Cooking & Recipes Glossary: B

béarnaise: A savory variation on the French hollandaise sauce that's flavored with white wine, shallots, white wine vinegar, and tarragon.

béchamel: A French white sauce with a buttery, faintly nutty flavor. You can modify béchamel in many ways to suit the dish it garnishes. Also called "basic white sauce."

bain marie: A large open container, partially filled with hot water, that holds a smaller pan containing the food. This method cooks food gently.

baking plank: A wooden (usually cedar) board on which you place items to bake or roast (such as fish).

baking sheet: A relatively thin metal sheet, usually with a short rim, on which you place items to bake.

barley: A cereal grain used in making malt, soups, and other dishes.

baste: To add flavor and moisture by brushing food with pan drippings, fat, or a seasoned liquid while it cooks.

beard: A small weedy protrusion on a mussel that needs to be removed before preparing and eating the mussel.

bisque: A thick, rich pureéd soup usually made from shellfish (such as crab or lobster) but occasionally made from vegetables, such as in tomato bisque.

blanch: To plunge vegetables or fruits into boiling water for a short time to loosen their skin or preserve their color.

blintz: From the Yiddish word blintze. A Jewish dish consisting of a thin pancake wrapped around savory or sweet filling.

bloom: A surface film that appears when chocolate hasn’t been correctly stored. Sugar bloom, where moisture collects on the surface and develops a white film, occurs when chocolate has been exposed to damp conditions. Fat bloom, gray-white blotches and streaks, appears when chocolate has been stored in a warm place.

bok choy: A vegetable with crunchy, white, mildly tangy stalks and soft, peppery, green leaves.

borscht: A Russian beet soup, served either hot or cold, usually with sour cream.

botulism: Food poisoning resulting from the toxin produced by botulinus bacteria, sometimes found in foods improperly canned or preserved; often fatal.

bourekas: Triangular or half-moon shaped Jewish appetizer pastry with feta cheese or spinach-and-cheese filling.

braise: To brown meat or vegetables in fat and then cook, covered, in a small quantity of liquid over low heat, usually for a long time. The long, slow cooking both tenderizes and flavors the food, especially tough cuts of meat. Braising can take place either on the stovetop or in the oven.

brandy: An alcoholic liquor distilled from wine or the fermented juice of a certain fruit.

bread knife: A knife with a serrated blade, used to cut bread.

brine: An acidic solution that converts low-acid foods to high-acid foods for preservation (called pickling).

brisket: A cut of beef that comes from the cow’s breast. If not cooked properly, it’s notoriously tough.

broil: To cook food under a hot oven coil, as opposed to grilling, in which the heat is underneath.

broth: A clear, flavored liquid made from simmering vegetables, herbs, meats, poultry, or fish bones in water.

buckwheat: Not a grain, but rather a grass (and a cousin of the rhubarb plant). It has an earthy, almost nutlike flavor. Also called groats and kasha.

bulb baster: A kitchen tool that consists of a long cylinder (usually glass or plastic) with a bulb (usually plastic or rubber) at the end. The bulb is squeezed to draw liquid up into the cylinder, then squeezed again to force the liquid out.

Bundt pan: A ring-shaped tube pan with fluted sides.

butterfly: To cut a piece of food almost in half horizontally, leaving a seam that joins the two pieces together. When opened, the food item will resemble a butterfly or two pages in an open book.