lots of movement, so things cook quickly and evenly without getting super caramelized or charred.

To sear or pan-sear something is to cook it in a hot pan, undisturbed, until the surface is very deeply caramelized. You’ll often see this term used for larger, flat proteins, like steaks, or hearty vegetables like cauliflower.

Simmering is the process of cooking in liquid that is just below the boiling point, often at a medium to low heat. For a simmer, the liquid should be just lightly bubbling around the edges.

To spatchcock a chicken is to remove the backbone, so the chicken can lay flat. This is especially useful if you want to grill a whole chicken, and it also cuts the cooking time significantly when roasting. You can do it yourself by slicing alongside the backbone with kitchen shears, and you can always ask your butcher to do this for you if you’re unsure.

You’ll usually see us adding a splash of acid, like vinegar or lemon juice, to add some zing to our recipes. We’d estimate this to be one to two tablespoons, but we don’t expect you to measure it.

This term refers to gently cooking ingredients like onions or other veggies so they release some of their natural water content. Rather than caramelizing, they’ll become soft and translucent.

Tempering can refer to a few techniques, all related to temperature control. The one you’ll most commonly find in our recipes is the process of bringing something to (or close to) room temperature, which we recommend for most proteins like whole chickens and steaks, so they cook evenly instead of going into a pan straight from the fridge.

Tempering can also refer to a technique in which a bit of hot liquid is added to a cold liquid to warm it slightly before adding it to a hot mixture, this is especially useful when adding beaten eggs or cream to a dish so that they work as a thickening agent rather than curdling when shocked by the heat. It’s also a chocolate making term, but we won’t go into all that here. :)

Zest is the outer layer of a citrus fruit, before you get to the white part (called the pith) and the inner flesh. Citrus zest is packed with flavor and aromatic compounds, so we almost always use it along with the juice to add zing and pep to our recipes. A special tool called a zester or microplane is best for getting just the outer layer, since the pith can be a bit bitter.