199 Fun Facts About Cooking

Which kitchen blade, usually eight inches long with a curved edge for rocking, do cooks reach for most when dicing vegetables?

A chef's knife is built to be good at everything rather than great at one thing; its curved blade rocks through a carrot and its weight gets through a squash.

Which cooking method cooks food directly over a heat source for a smoky, charred exterior?

Grilling cooks by direct radiant heat from a fire or element; when that heat comes from above the food instead of below, Americans call the same method broiling.

What is the primary leavening agent responsible for the rise in traditional sourdough bread?

Wild yeast living in the starter raises traditional sourdough, while the bacteria that share the starter make the lactic acid that gives the loaf its sour taste and helps it keep.

Which culinary term means cutting food into very small, uniform pieces to blend well and release flavor?

Mince means chopping into very small pieces, and with garlic it matters: chopping or crushing the clove is what creates allicin, the compound behind its sharp aroma.

Which highly prized spice is derived from the dried stigmas of a particular crocus flower?

Saffron is the costliest spice by weight because each crocus flower yields just three thread-like stigmas, and every one has to be picked by hand.

Which baked pasta dish is, in its classic Bolognese form, layered with ragù and béchamel rather than ricotta?

Lasagne in Bologna is layered with ragù and béchamel; the ricotta version familiar from American kitchens follows the lasagne of Italy's south instead.

Which brand of fine grater, now standard for citrus peel and Parmesan, began life as a woodworking rasp?

Microplane began as a rasp for shaping wood; in 1994 a Canadian home cook, fed up with a dull grater, tried one on an orange for a cake, and the company followed her into the kitchen.

Which oil is a classic choice for deep-frying whole turkeys and French fries?

Peanut oil suits the 350-375°F of a deep fryer because, refined, it does not smoke until about 450°F.

In which city of Italy did modern pizza, with tomato and cheese, take shape as cheap street food?

Naples fed its working poor on flatbreads sold from street stands, topped with tomato, cheese, oil or anchovies; only around 1830 did its pizzerias add tables for eating in.

A little fat, a hot shallow pan, constant tossing: which technique is this?

Sautéing takes its name from the French sauter, 'to leap', a nod to the tossing that keeps the food jumping in the pan.

Which kitchen staple belongs to the genus Allium, alongside garlic, leeks and chives?

Onion is Allium cepa, a close cousin of garlic and leeks; cutting one releases a volatile sulfur compound that drifts up and stings the eyes, which is why chopping it brings tears.

What is the primary purpose of kneading dough in bread making?

Kneading exists to develop gluten: flour's gliadin and glutenin proteins link into elastic strands that trap the yeast's gas and give bread its chew.

Which flat kitchen tool with a fixed blade slices vegetables uniformly and thinly?

A mandoline works by drawing the food across a blade fixed in a flat board, so every slice comes out the same thickness; that exposed blade is also why it can cut the cook badly without a guard.

Which moist-heat method cooks eggs and delicate fish in liquid held at about 160-180°F, with barely a bubble?

Poaching keeps its liquid at roughly 160-180°F, cooler than a simmer, so delicate eggs, fish and fruit cook through without being knocked apart by bubbles.

From which type of plant does vanilla bean originate?

Orchid: vanilla pods grow on a climbing orchid native to Mexico, and elsewhere each flower must be pollinated by hand, a method worked out in 1841 by Edmond Albius, an enslaved 12-year-old on Réunion.

What culinary knife cut involves slicing food into long, thin matchstick-like strips?

Julienne strips are the matchsticks of the kitchen, and the cut's other name, allumette, is simply French for 'match'. Dice the strips crosswise and you have a brunoise.

Melt butter, skim the milk solids, pour off the water: what is left?

Clarified butter is pure butterfat: with the water and the milk solids that scorch removed, it can be heated far higher than whole butter without burning, and ghee is the version simmered until nutty.

Which cooking method, behind pot roast and coq au vin, sears food first and then simmers it slowly in a covered pot?

Braising suits tough cuts because hours of slow, moist cooking break down their connective tissue and collagen, which is why pot roast and coq au vin end up tender enough to cut with a fork.

Which common leavening agent requires an acidic ingredient to activate fully?

Baking soda is plain sodium bicarbonate, so it needs an acid such as buttermilk or lemon juice before it gives off its gas; baking powder is simply baking soda with a dry acid already mixed in.

Which compound gives chili peppers their heat?

Capsaicin does not rinse away with water, which is why a drink barely helps a chili burn; cold milk works better, because its casein proteins help lift the compound off.

A roux, the thickener that starts a gumbo or a béchamel, is traditionally made by cooking together which two ingredients?

Fat and flour, cooked together until the raw taste is gone, make a roux; the longer it cooks the darker and nuttier it gets, from a pale béchamel base to a deep brown one.

What is the process of heating and cooling chocolate to stabilize its crystals for a glossy finish and snap?

Tempering is needed because cocoa butter can set in six different crystal forms, and the careful heating and cooling steers it into the single stable one that gives a bar its gloss and clean snap.

Which technique scalds vegetables briefly in boiling water, then shocks them in ice water to set their color and halt the cooking?

Blanching also loosens the skins of almonds for peeling, and vegetables are blanched before freezing because the brief heat stops the enzymes that would dull their flavour, colour and texture.

The Italian culinary term 'al dente' describes pasta that is cooked to what consistency?

Al dente, Italian for 'to the tooth', means firm to the bite; cooks drain pasta even earlier, molto al dente, when it is going to finish cooking in the pan with its sauce.

What classic aromatic base in French cuisine consists of diced onions, carrots, and celery?

Mirepoix is cooked slowly in butter so it sweetens without browning; Louisiana cooks swap the carrot for green bell pepper and call their version the holy trinity.

