Understanding Cooking Terms Part 1

Slice, chop, dice, mince…

Add a dash, a pinch or a smidgen…

Confused by cooking terms?

In this 3 part series, we’ll summarize some common cooking terms.

Let’s begin with different ways to cut-up food.

Slice Slicing refers to cutting large ingredients into similarly shaped, flat pieces, such as sliced bread or sliced potato.
Julienne Julienne refers to cutting food into long thin strips, similar to matchsticks, such as julienned carrots.
Chop Chopping refers to cutting food up into smaller pieces – usually in no particular shape or size, unless specified in a recipe.
Dice Dicing refers to cutting food into square-shaped pieces. These pieces are usually smaller and more uniform in size than when chopping.
Shred Shredding refers to tearing, cutting or scraping food into strips, such as shredded cheese. This is often done using the larger holes on a food grater.
Grate Grating refers to cutting food into very small shreds using the smaller holes of a food grater, such as grated parmesan cheese.
Mince Mincing refers to cutting food up into very small pieces, similar to crumbled ground beef. This often requires the use of a food processor or blender.
Puree Puréeing refers to breaking food into extremely small pieces until it has a pudding-like consistency. This will require the use of a food processor or blender.

Moving on to measurements. Most measurements are self-explanatory and have corresponding tools for measuring… a cup, a tablespoon, a teaspoon…

But what exactly is a dash, a pinch or a smidgen? These types of measurements allow for flexibility depending on your personal tastes.

In general:

a dash is approximately 1/8 teaspoon
a pinch about 1/16 teaspoon
a smidgen is about 1/32 teaspoon
season to taste (often used for salt and pepper) means the amount you add is completely up to you

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/foodanddrink/foodnews/finally-a-definition-of-what-all-those-crazy-cooking-terms-mean/ss-AAoYyOo?li=AAggsmr&ocid=AARDHP