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The process of cutting food into small cubes of equal size so that the food is evenly cooked and/or pleasant in appearance for the recipe. Dicing, unlike chopping or mincing, is a precision cut that is consistent in size.

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Boiling is the method of cooking food in boiling water or other water-based liquids such as stock or milk. Simmering is gentle boiling, while in poaching the cooking liquid moves but scarcely bubbles.

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a mixture of fat (especially butter) and flour used in making sauces.
https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/how-to-make-a-roux

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fried quickly in a little hot fat

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Par-baking is a cooking technique in which a bread or dough product is partially baked and then rapidly frozen for storage. The raw dough is baked normally, but halted at about 80% of the normal cooking time, when it is rapidly cooled and frozen.

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work (moistened flour or clay) into dough or paste with the hands.

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'Cut in' means working solid shortening into dry ingredients with two knives or a pastry blender until well mixed. When making a pastry, solid shortening, lard, or butter is cut in to a flour mixture until the particles are the size of small peas.

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There are several alternatives to using a pastry blender. One is to work the fat into the flour with the fingertips, though this requires having a good "touch" and knowing just how lightly to work the fat into the flour without melting it.

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A pastry brush, also known as a basting brush, is acooking utensil used to spread butter, oil or glaze on food. Traditional pastry brushes are made with natural bristles or a plastic or nylon fiber similar to a paint brush, while modern kitchen brushes may have silicone bristles.

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theculinarycook.com

The biscuit method is a method for making quick breads such as scones and, well, biscuits. ... Thebiscuit method is one of the only mixing methods that does not require you to have all of your ingredients at room temperature. Your fats and liquids should be cold for the biscuit method.

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'Cut in' means working solid shortening into dry ingredients with two knives or a pastry blender until well mixed. When making a pastry, solid shortening, lard, or butter is cut in to a flour mixture until the particles are the size of small peas.

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The sour cream allows the baked good to rise.

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The liquid portion of a cake recipe can be easily overlooked as an insignificant ingredient but, it plays an important role in the character of the cake. In this segment I will take a look the differences in three different types of dairy products and how varying these will change the resulting cake. The three dairy products are whole milk, buttermilk and sour cream. Let's delve in and see what changes happen and the properties that of the dairy items that lead to these changes.

The main properties of the liquids that affect cake are acidity and fat.

Acids in a batter have an effect on protein interaction and starch gelation.

Fat in batter provides moisture, and by coating gluten forming proteins, reduces gluten formation and thus tenderizes the cake.

When you alter the type of liquid that goes into a cake batter you redefine the balance and interplay of the fats and acidity. Whole milk is a relatively neutral liquid and provides around 9 grams of fat per cup. It provides little acidity but is moderate in the fat department. Buttermilk, which is generally derived from low-fat or non-fat milk contains little fat at approximately 2.5 grams per cup but offers greater acidity at around 1% acid content. Sour cream has acidity akin to buttermilk at about 0.8% but unlike buttermilk, sour cream also imbues a batter with 40 grams of fat per cup.

How does changing these ingredients actually play out in a cake recipe? It seems that acidity truly is an important factor of cake liquid. The cake baked with whole milk was slightly darker in color that the acid containing cakes and the milk cake had a coarse crumb. The coarseness of the crumb is likely caused by the lack of acidity, which allows gluten proteins to readily form, and the neutral liquid which can bolster gluten formation. The milk cake was also slightly bland in flavor compared to the others because of its mild flavor.

The buttermilk cake was lighter in texture and had a tenderer crumb. Interestingly, the cake did not seem to suffer significantly from the reduction of fat. It was as moist as the whole milk cake. The buttermilk cake did have the advantage for flavor though. It provided a mild complexity that was not too tangy.

The sour cream cake had a very fine, tender crumb. The sour cream contains acidity as well as sizable amounts of fat. This combination generated a cake with a very appealing texture. The sour cream cake was also light in texture and at the same time moist. This cake, like the buttermilk had a lovely flavor that was brought about by the subtle sour acid notes in the sour cream.

Acidity and fat derived from liquids can have a great impact on the outcome of a cake. My preference is for a cake containing sour cream which offers a beautiful balance of acidity and fat that translates into a flavorful cake with a fine moist crumb.

Happy baking!

Now read my article, Mixing Up The Perfect Cake.
See exactly how long to mix butter and sugar together!