Simmering a sauce until it thickens and its flavour intensifies is called what?

Reduction is the term: simmering drives off water, so the same flavour compounds sit in less liquid, which is why a pan sauce or demi-glace tastes bigger the longer it bubbles.

Which natural gelling agent found in fruit makes jam and jelly set?

Pectin is plentiful in apples, plums and citrus but scarce in soft fruits such as strawberries and cherries, which is why some jams set easily and others need it added.

What is the technique of adding liquid to a hot pan to loosen browned bits after searing?

Deglazing turns what looks like a dirty pan into a sauce: the wine or stock dissolves the browned bits, and that liquid becomes the base of the gravy or pan sauce.

Which knife cut stacks and rolls leafy herbs, then slices them into thin ribbons?

Chiffonade comes from chiffon, French for 'rag': the stacked, rolled leaves fall into loose ribbons like scraps of cloth, the usual way to cut basil or sorrel for a garnish.

In bread baking, what is the final warm rest that lets yeast dough rise before it goes in the oven?

Proofing is called 'proving' in Britain, and either way it is the last rise before baking: the yeast keeps pumping out carbon dioxide until the dough is light and airy.

A bain-marie, or water bath, is primarily used in cooking for what purpose?

Gentle and even heating is the point of a bain-marie: water cannot climb past its boiling point, so custards and melting chocolate are shielded from the fiercer heat of the oven or burner.

Which technique, popular with Thanksgiving turkeys, soaks meat in a salt-water solution before cooking so it stays moist?

Brining works through the salt: it seasons the meat right through and helps the muscle hold on to its water during cooking, so the meat comes out juicier.

What cooking process melts solid fat from meat, often to crisp the skin?

Rendering melts fat slowly out of meat or skin: the liquid becomes lard, tallow or schmaltz, and the crisp scraps left behind are cracklings.

What is soaking food in a seasoned liquid of acid, oil and herbs to tenderise and flavour it called?

Marinating tenderises because the acid starts to break down the meat's tissue, letting it take up more moisture; overdo the acid, though, and the surface can turn mushy.

Which quickly made cooking liquid for fish is simmered with aromatics and sharpened with wine or lemon?

Court bouillon is French for 'short broth': it simmers for under an hour, far less than a stock, and is usually discarded rather than served once the fish is cooked.

What job does salt do in bread dough, beyond just adding flavor?

Salt restrains yeast activity, so the dough rises at a steady, controlled pace; it also tightens the gluten, and a loaf made without it turns out slack, sticky and flat-tasting.

Which French method slowly cooks meat in its own fat at a low temperature?

Confit comes from the French confire, 'to preserve': the meat was salted, cooked slowly in its own fat and then sealed under it, where it could keep for months.

Which appliance did Irving Naxon invent to recreate a stew his mother's home town cooked in the baker's oven?

Slow cooker: Naxon's Beanery copied the low, steady warmth that cooked the Sabbath stew cholent overnight; Rival bought his company and relaunched the pot in 1971 as the Crock-Pot.

What is the thin, outermost layer of citrus fruit rind, prized for its aromatic oils and flavor?

Zest is only the coloured surface of the peel, where the fragrant oils sit; the white pith just beneath can be unpleasantly bitter, so cooks grate lightly and stop when they reach it.

What is the mixture of starch and cold liquid stirred into a hot sauce to thicken it called?

A slurry does nothing until it is heated: stirred into a sauce and brought close to a boil, the starch swells and thickens it, and cornstarch leaves the sauce translucent where flour would cloud it.

Which French kitchen phrase means having every ingredient prepped before cooking begins?

Mise en place means 'putting in place': with everything measured, cut and set out before the heat goes on, a cook can work at speed, and some chefs say they organise their desks and days the same way.

Why do cooks traditionally rest meat after it has been cooked?

Keeps more juice in when carved is the traditional answer: a just-cooked joint spills its still-mobile juices on the board. Recent tests suggest resting matters more for controlling the final temperature.

Which custard dessert is finished by caramelizing a thin layer of sugar on top until it sets into a brittle crust?

Crème brûlée is older than the blowtorch: in the earliest known recipe, from François Massialot's cookbook of 1691, the sugar topping was melted and burnt with a red-hot fire shovel.

Which baking step beats softened butter with sugar until light and fluffy?

Creaming is more than mixing: the beating forces tiny air bubbles into the semi-solid butter, where they stay locked until the oven's heat expands them, so the step itself helps a cake rise.

What is a gastrique in French cuisine?

A gastrique is a sweet and sour sauce: caramelise sugar, deglaze with vinegar, and you have the classic counterweight to a rich dish such as duck à l'orange.

What is a fumet, a staple of French seafood cookery?

A fumet is a concentrated fish stock: heads and bones simmer with white wine, and the strained liquid is then cooked down to sharpen its flavour.

What is butter called once its milk solids have been cooked to a deep brown?

Beurre noisette means 'hazelnut butter', named for the nutty colour and smell the milk solids take on as they toast; cook it darker still and it becomes beurre noir, black butter.

Which coarse salt, a favourite of chefs, is named for its use in drawing blood from meat?

Kosher salt is named for kashering, the Jewish practice of salting meat to draw out its blood; chefs took to it because the coarse grains are easy to pinch and scatter evenly.

Which perforated bowl drains the water from boiled pasta?

A colander is a bowl pierced with holes: tip the pot into it and the water drains away while the pasta stays put. The word traces to Latin colare, 'to strain'.

Louis Camille Maillard discovered his browning reaction in 1912 by heating sugars with which other compounds?

Amino acids: Maillard was trying to reproduce the way living cells build proteins when his heated mixtures of sugars and amino acids turned brown, and the reaction now carries his name.

What name is given to the brown polymers the Maillard reaction leaves behind?

