Culinary Terms C

1.    CANAPE: Small pieces of fried or toasted bread topped with a variety of appetizers.
2.    Canapes : Small pieces of toast, fried bread or pastry on which light savouries are served.
3.    Canneloni : Small pasta rolls filled with mince (Italian).
4.    Capes: A kind of mushroom.
5.    Capon :A castrated male chicken. It grows large and has tender meat.
6.    Caramel: A substance made by heating sugar until it turns dark brown. Used for coating moulds.flavouring dishes, etc.
7.    CARAMELIZE: To heat sugar in order to turn it brown and give it a special taste.
#CARDAMON : Elaichi.
9.    CARTE DE JOUR: Menu for the day.
10.    Carte du Jour: Menu for the day.
11.    Casserole: A baking dish with a well-fitting lid used for cooking stews etc. in the oven. Usually made of fire proof earthenware or of heavy enamel. The food is usually served from the casserole.
12.    Caviar:Salted roe of sturgeon or similar fish.
13.    CEPES: Species of mushrooms.
14.    Cereals:Grains such as wheat. including semolina, oats. barley. rye, rice etc.
15.    Charlotte russe : Generally a mould lined with sponge cake or sponge fingers and filled with a mixture of cream and fruit, and jelly.
16.    Charlotte: A sweet made of alternate layers of fruit and either breadcrumbs or slices of bread and butter.
17.    Chartreuse: Mould of fruit. jelly or savoury mixture.
18.    Chateaubrland:Head of the fillet of beef.
19.    #Chaud-frold : A cold sauce used for coating meat, game or fish.
20.    Cheese fondue: Grated cheese melted in white wine, seasoned with pepper and flavoured and served with French bread.
21.    Chiffonnade: Shreded of sorrel. lettuce. etc. Wash the leaves, remove veins, roll and cut into fine strips with a sharp knife.
22.    CHINOIS: A conical shaped wire mesh strainer.
23.    Chino’s:A conical strainer.
24.    Chipolata: A kind of small sausage usually served with roast turkey.
25.    CHOP:  To cut solids into pieces with a sharp knife or other chopping device.
26.    Choux:A kind of pastry used for such things as cream buns and éclairs.
27.    Chowder: An American soup made with pickled pork, shellfish. fish. potatoes. and other vegetables.
28.    CINNAMON: Dalchini.
29.    CLARIFY:  To separate and remove solids from a liquid, thus making it clear.
30.    CLOVES: Laung.
31.    Coat: To cover with a thin layer.
32.    Cochineal: A red colouring matter
33.    Compote: Fruit stewed in syrup.
34.    Concasse: To chop roughly. e.g. tomato. concasse
35.    CONCASSEE: Coarsely chopped.
36.    CONDIMENTS: Seasonings.
37.    Condiments: Spices and seasonings.
38.    Confiture : Jam or fruit preserves.
39.    Consistency: The thickness or texture of mixture.such as a cake or batter mixture. Consomme : A light-coloured clear soup.
40.    #CORIANDER : Dhania.
41.    Cotelettes: Cutlets.
42.    #Coupe :A cream or water ice served with fruit.
43.    #Court-bouillion :A well-flavoured cooking liquor for fish.
44.    Crackling: The rind of roast pork.
45.    Cranes :Ovals or rounds of fried bread.
46.    Cream fat: To beat fat with a wooden spoon until it is light and fluffy.
47.    CREAM: To soften a fat, especially butter, by beating it at room temperature. Butter and sugar are often creamed together, making a smooth, soft paste.
48.    Crecy (a la): Dishes containing carrots.
49.    Crème: Anything of a creamy consistency can be described thus.
50.    Crepe: Pancakes.
51.    Croissants: Breakfast rolls, with laminated pastry.
52.    Croquettes: Left-over meat. fish. poultry or game. finely minced and rolled into small sausage shapes and then coated with egg and bread crumbs and fried till golden brown.
53.    Croutons: Bread cut in small dice or fancy shapes and fried or toasted. Used as a garnish for soup.
54.    CUIT: Cooked.
55.    CUMIN SEED: Jira.
56.    CURE:  To preserve meats by drying and salting and/or smoking.
57.    Custard : A cooked or baked mixture made of milk and eggs. Cut and fold To mix flour very gently into a mixture.
58.    #Cutlet :A small piece of meat cut usually from rib of veal or pork mutton or lamb. usually grilled or fried.