Next see If Sifting Makes a Better Cake.
I think you'll be surprised by my results!

And don't miss my article, The Meringue Buttercream Myth!
It's a unique new way to make Swiss Meringue Butterceam.

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The liquid portion of a cake recipe can be easily overlooked as an insignificant ingredient but, it plays an important role in the character of the cake. In this segment I will take a look the differences in three different types of dairy products and how varying these will change the resulting cake.

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The term can also apply to a recipe that requires less mixing (for example, a tender crumb). Folding is usually executed with a rubber spatula for liquid and dry ingredients, or with a wire whisk for whipped cream and egg whites so that the mixture gently incorporates as it falls through the wires.

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The stirring method (also known as the quick-bread method, blending method, or muffin method) is used for pancakes, muffins, corn bread, dumplings, and fritters. It calls for measurement of dry and wet ingredients separately, then quickly mixing the two.

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No it's not some odd, pastry-based form of birth control. It's one of the simpler of the Big Five mixing methods, something every baker should know. Simply put, the Muffin Method is a technique whereby two mixes are created: a mix of wet ingredients (eggs, soft or liquid fat, milk and sugar) and a mix [...]

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A crumbly topping of filling made from fat, flour, sugar, and cinnamon A cake or pastry sometimes have a streusel topping.

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Streusel Topping Recipe - Genius Kitchen

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this is good on muffins and cofeecakes, pies and other things...I like to keep this on hand in the freezer

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Dropped cookie is made from a soft dough. The cookie is dropped or pushed from a spoon onto a cookie sheet. About 2 inches of space is left between cookies. The cookies will spread more than rolled cookies.

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sweetened cookie made from a dense dough.

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Use one batch of dough for both the crust and streusel topping in this energizing, fruit-packed favorite that'll satisfy a sweet tooth.
Source: Everyday Food, May 2008

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Use one batch of dough for both the crust and streusel topping in this energizing, fruit-packed favorite that'll satisfy a sweet tooth. Source: Everyday Food, May 2008 The Food Newsletter Great tips & recipes delivered to your inbox. Sign Me Up Ingredients Directions Cook's Notes Similar Recipes

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Cookies made by shaping dough by hand into small balls, logs, and other shapes.

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A white, crystalline, acidic compound obtained as a byproduct of wine fermentation and used chiefly in baking powder.

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Caramelization or caramelisation is the oxidation of sugar, a process used extensively in cooking for the resulting nutty flavor and brown color. Caramelization is a type of non-enzymatic browning reaction.

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Temperatures during cooking -- Caramelization

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An ice-cream scoop

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the chemical breakdown of a substance by bacteria, yeasts, or other microorganisms, typically involving effervescence and the giving off of heat.

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A chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars that gives browned food its distinctive flavor.

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If you're a regular reader of Serious Eats, you've definitely seen us refer to the Maillard reaction time and again. That's because the Maillard reaction is responsible for the browned, complex flavors that make bread taste toasty and malty, burgers taste charred, and coffee taste dark and robust. If you plan on cooking tonight, chances are you'll be using the Maillard reaction to transform your raw ingredients into a better sensory experience.

But the Maillard reaction doesn't just make food taste delicious. Understanding the reaction, even on a surface level (that's a Maillard pun, and you'll totally get it soon), is a gateway to understanding the chemical and physical processes of cooking. Grasping the variables involved and learning how to manipulate them is one of the best ways to become a more confident cook-it's the difference between being a slave to a recipe and being free to make a recipe work for you.

The good news is that the Maillard reaction is everywhere, which means plenty of chances to practice and learn. We use it so often that it's easy to forget it's there, but when it's missing, you'll certainly notice. Imagine a steak that tastes boiled instead of roasted, or a stir-fry that tastes more like a stir-steam. Each one represents a missed opportunity to exploit the Maillard reaction's potential.

So, What Is the Maillard Reaction?

The Maillard reaction is complex. So complex, in fact, that it's only in the last few years that scientists have begun to figure out what it actually is. While they still don't entirely understand it, they do know the basics: The Maillard reaction is many small, simultaneous chemical reactions that occur when proteins and sugars in and on your food are transformed by heat, producing new flavors, aromas, and colors.