Melanoidins are the brown, high-molecular-weight polymers formed late in the Maillard reaction; they colour bread crust, roasted coffee and dark beer.

Which step just before searing helps a steak brown faster and more deeply?

Patting it dry works because the Maillard reaction needs roughly 140-165 °C, and a wet surface is stuck near 100 °C until the moisture has evaporated.

Which dip, applied before baking, gives traditional pretzels their dark mahogany crust?

Lye (sodium hydroxide) is the traditional pretzel dip: the strongly alkaline bath speeds up the Maillard reaction on the dough's surface, so the crust turns a deep brown in the oven.

Which probable carcinogen can form during high-temperature Maillard browning?

Acrylamide forms when asparagine in starchy foods reacts with sugars above about 120 °C, which is why fries and crisps carry it; nobody knew it was in food until 2002.

Which buttery compound, known from microwave popcorn, is released when sugar caramelizes?

Diacetyl is why caramel made from nothing but sugar still tastes buttery: it is the same molecule that gives butter its flavour, one of the volatiles the heat sets free.

Roughly how long do sliced onions take over a low flame to caramelize to a deep brown?

About 40 minutes: recipes often promise caramelized onions in five or ten, but a Slate writer who timed it needed 28 even over high heat with constant stirring, and gentler cooking takes 45.

Which cuisine's roux is often cooked to a dark 'chocolate' color?

Cajun cooks take a roux to a dark chocolate colour for gumbo; the long cooking trades away much of its thickening power for a deep, nutty flavour.

Which Japanese comfort dish is thickened with a roux that cooks buy as ready-made blocks?

Curry rice came to Japan by way of Britain in the Meiji era, so it was long counted as Western food; roux sold in solid blocks since the 1950s made it a home staple.

Which spice is almost always added to a Hungarian roux, or rántás?

Paprika is stirred into a Hungarian rántás almost as a rule; the paprika roux is the base of főzelék vegetable stews and many soups.

Which Milanese dish slowly cooks cross-cut veal shanks in white wine and broth?

Osso buco means 'bone with a hole': the name points to the marrow-filled shank bone at the centre of each slice, and that marrow is the prize of the dish.

Which shoulder cut of beef is the classic choice for pot roast?

Chuck, from the shoulder, is laced with collagen that melts into gelatin over hours of low, moist heat, which is why it is the standard pot-roast cut while lean tenderloin turns dry.

Which technique spoons or brushes hot fat and pan juices over a roast as it cooks?

Basting is meant to keep a roast moist and add flavour, but it can backfire: every opening of the oven door lets heat and humid air escape, so the surface of an over-basted bird can dry out faster.

Which pasta sauce is made by tossing hot spaghetti with raw eggs, hard cheese and cured pork?

Carbonara thickens on the pasta's own heat: the eggs are stirred in away from the flame, because direct heat would scramble them instead of turning them creamy.

Which slow-baked French dish layers white beans with sausage and confit?

Cassoulet takes its name from the cassolo, the earthenware pot it bakes in; legend places its birth in Castelnaudary during a siege of the Hundred Years' War.

Béchamel is traditionally seasoned with which spice?

Nutmeg, grated fresh, is the classic béchamel seasoning; add Gruyère or Parmesan and the sauce becomes a Mornay.

Béchamel is thought to be named after a steward to which French king?

Louis XIV's honorary head steward, the financier Louis de Béchameil, is thought to have given the sauce its name; one story has it dedicated to him as flattery, to the annoyance of a rival courtier.

Which brunch dish stacks ham and an egg on an English muffin under hollandaise?

Eggs Benedict has rival New York birth stories: Delmonico's claims it for the 1860s, while a stockbroker named Lemuel Benedict said he ordered the combination at the Waldorf in 1894 as a hangover cure.

Which egg component acts as the emulsifier in hollandaise?

Lecithin, the phospholipid in egg yolk, has a water-loving head and a fat-loving tail, so it keeps the butterfat in hollandaise dispersed through the yolk's water.

Which hollandaise derivative is flavoured with vinegar, shallots, chervil and tarragon?

Béarnaise is hollandaise sharpened with vinegar, shallots and tarragon, and it has offspring of its own: stir in tomato purée and it becomes sauce Choron.

Sauce Maltaise is hollandaise flavored with the juice of which fruit?

Blood orange juice and a little of the peel turn hollandaise into sauce Maltaise, the classic partner for asparagus; one blood-orange variety is itself called the Maltaise.

Sauce Mousseline is hollandaise with what folded in?

Sauce Mousseline is hollandaise with whipped cream folded in just before serving, which is why it is also called sauce Chantilly.

Which Japanese stock is made by briefly simmering kombu kelp in nearly boiling water?

Dashi gets its depth from a pairing: kombu is rich in glutamate and the bonito flakes usually added are rich in inosinate, and together they taste far more savoury than either alone.

In classical kitchens, what is a 'remouillage', literally a 're-wetting'?

A remouillage is a second stock from the same bones, simmered again in fresh water; it is weaker than the first and often becomes the liquid for the next batch of stock.

Brown stock gets its color from doing what to the bones first?

Roasting them is the step: bones and vegetables browned in a hot oven, sometimes smeared with tomato paste, give a brown stock its colour, whereas a white stock starts from raw bones.

Which 'dean of American cooking' wrote that stock, broth and bouillon 'are all the same thing'?

James Beard wrote that stock, broth and bouillon 'are all the same thing'; many cooks still draw a line, most often calling it stock when it is made mainly from bones and so sets with more gelatin.

The bain-marie is thought to be named after Mary the Jewess, an early pioneer of which craft?

Alchemy: Mary the Jewess, thought to have worked in Alexandria in the first centuries AD, is credited with the water-bath apparatus, which medieval Latin called balneum Mariae, 'Mary's bath'.

