I try to be as consistent as possible with the terminology that I use when developing recipes for this website. For example, there’s a big difference between an ingredient that’s chopped vs. diced vs. minced, so it’s important to be very specific and to understand the definitions. Even I get confused on occasion when I come across a term that I haven’t seen before.
As a result, I wanted to create a short-list of key culinary terms that are referenced here to act as a guide for readers – or to help out new home chefs. To be honest, this is far from an exhaustive list, but it’ll certainly help to navigate a recipe and achieve the best results possible.
Given the sheer number of terms, I’ve decided to break these up into three separate categories: ingredient preparation, cooking, and finishing. This blog is the first of those lists that will focus on preparation.
Key Culinary Terms
- Slice – To cut an ingredient into thin, flat pieces of uniform thickness.
- Dice – The process of cutting an ingredient into small, uniformly sized cube-shaped pieces.
- Mince – The process of finely cutting an ingredient into very small pieces – smaller than dicing.
- Chop – Refers to the cutting of an ingredient into pieces of roughly similar size and shape, but with less precision than slicing or dicing.
- Roughly Chop -Often used when size and/or precision don’t matter, a rough chop means to cut an ingredient into uneven, irregular pieces without worrying about uniformity.
- Packed – Measurement of an ingredient when “compressed” as opposed to loose. This is most often referenced when using leafy ingredients (e.g. spinach) or brown sugar.
- Julienne – Means to cut an ingredient into thin, matchstick‑shaped strips, typically about 1/8 inch wide and 2–3 inches long.
- Shoestring – Typically used for french fries, this is the process of cutting an ingredient into very thin, narrow strips.
- Dredge – The process of coating an ingredient – usually with a mixture of flour, egg, and crumbs – prior to cooking.
- Butterfly – The splitting of a piece of food – often a protein or shrimp -horizontally so it opens like a book, creating a thinner, larger, more even surface.
- Salt – The process of adding salt (usually to a protein) prior to cooking. This typically involves covering the entire surface (i.e. top, bottom, and sides) with salt in order to stimulate tenderization.
I hope you enjoyed this list! Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or comments.