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.
Saddle :
Piece going from the lower ribs to the thighs of certain animals: doe deer, lamb, etc.
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.
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 scrape out :
To remove a mixture or what is left of a mixture from the surface of a container with a spatula.
Scraps :
Term used to describe bits of puff pastry that are left after making a recipe.
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 :
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 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.
To season :
To bring out the flavour of a dish by adding spices or herbs, (salt and pepper, ...)
To separate eggs :
To separate the yolk from the white of an egg.
To shell eggs :
To remove the shell of hard-boiled eggs.
To shell shellfish :
To remove the shell from shellfish.
To shred :
To shred salt cod flesh between your fingers once it is cooked (poached).
To sift :
Pass an item through a sieve, a strainer, to get rid of lumps (flour).
To simmer :
To cook food in a liquid just below the boiling point.
To simmer juices or sauces :
To cook slowly and regularly.
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...
To slice nuts :
To cut almonds and pistachioes into thin slices.
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 :
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 soak :
When pastry soaks up the humidity from the toppping (cream, fruits). The crust becomes fragile and loses its crunchyness.
To soak :
To moisten, a biscuit or a sponge cake with alcoholized syrup.
To soak in milk :
To immerse food in milk to remove blood and impurities.
To soak (pulses) :
To rehydrate certain pulses after having cleaned them.
To socket :
To free the flesh from the bones (chops, ribs, drumsticks, or wings) to improve the presentation and to realise a papillote.
Soft butter :
Press and squeeze butter until it becomes the texture of a cream.
To soften :
Render soft, malleable a fat-based preparation, pounding it with a rolling pin or kneading it with the fingers.
To sour :
When the ingredients of a sauce or a cream separate. Also used when a preparation goes off or coagulates.
Spatula :
Small supple rectangular plastic tool you use to scrape out the bottom of containers so as to waste a minimum of the mixture when you transfer from one container to another.
To spice up :
To heighten the flavour of a dish by adding ingredients (eg: meat glaze) or by reduction.
Sprigs :
Ends of stems or leaves of chervil, parsley, or watercress.
To sprinkle with flour :
To sprinkle a preparation with flour while cooking to obtain the liaison of the sauce.
Spurs :
Small sharp nails placed behind the legs of male birds. The spurs of aged animals are long and hard; merchants may cut them out.
Stainless steel bowl :
A stainless steel container in the shape of a salad bowl, but the bottom is either rounded or flat. It is used over heat to make all sorts of preparations.
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 stew vegetable :
To slowly cook onions or peppers at a low temperature on a hotplate.
To stick an onion :
Onion stuck with cloves.
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 strain :
To pour liquid into a .
To stuff :
To put a mixture of food inside a fruit, a vegetable, a meat or a fish.
To stuff with a slice of truffle :
Gently cut the skin of a poultry or a game bird or fish and slip in a slice of truffle.
Stuffing :
Mixture made of chopped food, seasoned and sometimes thickened, used to make quenelles, patés, galantines or to dress meats.
Supreme :
Fleshy part of poultry wing.
To sweat vegetables :
Heat vegetables in fat to concentrate their juices in the fat.