Which dessert is often baked in a bain-marie to keep its top from cracking?

Cheesecake cracks when its surface dries and shrinks; the moist air rising from the pan of hot water keeps the top supple, and baked custards such as crème caramel get the same treatment.

Which dessert of egg yolks, sugar and sweet wine is whisked over a bain-marie?

Zabaione is whisked so hard that it takes in a large amount of air and swells into a warm foam; made with Marsala in Italy, it crossed into French kitchens as sabayon.

Justus von Liebig wrongly claimed that searing meat does what?

Seals in the juices was Liebig's idea, and cooks repeated it for generations; later tests found that seared meat loses as much moisture as unseared, or more.

Which technique cooks a steak low in the oven first, then browns it in a hot pan?

Reverse searing brings the steak up slowly in a low oven, then finishes it in a ripping-hot pan for the crust, giving an edge-to-edge pink centre with barely any grey band.

Which 1903 cookbook by Auguste Escoffier set out the grandes sauces behind today's French mother sauces?

Le Guide Culinaire filed hollandaise among the small sauces in 1903; it joined the basic sauces only in the 1907 English edition, the likely origin of today's list of five.

The sauce velouté takes its name from the French word for which fabric?

Velvet: velouté means 'velvety', from the Old French velous, and French uses the same word for anything silky and soft to the touch, the texture the sauce is meant to have.

Which yolk-thickened velouté derivative was once one of French cooking's four great sauces?

Allemande, 'German', was once counted among the four great sauces of French cooking, but Escoffier later wrote that it was not, strictly speaking, a basic sauce.

Which sauce, named like a chicken cut, adds mushroom liquor and cream to chicken velouté?

Suprême sauce is poultry velouté reduced with stock, mushroom cooking liquor and cream; Escoffier prized its perfect whiteness, and a little meat glaze turns it into ivory-tinted Albufera.

Which hotelier partnered with Escoffier at London's Savoy?

César Ritz managed the Savoy with Escoffier as his chef until March 1898, when both were sacked for fraud over missing wine and supplier kickbacks; by June Ritz had opened his own Hôtel Ritz in Paris.

In which war did the young Escoffier serve as chef de cuisine of the Rhine Army?

Escoffier was chef de cuisine of the Rhine Army during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71; feeding troops in the field led him to study canning and preserved food.

Which chef of Napoleon's era was famous for pièces montées, sugar sculptures of classical buildings?

Antonin Carême spent his free afternoons poring over architecture books in the national library, then rebuilt the temples and ruins he found there in pastry, marzipan and sugar.

Which fermented fish sauce did the ancient Romans use as a condiment?

Garum was made by fermenting salted fish; it faded away after Rome fell, but colatura di alici, the anchovy sauce of Campania, is thought to descend from it.

Which condiment's name likely comes from a Hokkien word for fermented fish sauce?

Ketchup likely derives from the Hokkien kê-tsiap, a fermented fish sauce that British traders met in Southeast Asia; tomato versions appeared in the early 19th century.

Which station chef of the classic French brigade also handles the sautéed dishes?

Saucier: the sauce cook also sautés to order and makes the stews and hot hors d'oeuvres, and is often counted the most senior of the station cooks, below only the chef and sous-chef.

Which is the most important factor determining an oil's smoke point?

Free fatty acid content matters most: refining strips the free fatty acids and flavour compounds that break down first, which is why refined oils smoke at higher temperatures than virgin ones.

Which potential carcinogen forms when glycerol burns in oil smoke?

Acrolein forms when glycerol from the oil breaks down at the smoke point, giving smoking fat its acrid sting; the exposure worry is mainly for line cooks breathing it all day.

Which protein, not blood, gives raw meat its red color?

Myoglobin, the oxygen-storing muscle protein, gives raw meat its red colour; its iron shifts from +2 to +3 and the protein denatures as meat cooks, turning it brown.

What do butchers call the fine flecks of fat running through a cut of beef?

Marbling is fat laid down among the muscle fibres; even a few per cent of it can make the meat seem a little juicier, more tender and fuller in flavour.

U.S. food-safety guidance sets 145 °F for most beef, but 160 °F for which form of it?

Ground beef must reach 160 °F, and colour is no guide: a burger can turn brown before it is hot enough, so a thermometer is the only sure test.

Which Coalbrookdale ironmaster patented a way of casting iron cooking pots in sand in 1707?

Abraham Darby cast his pots in sand instead of loam, which made them thin, light and cheap enough to sell across England and Wales; he later pioneered smelting iron with coke.

Which coating's rise in the 1960s and 70s pushed cast iron out of favor?

Teflon-coated aluminium pans, made in France from 1956, spread through home kitchens in the 1960s; they were lighter than cast iron and needed none of its seasoning.

Which cast-iron cookware maker was founded in South Pittsburg, Tennessee?

Lodge began as Joseph Lodge's Blacklock Foundry; when it burned down in 1910 he rebuilt and renamed it, and the firm stayed in his family for well over a century.

Mayonnaise is said to be named after Mahón, a port on which Mediterranean island?

Menorca: the Duke de Richelieu's French troops seized Mahón in 1756, early in the Seven Years' War, and his cook is said to have taken the sauce home as 'mahonnaise'.

Which Catalan sauce is worked in a mortar until it thickens like mayonnaise?

All-i-oli, Catalan for 'garlic and oil', is traditionally just that plus salt; it is so hard to bind by hand that some cooks slip in an egg yolk.

What is the traditional ratio of oil to vinegar in a vinaigrette?

3 to 1 is the classic vinaigrette ratio of oil to vinegar, whisked together with salt; a spoonful of mustard is often added to stop the two separating again.