Practically speaking, the Maillard reaction makes food more enticing to us humans, encouraging us to dig into a steak, drink a coffee, or chug a beer.* Unlike all the other omnivores prowling this earth, we no longer tend to find a hunk of raw cow shoulder particularly appetizing. But if that same muscle is ground up, formed into patties, and seared on a flattop, we'll eagerly line up around the block. In large part, that's because we have evolved to respond to two important signals when encountering food. The first is a "nutrition" signal that tells us the food will deliver a hefty dose of easily digestible calories, vitamins, and minerals. The second is a "general harmlessness" signal that tells us the food won't kill us. The Maillard reaction is evolution's way of combining these two signals into one super-signal, specific to the roasty or browned flavors of cooked food.
* Yes, even beer undergoes the Maillard reaction-when the grains are roasted prior to brewing.
All that cooking we've come to seek out is, at its heart, the process of applying heat to food over a period of time. If all goes well, it also makes you hungry. A burger, to extend our example, is composed of a basic set of building blocks: proteins, sugars, and water. The Maillard reaction is what can happen to those proteins and sugars when heat and time are added to the equation.

Long story short: With the right amount of heat, moisture, and time, those specific sugars and proteins will act like a couple of lust-drunk lovers making out in the back of a Chevy, rapidly becoming a tangled, hot mess, until, nine months later, a whole new creation emerges. Except that with the proteins and sugars, it takes minutes, not months, and instead of a child, the result is an increasingly complex array of flavor and aroma molecules, along with a darker color courtesy of newly formed edible pigment molecules called melanoidins.

Heat, Moisture, and Time

The first thing you need for the Maillard reaction to take place is heat. A steak left to sit on the counter for a week at room temperature will certainly undergo some chemical changes, but the Maillard won't be one of them.

That steak doesn't just need heat, though-it needs a relatively high level of it if you want surface browning to kick in. Boiling water, which tops out at 212°F (100°C) at sea level, isn't hot enough. That's why a boiled steak turns gray instead of dark brown, exciting the palate of exactly no one.

The Maillard can work at lower temperatures, and with a lot more water. If you cook a chicken or beef or vegetable stock at a bare simmer for eight or 12 hours, the result is still a brown, fragrant liquid-a dead giveaway that the Maillard has occurred.

But most of us aren't cooking stocks for that many hours, and none of us are boiling a steak for anywhere close to that period of time. Instead, we're roasting, frying, and grilling. These cooking processes happen relatively fast, in minutes rather than hours, and for the Maillard to happen quickly, we need to drive off enough moisture to break free of that 212° cap.

By cooking a steak in a ripping-hot skillet, you can dehydrate its surface thoroughly enough that the temperatures on that surface will begin to climb, to upwards of 300°F (149°C). At that point, the Maillard reaction will kick into full gear, creating new flavors, aromas, and the characteristic brown colors that give the reaction its more commonplace name, the "browning reaction."

This is why it can be a smart move to pat your meat dry with towels or let it dry in the fridge for several hours before you cook it. It's also why you should salt your meat either more than 45 minutes in advance of cooking (allowing enough time for the salt to draw out moisture through osmosis from the meat, which then reabsorbs that salty brine, turning the meat more tender and moist) or immediately before (allowing you to avoid significant moisture loss through osmosis altogether). Ideally, you'll have enough time to combine the two using a technique called dry-brining: salting the meat generously, then letting it air-dry in the fridge at least overnight and up to a few days before cooking. You'll end up with meat that's deeply seasoned while also sporting a nicely dried surface, perfectly primed for maximum Maillard once roasted or seared.

Proteins and Sugars

Heat, moisture, and time may be key to getting the Maillard reaction going, but without proteins and sugars to work with, it simply won't happen. Proteins are long chains of amino acids, crumpled up like wads of paper. Some of them are Maillard-susceptible, meaning they really love to bond with sugars. But not just any sugar will do. Molecules of complex sugars, like starches or table sugars, are too big to react with Maillard proteins. Instead, these proteins require "reducing sugars," which are essentially simple sugars that attract amino acids at certain moisture and temperature levels.

That's a critical point: The Maillard reaction starts with a somewhat limited set of proteins and sugar molecules, and, as these bond and mix over time, more and more new molecules are added to the equation. It's kind of an incestuous molecular orgy, when you stop to think about it. (Gross! And also...yum!) These promiscuous molecules mix and match over and over, billions and trillions of times per second, on the surface of a food, forming a growing, recursive, recombinatory aroma and flavor engine.

