Culinary Glossary
What is beurre blanc? Serve this butter sauce at once
Beurre blanc is shallot, white wine and vinegar, reduced and mounted with cold butter. It is an unstable emulsion, so you serve it at the moment.
Culinary Glossary
Working definitions for the pass: sauces, emulsions, stocks and the words a cook actually looks up.
Culinary Glossary
What is beurre manié? Raw butter and flour, not a roux
Beurre manié is soft butter and flour in equal parts by weight, whisked in raw at the end so a thin sauce tightens. It is not cooked first, and it is not a roux.
Culinary Glossary
Egg-yolk liaison: temper yolks so the sauce does not set
An egg-yolk liaison tempers yolks with a little hot liquid, then returns them to the pot. If it boils, the yolk sets. It is not a hollandaise.
Culinary Glossary
What is a fumet? Fish stock, not a bowl of soup
A fumet is fish stock from bones and aromatics, not roasted like a dark stock. Cook it too long and it turns bitter. It is a sauce base, not a soup.
Culinary Glossary
What is a gastrique? Caramel loosened with vinegar
A gastrique is sugar cooked to caramel and loosened with vinegar, a sweet-sour base. It is not a vinaigrette. Build it before service and add it by taste.
Culinary Glossary
Glace de viande: meat glaze that naps and then gels
Glace de viande is dark stock reduced until it naps and, once cold, gels. It goes further than demi-glace and costs time and product. No figure required.
Culinary Glossary
Monter au beurre: mount a hot sauce with cold butter
Monter au beurre means whisking cold butter into a hot sauce, off a hard boil, for shine and roundness. It is not beurre blanc, and it is not beurre manié.
Culinary Glossary
Nap a sauce: what nappé means on the spoon
Nappé means a sauce coats the back of a spoon. Nap a sauce to judge body before the plate leaves. It is a test on the pass, not a sauce with a name of its own.
Culinary Glossary
Starch slurry: what a cornstarch slurry does to shine
A starch slurry is starch in cold liquid, then stirred into a simmer. It thickens fast. It also dulls the shine a reduction or a good roux would keep.
Culinary Glossary
What is a roux? Flour cooked in fat before the liquid
A roux is flour cooked in fat, equal parts by weight, before the liquid. White, blond and brown change the toast. In German the name is Mehlschwitze.
Culinary Glossary
What is an emulsion? How to emulsify a sauce that holds
An emulsion disperses two liquids that will not mix, held by yolk, mustard or lecithin. Mayonnaise, hollandaise and vinaigrette do not share the same stability.
Culinary Glossary
What is demi-glace? Demi glace, demiglace, and the nap
Demi-glace is espagnole and dark stock reduced until the sauce naps. Written as demi glace or demiglace, it is still not the same pot as glace de viande.