Under what name was vinaigrette commonly known in the 19th-century United States?

French dressing was the 19th-century American name for a simple oil-and-vinegar vinaigrette; in the 20th century the name shifted to the sweet, tomato-tinted orange dressing.

Which three herbs appear in most French bouquet garni recipes?

Thyme, bay leaf, parsley is the usual trio, though there's no standard recipe. The herbs are tied with string or wrapped in a strip of leek so the bundle can be lifted out before serving.

In a kitchen brigade, which cook prepares soups and meatless egg and vegetable dishes?

The entremétier takes his name from entremets, literally 'between dishes', the side dishes he once prepared, and still runs the station for soups, eggs and vegetables.

What does the French word 'chef' literally mean?

Chief: chef is short for chef de cuisine, 'head of the kitchen', and both words go back to the Latin caput, 'head'; English took chief from Old French in the Middle Ages and borrowed chef all over again later.

Which pot-washer of a large French brigade takes his title from the French word for a cooking pot?

The marmiton scrubs the pots and pans, leaving plates and cutlery to the plongeur; the pot in question, the marmite, also gave its name to the yeast spread, which is why one is pictured on every jar.

Ganache is made by blending chocolate with which liquid, most commonly?

Cream is the classic partner, heated and stirred into chopped chocolate until smooth; more chocolate gives a ganache firm enough for truffles, more cream one thin enough to pour.

Legend says ganache got its name when a master called an apprentice what after a spill?

Idiot: 'ganache' was French slang for a fool, and the tale has a Paris confectioner shouting it at an apprentice who ruined a batch; the record says Paul Siraudin named his new sweet after a hit stage farce, Les Ganaches.

What makes choux pastry puff up in the oven?

Steam does the work: choux dough is so wet that its water boils in the oven and inflates the pastry from inside. Boiling the water and butter first lets the flour absorb extra moisture.

Which ring-shaped choux pastry filled with praline cream commemorates a bicycle race?

Paris-Brest is usually credited to Louis Durand, a pâtissier of Maisons-Laffitte, though other bakers along the route are credited too; the ring of choux is meant to be a bicycle wheel.

What is the French term for the butter block layered into puff pastry?

Beurrage is the butter block wrapped in the détrempe, the base dough; every time the parcel is rolled out and folded in three the layers triple, so a few turns are enough to build the pastry's many leaves.

How many layers does Julia Child's method give fine puff pastry?

729 layers: six turns, each folding the dough in thirds, triple the count every time; in the oven those sheets of butter keep the leaves of dough apart, which is what lets the pastry rise into flakes.

Which French breakfast pastry is made from a yeast-leavened cousin of puff pastry?

Croissant dough is layered with butter like puff pastry but raised with yeast; the shape copies Austria's kipferl, which reached Paris when the Austrian officer August Zang opened a Viennese bakery there in the late 1830s.

Risotto alla milanese is the signature rice dish of which Italian region?

Lombardy: Milan is its capital, and legend traces the dish's golden colour to the glassworkers of Milan cathedral, who tinted their windows with the same spice and added it to the rice at a wedding feast.

Which rice variety is considered among the best for risotto and least likely to overcook?

Carnaroli is less famous abroad than Arborio, the risotto rice most shoppers know, yet Italian cooks rate it higher: it holds its shape through the long, slow cooking.

What do Italian cooks call heating dry risotto rice in fat before any liquid is added?

Tostatura, 'toasting', coats each grain in a film of hot fat before the wine goes in; the rice is never rinsed first, because washing would strip the starch that makes risotto creamy.

Traditional demi-glace combines equal parts brown stock and which sauce?

Espagnole and brown stock in equal parts, simmered down, strained and finished with a little sherry, make demi-glace, literally 'half-glaze', the starting point for many classic brown sauces.

Which fish dish, eaten at her first meal in France, did Julia Child recall as a culinary revelation?

Sole meunière, 'in the style of the miller's wife', is sole dusted in flour, hence the miller, and fried in butter with lemon and parsley; Child ate it at La Couronne in Rouen.

Which French dessert reputedly began when a hotel cook left her apples cooking too long?

Tarte Tatin: the story has Stéphanie Tatin rescuing scorched apples by laying pastry over them, baking the lot and turning it out upside down; the tale is doubted, but the tart was the signature dish of the sisters' hotel.

Which food critic popularised the phrase 'nouvelle cuisine' in his magazine and restaurant guide?

Henri Gault and his partner Christian Millau gave the lighter new cooking its rules in 1973: ten commandments, among them 'do not overcook' and 'eliminate rich sauces'.

Which Lyon chef, a pioneer of nouvelle cuisine, was an inspiration for Auguste Gusteau in Pixar's Ratatouille?

Paul Bocuse made a point of leaving his kitchen to greet every guest in his whites and did much to turn chefs into public figures; his restaurant held the top Michelin rating from 1965 until his death in 2018.

Michel Guérard's 'cuisine minceur', devised at a French spa, is what kind of cooking?

Slimming cooking: Guérard devised the light but refined style for guests at the spa his wife ran in Eugénie-les-Bains, dieters who still wanted to eat like gourmets.

Which type of meringue is made by whipping boiling sugar syrup into egg whites?

Italian meringue is made by pouring hot sugar syrup into the whites as they whip, which cooks them; the result is stable enough to pile onto a pie or a baked Alaska.

Which chickpea by-product is whipped to make vegan meringue?

Aquafaba, the liquid from cooked or canned chickpeas, whips into a foam much as egg whites do; a French musician hit on the trick in 2014, and the name, Latin for 'bean water', followed within months.

What happens to an egg custard heated a few degrees too far?

It curdles: the egg proteins that thicken a custard tighten and squeeze out liquid when overheated, and only a few degrees separate set from split, so cooks keep the heat low and stir all the time.

