Terms and Definitions

Terms and Definitions:  You want me to whuh?

So after having to look these terms up myself as I learn, I thought I would condense the sometimes confusing jargon of cooking into a page that might help shed some light on, er, the kitchen.

• Cut in butter/shortening:  This one deserves a photo.  You can use a pastry blender (see right photo), or two knives drawn away from each other like scissors to cut up chunks of COLD butter into flour/sugar.  This is typically used for pie crust, toppings, etc.
• Divided:  Used when an ingredient is used twice in a recipe but only listed once in the ingredients 
• ex: "4 Tbsp oil, divided" means you will use 1 Tbsp now and perhaps 3 in a later part of the recipe.  
• Dredge:  To coat in flour or breadcrumbs by dragging and patting
• ex: to "dredge" fish in flour is to drag it through a shallow dish of flour to coat it. 
• Separated:  See "Divided"
• Sift:  To strain ingredients using a sieve or a fine mesh tool to make the ingredient finer or rid it of coarse clumps. This is often used with flour or cocoa powder, or to "sift together" ingredients as a means of incorporating them. 

Different Strokes... and Sugars

There's a lot to baking that I don't quite know yet, but here are a few things about sugars that I didn't know.  Check out this link to the different types of sugar.  Super neat.  I have used demerara sugar in a few different things now, and it goes wonderfully in oatmeal cookies and the like.  Nice fall flavor due to its toffee notes.  Also great for topping cappuccinos!