Culinary Terms T and U

#Table d’hote: A set meal at a fixed price.
#Tartars : A cold savoury sauce with a base of mayonnaise served with fried fish or a meat dish.
#Terrine : An earthenware dish for baking. savoury meat or game in the mould cooked in the oven.
#Timbale : A cup-shaped mould, usually made from meat, fish or vegetables, added to a custard mixture. and finely decorated.
#TOSS:  To combine ingredients with a lifting motion.
#Tournedos : Small fillet steak cut from the middle of tenderloin nearly  mm. (l/ ) thick and about  cm. (/”) in diameter.
#Tranche : A slice.
#Trancon : A slice of flat fish on the bone.
#Truss : To tie up or skewer a bird ready for the oven after plucking and drawing.
#TRUSS: To secure poultry with string or skewers, to hold its shape while cooking.
#Tutti-frutti: Mixed fruits together with icecreams.

#Taffy – A confectionery (candy) made from boiled syrup which is pulled and worked into long strands (this incorporates air and gives taffy its characteristic light and creamy texture) then twisted and cut into bite sized pieces and wrapped for storage. Taffy is popular in North America; saltwater taffy, a feature of New Jersey seaside resorts, has a little added salt (not saltwater).

#Tamarillo – An egg-shaped fruit with glossy, deep red skins and soft, tart tasting flesh with tiny seeds. The bitter skin is removed by blanching; the flesh can be added to sweet and savoury salads or sweetened and cooked for use in tarts and hot puddings. The tamarillo is native to Peru; there are also yellow varieties.

#Tamarind – Sour-sweet pulp from the seedpods of a tropical tree, used to give a bite to curries, stews and chutneys and as an ingredient in Worcestershire sauce. It is available in the form of dried pulp or a paste.

#Tangelo – A citrus fruit which has pale, yellow to orange, sharp-tasting, juicy flesh. The fruit has orange coloured peel that is easily removed. It is produced by crossing the grapefruit with the tangerine (or mandarin).

#Tangerine – Also called mandarin, a small, loose-skinned variety of orange with sweet, juicy, easily separated segments. The fruit is named after the seaport of tangier in Morocco, where it has long been grown.

#Tapioca – tiny balls of starch prepared from the tuberous root of the cassava plant (grown in tropical America, the Pacific Islands, Indonesia, the Philippines and Africa). It is cooked in sweetened milk or water as a dessert or used to thicken soups and stews.

#Tart – A sweet or savoury flan, either full-sized or made in an individual serving size.

#Tarte Tatin – An upside down apple tart. Caramelized apples are topped with a layer of pastry; when baked the tart is inverted and served hot, fruit-side up. The dish is named for the Tatin sisters, who ran a restaurant in the French town of Lamotte – Beuvron; they are said to have created it to repair a baking error (although similar upside down fruit tarts are an ancient specialty of the region).

#Teacake – A light cake eaten warm, sliced and buttered. The traditional English teacake is a round, yeast dough bun, split open and grilled or toasted, then served hot with butter; other versions are sprinkled with sugar and spices or other toppings.

#TipsyCake – A dessert, similar to trifle, consisting of sponge cake liberally sprinkled with sherry, brandy or sweet white wine, decorated with slivered blanched almonds and topped with whipped cream.

#Tiramisù – A rich Italian dessert consisting of sponge fingers (ladyfingers) dipped in Marsala or brandy and topped with layers of zabaglione, coffee-flavoured mascarpone cheese and whipped cream; it is served chilled. Tiramisù was created in Sienna, where it was called Zuppa del Duca, the Duke’s soup; because of its popularity with the expatriate English in nineteenth century Florence it became zuppa inglese, English soup; tiramisù – pick me up – is a relatively recent name.

#Toffee – A rich, sticky, usually brown confectionery (candy) which is made by adding butter to a boiled mixture of sugar and water. It can be soft and chewy or hard and crunchy, depending on cooking time and temperature.

#Torte – A rich, dense textured cake, often layered with custard, fruit, whipped cream, and groundnuts.

#Trifle – A traditional English dessert consisting of layers of sponge cake sprinkled with sweet sherry, interspersed with fruit or fruit jam, cream, rich egg custard and crushed nuts.

#Truffle, Chocolate – A small, very rich confectionery (candy) made from chocolate, butter, cream, and liqueur, formed into small balls and rolled in cocoa powder or chopped nuts. Truffles are usually served with coffee. They are named for their similarity in appearance to the fungi, black truffle.

#Tuile – A thin, curved crisp biscuit (cookie) made of sugar, slivered almonds, butter, and eggs, shaped by draping the hot pliable biscuit over a rolling pin.

#Turkish Delight – A confectionery (candy) with a firm, smooth texture made by thickening a sugar and lemon juice syrup with cornflour (cornstarch) and flavouring it with rose water or peppermint. When cool the mixture is cut into cubes and coated with icing (confectioners) sugar. Its Turkish name is rahat lokum, ‘giving a rest to the mouth’.

#Turnover – A square or circle of pastry turned over a filling, sealed and baked or deep-fried. Turnovers can be large or individual-sized sweet or savoury and may be eaten hot or cold as a finger food, snack, or main meal.

#Upside-DownCake – A fruit topped cake as a dessert. A layer of poached fruit (traditionally pineapple rings, but also peaches, apricots, apples, pears or cherries) and sometimes nuts is arranged in the bottom of a cake pan, covered with a butter and sugar syrup, topped with cake batter and baked. The cooked cake is inverted and served warm with cream.