What is a custard called once starch is added, as in the filling of a mille-feuille?

Pastry cream (crème pâtissière) is custard thickened with flour or cornstarch; the starch lets it be boiled until it is thick enough to hold its shape inside a mille-feuille.

Which Japanese savory custard is steamed and served in a small bowl?

Chawanmushi, 'steamed in a tea bowl': seasoned egg is poured over shrimp, ginkgo nuts or mushrooms in a lidded cup and steamed until it barely sets into a savoury custard.

After bringing sous vide to Restaurant Troisgros in 1974, Georges Pralus found it kept which delicacy from shrinking?

Foie gras: cooked the usual way the fatty liver shrank and lost much of its fat, but Pralus found that his new method kept its shape, its fat and a better texture.

Which 18th-century physicist slow-roasted meat overnight in a drying oven?

Count Rumford left the meat overnight in a machine he had built to dry potatoes and was amazed to find it 'not merely eatable, but perfectly done, and most singularly well-tasted'.

Which taste did Tokyo chemist Kikunae Ikeda name in 1908 after tracing it to glutamate in kombu broth?

Umami, from the Japanese umai, 'delicious': Ikeda noticed the taste in a bowl of kelp broth, then patented a way to make glutamate as a seasoning.

Which company began selling monosodium glutamate as a seasoning in 1909?

Ajinomoto means 'essence of taste': Saburosuke Suzuki launched the glutamate seasoning under that name in 1909, and in 1946 the product's name became the company's own.

What is the Cantonese term for the 'breath of the wok'?

Wok hei is the seared savour a blazing wok gives food as it is tossed; hei is the Cantonese reading of qi, 'breath' or 'energy', which is why some cookbooks write it wok chi.

Which two materials are most woks made from?

Carbon steel and cast iron are the usual wok metals: both build up a seasoning that stops food sticking, and carbon steel is light enough to lift and quick to heat, though cast iron was once the commoner.

Denis Papin's 'steam digester' of 1679, built to soften bones, was the forerunner of which kitchen appliance?

Pressure cooker: Papin showed his sealed pot to the Royal Society in 1679 and fitted it with a safety valve, an invention that later proved vital to the steam engine.

Which type of cooktop heats the pan itself by means of a magnetic field?

Induction turns the pan itself into the heater by setting up electric currents in its base; that only works in metal a magnet will stick to, so a plain aluminium pan stays cold.

Percy Spencer reputedly hit on microwave cooking when a radar magnetron melted what in his pocket?

Candy bar, chocolate in most tellings: curious, Spencer next held popcorn kernels by the magnetron and watched them pop, and a patent for microwave cooking was filed in October 1945.

Microwave ovens share their 2.45 GHz band with which household technology?

Wi-Fi shares the unlicensed 2.4 GHz band with microwave ovens, which is why a running oven can slow a nearby connection; big industrial ovens often use 915 MHz instead.

Which Julia Child TV show premiered in 1963?

The French Chef grew out of a guest spot on the WGBH book show I've Been Reading, where Child turned up with eggs and a whisk; viewers wrote in asking for more, and the weekly series began in February 1963.

Which 1961 cookbook did Julia Child write with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle?

Mastering the Art of French Cooking was turned down by Houghton Mifflin as too long and daunting before Judith Jones, a young editor at Knopf, took a chance on it.

Which Boston cookbook author helped standardize U.S. cooking measurements?

Fannie Farmer's publisher doubted her 1896 Boston Cooking-School Cook Book would sell and printed only 3,000 copies; it became a kitchen standard and helped fix American recipes on standard measures.

Which Japanese kitchen knife is the all-purpose one, used for meat, fish and vegetables alike?

Santoku means 'three virtues' or 'three uses': Japanese cooks traditionally kept a deba for fish and a nakiri for vegetables, and this one blade was made to do the work of all of them.

Which part of a knife is the thick unsharpened band where blade meets handle?

The bolster is the thick band of steel between blade and handle; it adds balance and keeps fingers from sliding onto the edge, while the tang runs inside the handle.

Missionaries from which country introduced the batter-frying behind tempura to Japan?

Portugal's missionaries and traders brought batter-frying to Nagasaki in the 16th century; the word tempura may be Portuguese too, with tempero, 'seasoning', and têmporas, the meat-free Ember Days, both proposed.

Ceviche is recognized by UNESCO as the traditional cuisine of which country?

Peru's ceviche joined UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2023; the citric acid in lime juice denatures the raw fish, turning it opaque and firm.

Pesto takes its name from a Genoese verb meaning what?

Pesto comes from the Genoese pestâ, 'to pound': the basil, garlic, pine nuts and cheese are crushed in a mortar with a pestle, a word that grew from the same Latin root.

What is the prized layer of scorched rice at the bottom of a paella called?

Socarrat is the crisp, toasted crust that forms on its own when paella cooks over a flame; Valencians prize it so long as it stops short of burnt, and cooks resist stirring so that it can form.

Paella takes its name from the Valencian word for what?

Frying pan: paella is simply the Valencian word for the wide, shallow pan, from the Latin patella; the dish took shape in the 19th century around the Albufera lagoon near Valencia, cooked in that pan over an open fire.

Which pulses can cause violent vomiting if just four or five are eaten raw?

Red kidney beans are rich in the lectin phytohaemagglutinin; a hard, rolling boil destroys it, but low-heat cooking may never get hot enough, so the beans are boiled first.

U.S. guidance says perishable food should not sit in the 40–140 °F 'danger zone' for more than how long?

2 hours is the limit, because bacteria multiply fastest between 40 and 140 °F; the allowance drops to one hour when the air is hotter than 90 °F.

Richard Wrangham's book Catching Fire argues that cooked food let which human organ grow dramatically?