This engine is influenced by temperature, time, and pH-all things that home cooks can control. If you want to make lots of flavor and aroma compounds, just raise the pH a little with baking soda (as Kenji does to make quick-caramelized onions for his Pressure Cooker French Onion Soup). Looking for a crisp, browned crust? Just lower the pH with a little acid, or increase the temperature. Want a little of both? Frying in fats gives you the best of both worlds.

But...Why Do We Like It?

Let's think about the humble potato for a moment. A raw potato, most of us would agree, is pretty unappealing. Sure, you can eat a raw potato, and it won't hurt you-after all, it's just a large lump of concentrated starch, and starch is energy that's essential to our survival. But, thanks to the twists and turns of our evolution, we humans can no longer efficiently digest that raw spud. Our digestive system would struggle to break down a potato's complex starches into simpler ones, and it would fail to extract many of the nutrients hidden inside. Cooking breaks down the starches and unlocks those nutrients, improving their ability to be absorbed into our bodies.

When we cut up a potato and then roast it, a sequence of events takes place. First, the water on the exposed surfaces mostly boils off, bursting the starches open into a fluffy mass and breaking them down into simpler sugars. As the heat on those surfaces increases due to the loss of water, the proteins and broken-down sugars begin to break down even more, then recombine. A familiar faint-brown color emerges on the surface of each potato chunk. Some of the various protein-sugar molecules created on the surface of the now-cooked potato will lift off into the hot air above the pan, wafting toward your nose. That smell of roasted potatoes tells your body that it's in the presence of a food that can provide it with nutrients it not only needs but can readily use. Take a bite, and your mouth confirms-it's delicious.

Now, I can see some of you in the back saying, "Wait a minute-mashed potatoes are my fave, and they aren't Maillard-ed at all!" You make an important point: Boiled and steamed potatoes, because of the high volume of water present during those relatively short cooking processes, do not undergo the Maillard reaction, yet can still produce delicious results. I'd argue, though, that these potatoes only really become delicious once they're mixed with some other source of flavor and aroma, like butter. Butter's main flavor molecule is called butyric acid, and butyrates, it just so happens, are also the primary aroma molecules produced by the Maillard reaction when meats are roasted. Almost always, the path leads back to the Maillard reaction.

There's More to Maillard Than Just Maillard

Here's the next thing you need to know: The Maillard reaction isn't the only reaction that can happen to those building blocks of protein, sugar, and water-and, depending on the ratios of those building blocks, you can get different effects out of the Maillard reaction itself.

Cookie dough, for example, is made up of the same building blocks as a steak. What differentiates the two is the proportions: A steak is obviously much higher in protein, while cookies have a lot more sugar. This has a profound effect not only on the way in which the Maillard reaction occurs, but also on the degree to which these foods experience other, related reactions, like caramelization.

Caramelization is what occurs when sugars are heated and begin to react with water in a process known as hydrolysis, breaking down and reforming into a complex, sweet, nutty, and slightly bitter substance known as... caramel. I like to think of caramelization as a first cousin to the Maillard reaction. When protein levels are low, sugar levels are high, and the temperature is north of 350°F (177°C)-such as in a batch of cookies baking in the oven-caramelization becomes a much more prominent factor. Like the Maillard reaction, caramelization also produces a darker color and more complex flavor, which is one of the reasons the two are often mistaken for each other.

Keep in mind that, though different, these reactions are not mutually exclusive. Both the Maillard reaction and caramelization can and do take place in both a steak and a cookie, but they produce markedly different, often complementary, flavors and aromas in each.

A steak is made of muscle, which is mostly protein and water and comparatively little sugar; the high concentration of protein leads to a Maillard reaction that yields more flavor molecules and fewer aromatic ones. Cookies, on the other hand, are the opposite: With a high volume of sugar and relatively little protein, the Maillard reaction produces more aromatic compounds and fewer flavor molecules.

On the other hand, because cookies have more sugar, they also undergo more robust caramelization, which contributes flavors that the Maillard reaction didn't. The steak, meanwhile, is short on Maillard-produced aromas, but thankfully, the scent of its lightly singed fat does the trick, contributing the aroma it might otherwise have lacked. The ability to leverage both of these processes can help us create more delicious food.

