goodcooking.com's Food & Cooking Dictionary

Cake pan: A round baking pan with straight sides, commonly in 8-inch, 9-inch and other sizes.

Calamari: Italian for squid, often used to describe squid dishes.

Caracoles: Spanish for snails.

Caramel: Burnt sugar used for sauces, coloring, flavoring and candy.

Caramelization: The browning of natural sugars when exposed to heat, as with onions or carrots.

Caramelize: To cook sugar until it colors, or to cook vegetables slowly until their natural sugars brown.

Cebolla: Spanish for onion.

Cerveza: Spanish for beer.

Channa: Indian term for chickpeas.

Chervil: A delicate parsley-like herb with faint licorice notes.

Chicory: A leafy vegetable used in salads and also added to coffee in parts of the Deep South.

Chiffon: A puréed filling made light and fluffy with beaten egg whites, gelatin and/or whipped cream.

Chiffonade: Leafy vegetables or herbs cut into fine julienne strips.

Chinoise: A very fine conical wire-mesh strainer used to remove impurities from liquids.

Chop: To cut into irregular pieces with no exact size.

Chou: French for cabbage.

Chow-chow: A sweet relish of pickles and other vegetables.

Chutney: A spicy relish made with fruits, spices, sugar and herbs, often served with curry.

Cilantro: A parsley-like herb with a flavor reminiscent of basil, mint and green onion, popular in Latin and Asian cuisines.

Clarify: To make a liquid clear, often with egg whites, meat and tomato, or to melt butter so the pure butterfat can be separated.

Coat: To cover food evenly with flour, crumbs, herbs, oil or batter.

Coddle: To cook gently in liquid just below the boiling point.

Combine: To mix two or more ingredients into one mixture.

Concasse: Applied to tomatoes: peeled, seeded and chopped, either raw or cooked.

Concasser: To chop coarsely.

Confit: Meat slowly cooked in its own rendered fat until very tender, then stored submerged in that fat.

Consommé: A clear soup made from richly flavored stock that has been clarified.

Core: To remove the inedible center of fruits such as apples and pears.

Coulis: A semi-thick sauce made from strained fruit or vegetable purée.

Cream: To beat butter, shortening or margarine, with or without sugar, until light and fluffy.

Crimp: To make a decorative edge on pie crust and seal the edges together.

Crisp: To restore crunch to vegetables or crackers; also a baked fruit dessert with a crunchy topping.

Croquettes: Chopped seasoned food bound together, shaped, breaded and fried.

Crush: To reduce a food to small particles using pressure, such as with a mortar and pestle or rolling pin.

Crystallize: To form sugar into crystals, or to coat fruit in a sugar crust.

Cube: To cut into evenly sized pieces.

Cull: A lobster with one claw.

Curd: A custard-like filling made with eggs, sugar and citrus, or the solids formed in milk during cheesemaking.

Curdle: The separation of a milk- or cream-based sauce, or the overcooking of eggs.

Cure: To preserve an ingredient with salt, sugar and/or spices.

Custard: A mixture of eggs, milk and other ingredients cooked gently, often in a water bath.

Cut in: To work fat into dry ingredients for even distribution, as in pie crust.