Brain: Wrangham argues that cooking made food softer and richer in usable energy, so Homo erectus could shrink its gut, jaws and teeth and stop chewing for half the day, freeing fuel for a bigger brain.

Which French method bakes food in a folded paper parcel so that it steams in its own moisture?

En papillote, 'in paper': fish or vegetables are sealed in a folded parcel and baked, and the parcel is often opened at the table so the diners catch the aroma as it escapes.

Which nutrient is especially prone to being destroyed by prolonged cooking?

Vitamin C is both heat-sensitive and water-soluble, so long boiling destroys some of it and leaches more into the water; quick cooking in very little water keeps far more.

Which bacterium's boil-proof spores are the reason low-acid foods must be pressure-canned?

Clostridium botulinum spores can survive hours of boiling, so canners need the extra heat of a pressure canner; the toxin itself is fragile, destroyed by a few minutes at 85 °C.

Which technique, popularised by New Orleans chef Paul Prudhomme, crusts spice-coated fish in a smoking-hot skillet?

Blackening sears the spice-coated fish so fast that the crust chars while the inside stays tender; Prudhomme, who devised the method, made blackened redfish a signature dish of the 1980s.

Which everyday cooking term did Buwei Yang Chao coin in 1945 to translate the Chinese verb chǎo?

Stir-fry first appeared in Chao's How to Cook and Eat in Chinese, written with help from her linguist husband and her daughter; the same book gave English 'pot sticker'.

Spatchcocking a chicken for the grill involves removing which bone so the bird lies flat?

Backbone: with it snipped out, the bird opens flat and cooks faster and more evenly; the odd name may be short for 'dispatch cock' or a twist on 'spitchcock', an old dish of broiled eel.

Where in a traditional tandoor is naan placed to bake?

The inner wall: the dough is pressed against the hot clay, where it blisters and bakes within minutes, scorched on one side and puffed on the other.

By which method is most smoked salmon made?

Cold smoking flavours the cured salmon without cooking it, which is why it keeps its delicate texture; hot smoking, at higher heat, effectively cooks the fish and leaves it firmer.

Which mild tomato-based curry did Delhi's Moti Mahal restaurant make famous?

Butter chicken, or murgh makhani: in one telling, the cooks put leftover tandoori chicken in a buttery tomato gravy to stop it drying out; the founders' grandsons have since gone to court over who invented it.

Which kitchen habit do the USDA and FDA advise against because it can spread bacteria to other foods and surfaces?

Rinsing raw poultry made sense when households slaughtered their own animals, but the USDA says no washing is needed now because meat is cleaned during processing.

Which oil is the principal source of fat in the Mediterranean diet, which UNESCO lists as cultural heritage?

Olive oil is rich in oleic acid, a monounsaturated fat that is under clinical research for its potential health benefits.

Which protein-rich food, a staple of Buddhist vegetarian cooking in East Asia, is sold in silken, soft and firm blocks?

Tofu is made by pressing the curds of coagulated soy milk, and because it is low in calories yet rich in protein, Western cooks often use it in place of meat.

Salmon, herring and sardines are the most widely available sources of which family of heart-friendly fatty acids?

Omega-3 fats are the reason the American Heart Association suggests eating oily fish twice a week; white fish contain them too, at a much lower concentration.

Which mineral, just under 40% of table salt by weight, does the World Health Organization advise adults to limit?

Sodium adds up fast: one teaspoon of table salt holds about 2,400 mg, already above the 2,000 mg a day the World Health Organization sets as a ceiling.

Which zero-calorie sweetener is extracted from the leaves of a plant native to Paraguay and Brazil?

Stevia has no calories because humans cannot metabolise its sweet glycosides, and the Guaraní people who used the leaves for centuries called the plant 'sweet herb'.

Which cereal grain contains beta-glucan, a soluble fibre credited with lowering blood cholesterol when eaten regularly?

Oats boomed in the United States in the late 1980s after Quaker began promoting a 1986 study, and eating them regularly lowers LDL and total cholesterol.

Which plant oil, about 82% saturated fat, do the WHO and the American Heart Association advise people to limit?

Coconut oil has health effects similar to those of butter, beef fat and palm oil, studies have found, which is why the NHS and the FDA also urge restraint.

In low-fat and vegan baking, which fruit preparation commonly stands in for the fat or eggs in a recipe?

Apple sauce is mostly water with negligible fat and protein, so it keeps cakes and muffins moist while taking the place of butter or oil.

Brown rice keeps which nutritious outer layer of the grain that milling strips away to make white rice?

Bran is nutritious but oily, and because those oils turn rancid, brown rice has a shelf life of only about six months unless it is chilled or frozen.

Which Andean seed, a relative of spinach cooked like a grain, grows with a bitter coating that is removed before sale?

Quinoa's bitter coating has its uses: in South America the saponins it contains serve as a detergent for washing clothes and as a folk antiseptic.

The DASH diet, promoted by the US National Institutes of Health, was designed to bring down which health measure?

Blood pressure dropped by 11 points systolic among trial volunteers with hypertension, and the change came with no loss of body weight.

Broccoli, kale and cabbage belong to which vegetable group, whose glucosinolates are under study for cancer prevention?

Cruciferous comes from the Neo-Latin for 'cross-bearing', because the four petals of each flower in the family form the shape of a cross.

Cooking and crushing tomatoes makes which red pigment far easier for the body to absorb than from raw fruit?

Lycopene in tomato paste is up to four times more bioavailable than in fresh tomatoes, and serving it in an oil-rich dish such as pasta sauce helps even more.

Which 0-to-100 ranking of carbohydrate foods, with pure glucose at the top, shows how quickly each raises blood glucose?

