Tinfoil Chef

It’s really only in the past year or two that I’ve started learning much about cooking, food in general and some of the terminology and before that I knew nothing about most of the terms used. And lets face it, partly because some of them were taken from French and other languages, perfectly reasonable things can sound like you’re talking about acne treatments or anything but food.

For example “Crème patisserie” is a good candidate for a native English speaking American like myself to make that kind of mistake with. However it’s actually a custard that’s made with eggs, flour (or sometimes other starches are used.), milk, sugar, and various flavorings. It’s often used to fill or decorate pastries. It’s also used as the base for puddings, pies, soufflés, and creams.

Caramelize always sounded like you’re turning something into caramel. Actually it’s being heated and gently browned in a way that caramelizes the natural sugars & such in it. It enhances the flavor of lots of foods. You could brown meats in order to caramelize the juices and bring out more of the flavor. Many chopped vegetables, especially aromatic ones like onions and carrots are often caramelized, perhaps with chopped up pieces of meat, in little bit of fat before the liquid is added in order to enhance the flavor of soups, stews, and sauces.

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