Culinary Terms

Sabayon :
Sauce with egg yolks and water, or egg yolks and champagne (other alcohols possible) used to dress fish and shellfish.
To sablé :
Term used when working flour and butter between the fingers so that the butter gathers up the flour (not the opposite). Technique used to make shortcrust or sablé pastry.
Salamander :
A top broiler used to glaze, to brown or to caramelize certain preparations.
Salmis :
Dish prepared with an animal roasted three quarter and that can be finished on the table, on a table heater. The piece that is partially cooked is cut and kept warm. Skeleton and adornments are simmered in wine, shallots and other aromatic ingredients, then finely crushed and sieved. The cooking finishes in this sauce without boiling.
To give a glossy finish :
When making stretched sugar or crisp sugar you stretch the sugar with your hands to give it a glossy finish. It needs between 20 and 40 stretches to get a good glossy finish.
Saucepan :
Pan round in shape with high edges and a long handle.
To sauté :
To quickly fry small pieces of meat, fish or vegetables in a high-sided frying pan or in a frying pan with a small amount of fat.
To scale, to shuck :
To take off the scales of fish. or to remove the flesh of a shell
To core :
To hollow fruit (apples, pears, ...) by removing the central part.
Scraps :
Term used to describe bits of puff pastry that are left after making a recipe.
To seal :
To change a liquid preparation with eggs, cream or syrup into ice, ice cream or sherbet using an ice cream or sherbet machine.
To seal :
To fry food quickly over a very high heat or in a hot oven to cook it or to start the cooking.
To seal a lid :
Seal the lid of a container with a dead dough composed of water and flour.
Sealing :
To freeze a preparation for ice creams or sherbet in an ice cream freezer, until the preparation is solidified.
Saddle :
Piece going from the lower ribs to the thighs of certain animals: doe deer, lamb, etc.
To shell shellfish :
To remove the shell from shellfish.
To shell eggs :
To remove the shell of hard-boiled eggs.
To glaze :
To coat food with clarified butter, or with jelly or with a topping with a brush to give a shiny appearance.
To sift :
Pass an item through a sieve, a strainer, to get rid of lumps (flour).
To simmer juices or sauces :
To cook slowly and regularly.
To simmer :
To cook food in a liquid just below the boiling point.
To flambe :
To pass a piece of poultry or game bird over a flame very quickly to remove down.
Single cream :
Liquid crème fraîche with 35% fat. perfect to make whipped cream.
To skim :
To remove the fat from a stock, a sauce, etc... with a small ladle.
To skim :
To remove the foam from the surface of a syrup, a stock, a sauce with a skimmer.
To skin :
To remove the skin of hares, rabbits, eels, soles, etc...
Slices :
Thick slices or thick rounds
To mince :
To cut into slices more or less thin.
Smoking point :
Temperature when fat begins to blacken and make an acher smoke.
To smooth :
To whisk a cream, a sauce to make it smooth.
To smooth :
To give a dessert a smooth and flat appearance with a spatula.
To soak (pulses) :
To rehydrate certain pulses after having cleaned them.
To rinse :
To rinse food under running water to remove blood and impurities.
To soak in milk :
To immerse food in milk to remove blood and impurities.
To soak :
to moisten various preparations with a liquid (syrup, alcohol, liqueur, milk) so that it soaks into the preparations and gives them smoothness and flavour.
To sour :
When the ingredients of a sauce or a cream separate. Also used when a preparation goes off or coagulates.
To slice nuts :
To cut almonds and pistachioes into thin slices.
Starch paste :
When starch comes into contact with a hot liquid.
To sterilize :
To preserve food for a long time by freeing them from germs
To stiffen :
To whip up egg whites until they are stiff.
To stiffen (meat, poultry) :
To sauté a piece of meat without browning it to stiffen the fibres. Eg: chicken fricassée.
To stone :
To remove the pits from fruit (olives, cherries, plums...)
To stuff :
To put a mixture of food inside a fruit, a vegetable, a meat or a fish.
Stuffing :
Mixture made of chopped food, seasoned and sometimes thickened, used to make quenelles, patés, galantines or to dress meats.
To sweat vegetables :
Heat vegetables in fat to concentrate their juices in the fat.
Supreme :
Fleshy part of poultry wing.
To remove water from certain vegetables :
To salt a raw vegetable so that it gives off its water (eg: cucumbers).