Glycemic index climbs with cooking time: the more a food is cooked, the more its cell structure breaks down and the faster it is digested.

Which process, patented by Wilhelm Normann, hardens liquid vegetable oils into margarine fats and can create trans fats?

Hydrogenation built the margarine and shortening industry, but in 2015 the US Food and Drug Administration ruled its partially hardened oils were not generally recognised as safe.

Which B vitamin, added to flour to prevent birth defects, is found in leafy greens but destroyed by high-heat cooking?

Folate is named after folium, the Latin for leaf, because it was found in dark-green leafy vegetables, and acidic sauces make its loss in a hot pan worse.

Which Nordic country became the first in the world to set legal limits on industrial trans fats in food?

Denmark saw quick results: tests in 2004 and 2005 found McDonald's fries served in New York City held 28 times as much trans fat as the Danish ones.

Which American physiologist, author of The Biology of Human Starvation, later popularised the Mediterranean diet?

Ancel Keys also devised the K-ration for combat troops in World War II, promoted the diet together with his wife Margaret, and lived to the age of 100.

Which tableside technique, used for Bananas Foster and Cherries Jubilee, sets a splash of spirit alight in a hot pan?

Flambé simply means 'flamed' in French, and perhaps its most famous dish, Crêpe Suzette, was supposedly invented by accident in the 1890s.

Which French restaurant term means ordering individual dishes from the menu, as opposed to taking a set meal?

À la carte literally means 'at the card' and reached English in the early 19th century; its opposite, table d'hôte, is a set menu.

Which roasting and rotisserie technique periodically coats meat with its own juices or a sauce to keep it moist?

Basting can backfire: each time the oven door opens, heat and moist air escape, which can increase evaporation from the very meat it is meant to keep juicy.

Which term names a dish of finely chopped raw beef, commonly served topped with a raw egg yolk?

Tartare is short for 'à la tartare', which first meant served with tartar sauce; by 1938 Larousse Gastronomique described the dish with egg yolk and no sauce.

Which term describes starting potatoes in a pan of hot water until they begin to soften, ready to finish by roasting?

Parboiling owes its meaning to a mix-up: the Old French parbouillir meant 'to boil thoroughly', but English speakers linked its first syllable with 'part'.

Which term describes opening an oyster's shell, done with a special knife whose thick blade is only about 5 cm long?

Shucking takes a professional mere seconds per oyster, but beginners who use too much force risk injury if the blade slips.

The French term 'hors d'oeuvre', used for a small dish served before a meal, literally means what?

Outside the work fits the history: in the 17th century these smaller dishes began to be set apart from the main array of symmetrically placed dishes.

Which word has described highly seasoned food since the 18th century, most famously eggs with a spiced yolk filling?

Deviled eggs become stuffed, dressed or even angel eggs at church functions in parts of the American South and Midwest, to avoid mentioning the devil.

What is the name for cooking an empty pastry case in the oven, often weighed down with ceramic beads, before filling it?

Blind baking keeps a wet filling from turning the crust soggy, and the weights need not be ceramic: rice, dried peas or lentils do the same job.

Which French term describes a dish such as potatoes dauphinois, baked until a cheese or breadcrumb crust browns on top?

Gratin comes from the French gratter, 'to scrape', because diners had to scrape the food out of the dish it was cooked in.

Which butchery technique cuts a thick piece of meat almost in two, leaving the halves joined so it opens out flat?

Butterflying is named for its wing-like halves, and cooks use it to turn chicken breasts into the thin cutlets needed for dishes such as piccata.

Which term describes pulling moist food such as fish or chicken cutlets through flour before it is fried?

Dredging does two jobs at once: the dry coating acts as a barrier that stops food sticking to the pan, and it lets the outside crisp and darken evenly without burning.

Which dish of thinly sliced raw beef, invented at Harry's Bar in Venice, is named after a Venetian painter?

Carpaccio was first made for a countess whose doctors had told her to eat raw meat, and its name salutes the red and white tones of Vittore Carpaccio's paintings.

Which term means cooking chopped vegetables gently in a little oil or butter so they soften without browning?

Sweating uses much lower heat than a quick pan-fry, sometimes with salt added to draw out moisture, and is often the first step of a risotto, soup or stew.

Which crystal-clear soup is traditionally clarified with egg whites, which remove fat and sediment from the stock?

Consommé comes from a French word for 'finished': by the sixteenth century it meant a concentrated, clarified meat broth rather than a simple stock.

Which term describes sweetening fresh strawberries or raspberries and leaving them to soften and release their juices?

Macerating comes from the Latin macerare, 'to soften' or 'to steep', and English once also used the word for wasting away the flesh, as through fasting.

Which French appetiser consists of raw vegetables such as celery and carrot sticks, typically dipped in a vinaigrette?

Crudités means 'raw things', a word traced through Middle French to the Latin crudus, 'not cooked, raw, bloody'.

Which French knife cut dices carrots, celery or leeks into tiny cubes of about 3 mm on each side?

Brunoise is finer still in France, at one to two millimetres, and the cubes are dipped in salted boiling water and then ice water to set their colour.

Which Chinese technique coats raw meat in corn starch and egg white, then briefly pre-cooks it, to keep it tender?

Velveting works because the coating insulates the meat fibres from heat and stops them seizing; Shaoxing wine and soy sauce are often added for flavour.

Which French paste of finely chopped mushrooms and herbs, cooked down in butter, is a key layer of beef Wellington?

Duxelles is said to be named after the marquis d'Uxelles, whose 17th-century chef La Varenne is credited with creating it.

Which thick product, made by straining away most of the whey, is a popular lower-calorie stand-in for crème fraîche?

Greek yogurt costs more to make because straining removes so much liquid that extra milk is needed, but the step leaves even fat-free versions thick and rich.