My grandfather used to say that cooking by recipes alone would have never given us the magic that is chicken and waffles. Sure, a recipe can show you how to make each one separately, but it's experimentation that taught us that putting both together tastes better. Knowledge of the Maillard reaction reveals my grandfather was even more right than he knew. Chicken and waffles go so well together because they are the perfect combination of different kinds of Maillard reactions. In the waffles, it's a sugar-heavy Maillard that's high on aroma and low on flavor; in the protein-heavy chicken, it's the opposite. Together, slathered in maple syrup (hello, caramelization!), you have an ideal science-driven meal just begging to be consumed.

It's another reminder that cooking is just edible science-the Maillard reaction is our geeky foundation, recipes our experiments, and you, our scientist, whose sustenance, satisfaction, and, ultimately, survival depend on the results.

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An Introduction to the Maillard Reaction: The Science of Browning, Aroma, and Flavor

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If you're a regular reader of Serious Eats, you've definitely seen us refer to the Maillard reaction time and again. That's because the Maillard reaction is responsible for the browned, complex flavors that make bread taste toasty and malty, burgers taste charred, and coffee taste dark and robust.

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The creaming method is softening solid fat it is most used when baking cookies.This is a great method to use when cooking! Just click the link and you will get a tutorial. :)

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The creaming method: probably one of the most referenced cooking methods in baking in the US. You've seen it, whether you know it or not: "Cream together butter and sugar." Or "Cream together shortening and sugar." Seems like an easy enough method, really, but as with all easy stuff, it's rarely simple.

Here's how it goes:

1. Cream together fat and sugar.

2. Add eggs, one at a time. (I further refine this process by beating the eggs together and then very slowly drizzling them into the creamed fat and sugar).

3. Sift together dry ingredients.

4. Mix wet ingredients(milk/water/cream/sour cream/extracts)

5. Alternate adding dry and wet ingredients, beginning and ending with dry.

Sounds straightforward, yes? There are a couple of things to remember about it, though. Here's the most important one:
The speed at which you cream the ingredients and the length of time you cream your ingredients and the temperature of your ingredients will all effect the final product.
And that, friends, is the fly in the ointment, the raisin in the peanut butter cookie, the clove in custard. When making cookies, make sure you cream slowly-low speed is great. Stop the mixer as soon as you no longer see butter and sugar, but a homogeneous paste. Unless you're making a cakey cookie, you're not looking for "light and fluffy" here.

If you're making a cake, make sure you cream on a higher speed for a longer period of time. You do want "light and fluffy" in this case.

So, what's the big deal? What happens during creaming is that the sugar crystals cut into the fat, making wee little pockets full of air. The air in the pockets expands in the oven, assisting with rise. The more pockets, the lighter and fluffier the mixture. The lighter and fluffier the mixture, the more air. The more air, the more rise. Get it? Cool, huh?

Now you can troubleshoot. Were your cookies too puffy the last time you made them, try creaming at a lower speed for less time. Was your cake kind of leaden and sad last time? Try creaming longer at a higher speed.

So, Jen-what's this about the temperature? All your ingredients should be at cool room temperature. That means milk, butter and eggs (and any other refrigerated ingredients) should be taken out of the fridge well before baking time. Cool room temperature-about 68 degrees-is the magical temperature at which butter (a very yummy and useful fat) is soft enough to blend easily with other ingredients but still firm enough to keep its shape. Its "plasticity," if you will. That means that the butter can "stretch" to hold a lot of air. In the creaming method, this is a Very Good Thing.

Why does the milk and eggs have to be at room temp, too? Well, you've worked so hard to keep your butter plastic, the last thing you want to do is have it seize up again and get hard when you add 40 degree milk or eggs.

Now, go forth and cream away!

For a more detailed look at the steps in the creaming method as well as the difference between creaming for cookies and cakes, please see: The Creaming Method.

Tools of the Trade

Depending on how frequently you decide to make cakes and or cookies, you can spend not too much to a very lot for equipment. But honestly, the headaches you will save by purchasing quality equipment! Do take a look at my recommendations. They are affiliate links, so thank you for your support and for helping me keep the lights on around here. I'm also recommending a couple of really sound cake cookbooks that utilize the creaming method in most of the recipes.

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The Creaming Method | What It Is and How to Do It

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The creaming method: probably one of the most referenced cooking methods in baking in the US. You've seen it, whether you know it or not: "Cream together butter and sugar." Or "Cream together shortening and sugar." Seems like an easy enough method, really, but as with all easy stuff, it's rarely simple.