Cabinet Pudding – A pudding made from cubed bread or cake, and butter and raisins. It is either steamed in a mould or baked, and served hot with custard.

Cake – A term that covers a variety of sweet, baked, usually made from flour, sugar, eggs and a liquid. Cakes are grouped according to the relative proportions of these basic ingredients and the method by which they are made. Many cakes have a ceremonial or symbolic significance, such as that of the rich Christmas cake (originally part of a religious feast), the wedding cake (which gates from the time of ancient Greece), christening cakes and birthday cakes.

Cake Decorating – The technique of covering cakes with icing (frosting) and other sweet, edible trimmings, usually for festive occasions such as a wedding, birthday or Christening.

Cape Gooseberry – The edible berry of a tropical plant native to Peru, but widely grown in warm countries throughout the world, especially in the Cape region of South Africa, hence its common name. Golden in colour, the fruit is the size of a cherry and is encased in a gauzy sac, which must be removed before use. The Cape gooseberry has a tart flavour and may be eaten as a fresh fruit, pureed and added to sorbets and ice-creams, or cooked in syrups and jams. It is also known as golden berry, strawberry tomato, winter cherry, and ground cherry.

#Carambola – The fruit of a tree originally from Indonesia and Malaysia and now grown throughout South East Asia, China, India, the Caribbean and parts of South America. The small, oval, golden-yellow fruit has five prominent ribs which result in star shaped slices when the carambola is cut crosswise-hence its common names, star fruit and five corner fruit. it has a sharp, sour-sweet taste, and can be eaten fresh, added to fruit and savoury salads, served with cheese, used as a garnish, pureed for use in sorbets and ice-creams, or cooked in South-East Asian dishes.

Caramel – Sugar heated until it melts into a brown syrup. It is used in cakes, sweet sauces and puddings, to line moulds for puddings and custards, as a sweet, brittle coating for fruit such as strawberries, and to colour soups, stews and gravies.

The term caramel is also used for a rich, chewy confectionery (candy) made from sugar, butter, and cream or milk.

Caraway – A plant related to parsley and native to southern Europe, the Mediterranean, and parts of western Asia. Its highly aromatic, hard, brown, crescent shaped seeds were used by the ancient Egyptians to treat stomach complaints and flatulence; they were first used as a flavouring by the Arabs, and for centuries have been added to cakes, rye bread, cheeses, casseroles, potatoes, salads and sauerkraut. Oil from the seed flavours the liqueur known as Kümmel.

Carry Over Cooking: The continued conduction of heat from the outside of an item to the inside after the removal of the food item from the oven. This occurrence must be taken into consideration in cooking time in order to avoid drying of the item

Cashew Nut – The creamy, kidney shaped nut of a tall tree native to South America. The hard-shelled nut develops inside an apple-shaped, fleshy fruit (used to make a liquor) and protrudes from the end of the fruit when ripe. The shell contains caustic oils, which must be rendered harmless by heating before the nut can be extracted. Cashew nuts are sold shelled. They are eaten roasted and salted, and used to make cashew nut butter. The raw nuts are added to curries dishes. They can also be used in stuffings for chicken, or as a salad ingredient. The cashew nut has a high fat content (46 percent).

#Cassata – An iced dessert of Italian origin usually consisting of ice-cream, at least one of which contains chopped nuts and glazed fruit, and sometimes also a layer of sweetened, whipped cream. Sicilian cassata consists of strips of sponge cake soaked in a liqueur or sweet dessert wine, encasing ricotta cheese mixed with nuts and glazed fruit and then chilled. Both types are traditionally made in a rectangular mould-hence the name, which is derived from the Italian word for ‘little brick’.

Casserole: A heavy dish suitable for food to be baked in and food baked in a casserole.

