Techniques
The methods these recipes turn on. Notes are written in their own sessions rather than at intake, so a technique can be in use here before anything has been written about it.
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Baking
Cooking in dry ambient oven heat. The structure-setting method for batters and doughs, where the oven sets a set of chemical changes going rather than just heating the food through.
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browning
Deliberate high-heat surface browning for flavour — searing a steak, taking onions past golden, building fond in a pan. Covers everything a source might call searing, caramelising the meat, or the Maillard reaction.
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creaming
Beating solid fat and sugar together until pale and aerated. The sugar crystals cut air pockets into the fat, and those pockets are the crumb of the finished cake.
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folding
Combining an aerated mixture with a heavier one without knocking the air back out.
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pan-frying
Shallow fat, food left still long enough to form a crust, cooked through in the pan.
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reducing
Boiling liquid away to concentrate flavour and thicken by evaporation alone.
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resting
Deliberately leaving something alone — dough to let gluten relax, meat to let juices redistribute, batter to hydrate.
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sauteing
Fast cooking in a little fat in a hot pan with the food kept moving. Distinguished from pan-frying by motion and by the food not being cooked through by this step alone.
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setting
Firming a mixture by chilling or by a gelling agent — custards, mousses, jellies, ganache, no-bake bases.
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simmering
Held just below the boil, where liquid moves but does not break the surface. The default for anything that would be damaged by agitation.
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toasting
Dry heat applied to nuts, spices, grains or bread to drive off moisture and develop aroma before they are used.
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whipping
Beating air into a liquid — cream, egg whites — until it holds structure.