Cooking, grilling and roasting. Blanching, flambéing and caramelising. Cutting tourné, brunoise or julienne. These are all well-known cooking techniques that I have now mastered effortlessly thanks to years of experience. They seem complex at first glance, but if you follow my tips, you will be on your way in no time! Sharpening knives a distant dream? Pickling vegetables, fish or meat? Dive into my cooking techniques and get started right away. Or save my ready-to-use cooking advice for later. Ready? Set. Impress!
- Au bain-marie : in a bowl that you place in boiling water, this 'hot water bath' is also a commonly used technique for melting chocolate
- Basting : sprinkling meat or fish with roasting juices to prevent it from drying out and to give the ingredient extra colour and flavour, a technique often used for roast dishes (see roasting)
- Baking: briefly cook vegetables, potatoes, meat, fish or poultry in a pan with hot fat until they have a light brown crust.
- Barding : wrapping meat, fish, poultry with bacon provides extra flavor, a tender texture and prevents drying out
- Blanching : cook vegetables in boiling salted water and then immerse them in cold water to quickly stop the cooking process, resulting in vegetables that are al dente and retain their original colour and flavour
- Roasting: crust meat, game, poultry, fish, shellfish or potatoes in a pan (see isolating) and then continue cooking in a preheated oven, the result is a crispy crust and a tender texture on the inside
- Deglazing : after roasting meat, fish or poultry, loosen the residues with water, beer, wine or stock as a basis for a sauce or gravy
- Decorticating : removing meat from lobster/mussels.
- Flambé : add an alcoholic beverage to the ingredients in the pan and put it on fire; as the alcohol evaporates, the dish absorbs the flavor of the beverage
- Deep frying: cooking ingredients in hot fat at a very high temperature so that the inside is cooked and the outside gets a crispy crust. The best-known example is of course our Belgian fries.
- Frying : Heat vegetables in a small amount of hot oil until soft and translucent.
- Glazing : heating al dente vegetables with butter, sugar or honey to give them a shiny exterior; glazing meat is usually done by thickening the roasting juices to a syrupy sauce
- Grilling: Grilling meat, fish or vegetables at a very high temperature in a ribbed pan or on a grill plate. The radiant heat of the grill (pan) does all the work, so you need little fat and therefore cook quite healthily
- Caramelize : heat sugar until it becomes liquid, light brown and syrupy
- Confit : cooking meat at a low temperature in animal fat (e.g. confit de canard) or sugar (e.g. ginger or lemon)
- Larding : threading meat with bacon adds extra flavor, a tender texture and prevents drying out (see also barding)
- Papillotte: cook meat, fish or vegetables together with herbs and some liquid (stock, wine) in a package of aluminum foil, greaseproof paper or cabbage leaves, this can be done in the oven or on the barbecue
- Plicating: peeling ingredients by briefly immersing them in boiling water, often used with tomatoes and peppers
- Poaching: cooking ingredients in a liquid (stock, water) that is not warmer than 90°C. The product remains very tender and the flavours are optimally preserved
- To isolate (or crust): sear potatoes, meat or poultry in a hot pan until it has a brown crust
- Stir-frying (or wokking): cooking ingredients very quickly at a very high temperature by continuously turning or stirring them in a wok with a hollow bottom and high edges, in this way the colour, flavour and vitamins are better preserved
- Smoking: cooking meat, poultry, vegetables, etc. at a low temperature in a smoker. Used to be used to preserve ingredients longer, now it is mainly done for the delicious smoky flavor, this can also be done on a barbecue
- Braising (or braising): cooking meat slowly at a low temperature in a pan with a thick bottom by first crusting it and then continuing to cook with extra liquid (beer, wine, stock) under a lid
- Steaming: cooking ingredients using hot steam in a steam basket over boiling water or in a steam oven
- Stewing: cooking meat slowly at a low temperature in liquid (beer, wine, stock), similar to braising but with more liquid