#Charlotte – A dessert consisting of pureed fruit (usually apple) cooked in a mould lined with thin slices of buttered bread. It is served warm with cold custard. Charlotte russe is a cold dessert made by living a mould with sponge fingers, then filling it with bavarois (bavarian cream), creamy mousse or whipped cream.

Cheesecake – A rich dessert in the form of an open pie. The sweet, crumbly pastry shell is filled with a custard-like mixture based on a fresh, unripened cheese, such as cottage cheese, ricotta, mascarpone or cream cheese. There are two types of cheesecake: in one the cheese mixture is baked in a cool oven; in the other the cheese mixture is chilled in the refrigerator.

Chelsea Bun – A bun made from rich yeast dough rolled out, spread with butter, sprinkled with currants and sugar, then rolled up, and cut into slices.

Cherry – The small, juicy fruit with a single stone (pit) of several species of tree related to the plum. It probably originated in Asia, but in prehistoric times spread to Europe and North America and was introduced to Britain by the Romans. From medieval times the cherry fair marked the start of summer and was a time of general merry-making.

Raw, they are eaten as fresh as possible. Cherries are available for a very short season in early summer.

Chestnut – A round, heavy, whitish-fleshed nut covered with a thin brown skin and encased in a glossy brown shell. When cooked the nut has a sweet, floury taste. The chestnut tree is thought to be native to southern Europe and western Asia, and since prehistoric times the easily gathered nutritious nuts have been valued as a food. Unlike most nuts, which are rich in fat and low in starch, the chestnut kernel contains less than 3 percent fat and has a high carbohydrate content. Roasted in the shell, they are a traditional winter snack. The shelled kernels can be simmered in stock and served as vegetable, puréed and used in soups, stuffings and cakes, or sweetened and mixed with cream as a dessert. They are also used for the French dish marrons glacés (glazed or candied chestnuts. Available dried and canned.

#Chiffon : (i) A light fluffy dessert or pie filling containing gelatine and beaten egg whites. (ii) A type of cake made with an egg white foam and oil as a shortening.

Chocolate – A food made from the seeds of the cacao tree native to Central America. The white seeds grow in a pod and are fermented to develop the flavour, dried, roasted and ground to a dark brown paste which is solidified into blocks of pure chocolate, also called bitter or unsweetened chocolate. More than half of the weight of pure chocolate is the vegetable fat as cacao butter; cocoa powder is ground from the solids left if this fat is extracted.

The Maya people of Central America were first to cultivate the cacao tree and to process its seeds. Columbus knew of the beans but not the preparation methods needed to rid of its bitterness. The Spanish explorer Cortez brought back the beans as well as the knowledge of how to treat them. They were ground to a paste and mixed with cane sugar to produce a food quickly appreciated in Spain, and latter in the rest of Europe. The main types of chocolate are pure, dark and milk.

Choux Pastry – Also called chou paste, a light pastry used for making éclairs, cream puffs, profitroles and croquembouche. It is cooked twice: first in the saucepan, where water, flour, butter and sugar for sweet choux – are mixed before the eggs are whisked into produces a smooth, shiny paste; the mixture is piped onto greased trays and cooked for a second time in the oven. The egg causes the mixture to swell, resulting in almost hollow logs or balls. When cool, they are split open and filled with custard or cream.

Churro – A fritter made of deep-fried choux pastry, sprinkled with sugar and served as a dessert. The churros originated in Spain where it is often also served at breakfast with a large cup of hot chocolate or coffee.

Cinnamon Sugar – A combination of equal parts of sugar and cinnamon sprinkled on coffeecakes and buttered toast.

Citron – A pear-shaped citrus fruit resembling a lemon, but larger and with thicker, fragrant rind. A native of china, it is grown mainly for its peel, which is candied or preserved and used in the making of fruitcakes. It is the traditional topping to Madeira cake.

Citrus Fruit – A family of tropical fruits that includes the orange, lemon, grapefruit, lime,

#Coagulation : The process by which proteins become firm, usually when heated.

Cocoa – A dark brown, powder made from seeds of the cacao, a tree native to tropical America. The seeds are roasted and ground into a paste of pure chocolate. Cocoa powder is ground from the dry solids left when the vegetable fat known as cacao butter is removed.

Compote – A preparation of fresh, canned or dried fruits, poached in syrup to preserve their shape and serve hot or cold in the syrup as a dessert.

Confectioner’s Sugar – Name used in the US for icing sugar.

Conserve – Whole berries or sliced fruit preserved by boiling with sugar. It is richer and sweeter than jam, the pieces of fruit have retained their shape. It is used as a spread or filling.

Consistency: the degree of density, firmness or solidity of a mixture.

Convection Oven: An oven in which hot air is circulated by a fan.

Cornflour (Cornstarch) – A fine, white powder obtained from corn kernels. It is used as a thickening agent for sauces, gravies and puddings, and is the main ingredient in blancmange.

Coupe: A dessert consisting of one or more scoops of ice cream or sherbet in a dish or glass, topped with any of a number of fruits, syrups, toppings and garnishes; sundae

#Crabapple – A small, sour tasting apple, grown mainly for its ornamental qualities. Crabapples are used to make jellies and preserves.

Cranberry – A small, round, red berry too tart to eat raw, but best known for cranberry sauce, the traditional accompaniment to roast turkey.

Cream – The fatty part of milk rises to the top when milk is allowed to stand. It is made into butter and many varieties of cheese, and used on its own as an accompaniment to fruits and desserts, as a filling for cakes and pastries, or to add richness to sauces, soups and custards. Whipping, double or heavy cream is the richest form, with a fat content of 48 percent; it is used as a rich pouring cream has a minimum fat content of 35 percent and will double its volume when whipped. Reduced or light cream (known in Britain as Single Cream) has a fat content of between 18 and 25 percent and cannot be whipped; it is used in coffee and with desserts.

Cream Cheese – A soft, white, fresh cheese or a mixture of milk and cream. It is smoother in texture and has a higher fat content than cottage cheese.

Cream of Tartar – A white powder obtained by the fermentation of grape juice and used as one of the raising agents in baking powder. Cream of tartar is often added when whipping egg whites.

Crème Brûlée – A rich baked custard topped with a shell of hard, caramelized sugar.

Crème Caramel – A vanilla-flavoured baked custard coated with thick caramel sauce.

Crème Chantilly – Sweetened whipped fresh cream, which has been flavoured with vanilla.

Crème Fraîche – A mature cream with a nutty, slightly sour flavour. It is available in cartons or can be made by mixing pure fresh cream with sour cream, yoghurt, or cultured buttermilk. Crème fraîche is used in savoury sauces for game, poultry, fish, and vegetables; in salad dressings; as a garnish for soups; and in confectionery (candy).

Crêpe – A light, thin pancakes made with a batter of milk, eggs, and flour on each side until golden. They can be eaten with a topping of lemon juice and sugar, or rolled around sweet and savoury fillings or topped with sauces.

Cumquat – A berry-sized, orange-coloured citrus fruit with bitter flesh and sweet tasting, edible, thin skin. Native to China it is used to make marmalade, or preserved in sugar syrup or brandy.

Currant – A small, round, smooth-skinned, tart berry; there are red, white (rare) and black varieties. Red currants can be eaten fresh, with sugar and cream or in salads; red currants and blackcurrants are used in jams, jellies, and sauces; blackcurrants are used in cordials and the liqueur cassis. They are not related to dried currants.

Currant, Dried – The dried fruit of a small, purple, seedless grape; used in cake, biscuit (cookie) and pastry mixtures; for stuffings in game or fish; and in savoury sauces and rice dishes.

Custard – A mixture of egg and milk, sweetened, cooked and served hot or cold as a dessert. Baked custard is cooked in the oven; stirred custard, cooked over simmering water, is often used as a sweet sauce and is also the basis of many other desserts.

Custard Apple – Also known as cherimoya, the large, round, green-skinned fruit of a tree native to Peru and now cultivated in many tropical regions. Its sweet-scented, creamy-white flesh taste likes a combination of banana, pineapple, and strawberry and is scooped out and eaten with a spoon.