Recipe terms and abbreviations explained

Recipes are written in a shorthand that cooks pick up over years. If you are new to cooking, or new to recipes written in English, a single unknown word can stop you. This page explains the abbreviations and the common cooking words in plain language, with the Indian kitchen word beside the English one where there is one.

Abbreviations for measures

tsp or t: teaspoon, 5 ml.
tbsp, tbs or T: tablespoon, 15 ml. A capital T is a tablespoon and a small t is a teaspoon, which is an easy way to triple the salt by mistake.
c: cup.
ml, l: millilitre, litre.
g, kg: gram, kilogram.
oz: ounce, about 28 g. fl oz: fluid ounce, about 30 ml.
lb: pound, about 454 g.
pt, qt: pint and quart, American liquid measures of about 473 ml and 946 ml.
°C, °F: degrees Celsius and Fahrenheit. An oven at 350 °F is at 180 °C.

Conversions for all of these are on the measures, grams to ounces and oven temperatures pages.

Words about amounts

Level: filled, then swept flat. The normal meaning of any spoon or cup measure.
Heaped: piled up. Rounded: gently domed. Scant: slightly less than level.
Pinch (chutki): what two fingers pick up. Dash: a few drops or a small shake.
To taste: add a little, taste, and repeat until you like it.
Divided: the ingredient is used at two different steps. "1 cup sugar, divided" means do not add it all at once. Read ahead to see where each part goes.
Packed: pressed down into the cup, as for brown sugar.
Sifted flour / flour, sifted: "1 cup sifted flour" is sifted first, then measured. "1 cup flour, sifted" is measured first, then sifted.

Cutting

Chop: cut into small, roughly even pieces. Finely chop: very small pieces, as for onions in a masala.
Dice: small neat cubes. Cube: larger cubes, as for paneer or potatoes.
Mince: chop as finely as possible, almost to a paste, as for garlic and ginger.
Slice: thin flat pieces. Julienne: thin matchsticks, as for ginger on a dal.
Grate: rub on a grater (kaddukas). Zest: the coloured outer skin of a lemon or orange, grated without the white part underneath, which is bitter.

Mixing

Stir: move a spoon round to combine.
Beat: stir fast and hard to make smooth or to add air.
Whisk: beat with a wire whisk or a fork, as for eggs, curd or besan batter.
Cream: beat soft butter with sugar until pale and fluffy. This traps the air that helps a cake rise.
Fold: combine gently, without knocking out air. Cut down through the middle with a spatula, sweep along the bottom and turn the mixture over on itself. Used when adding flour or whipped egg white to a cake batter.
Knead (goondhna): press, stretch and fold dough with the hands until smooth.
Rub in: rub cold fat into flour with the fingertips until it looks like breadcrumbs. This is the "moyan" step for mathri and shortcrust.
Rest: leave dough or batter alone for a while, covered, so that it relaxes or swells.
Proof / prove: let yeast dough rise.

Cooking on the stove

Boil: large bubbles breaking the surface all over. Rolling boil: a strong boil that does not stop when stirred.
Simmer: small, lazy bubbles on low heat. Most dals and curries finish at a simmer.
Sauté: cook quickly in a little oil, stirring. Sweat: cook gently, covered or on low heat, so that onions soften without browning.
Brown / caramelise: cook until deep golden. Browned onions are the base of most gravies.
Bhunao (bhuna): fry a masala, stirring, until the raw smell goes and oil shows at the edges. There is no single English word for it, and it is the step that most decides the taste of a curry.
Temper (tadka, chhaunk, baghaar): heat whole spices briefly in hot oil or ghee until they crackle, then pour over a dish or build the dish on top. In Western baking, "temper" has other meanings: warming eggs slowly with hot liquid, or melting chocolate in a controlled way.
Deglaze: add a splash of liquid to a hot pan and scrape up the browned bits. Indian cooks do this each time they add a spoon of water to a sticking masala.
Reduce: boil without a lid so that liquid evaporates and the sauce thickens.
Blanch: dip in boiling water for a minute or two, then cool in cold water. Used to peel tomatoes and almonds and to keep greens bright.
Parboil: boil until half cooked, as for potatoes before frying or rice for biryani.
Steam: cook above boiling water, not in it, as for idli, dhokla and momos.
Dum: cook slowly in a sealed pot on very low heat, in the food's own steam, as for biryani.
Dry roast (bhoonna): heat in a dry pan, stirring, until fragrant, as for sooji, besan, peanuts and whole spices.
Shallow fry / deep fry: fry in a little oil that comes partway up the food, or in enough oil to cover it.

Baking

Preheat: switch the oven on early so it reaches the set temperature before the food goes in, usually 10 to 15 minutes.
Grease and line: rub the tin with butter or oil and cover the base with baking paper so the cake comes out whole.
Bake blind: bake a pastry case empty, weighed down with dried beans on paper, before filling it.
Soft peaks / stiff peaks: stages of whipped cream or egg white. Lift the whisk: a soft peak droops over, a stiff peak stands straight.
Room temperature: not cold from the fridge. Butter, eggs and milk mix more smoothly when none of them is cold.
Skewer test: a thin stick pushed into the centre of a cake comes out clean when the cake is done.

Finishing

Garnish: a final touch on top, such as chopped coriander.
Season: add salt, and pepper or spice, to taste.
Rest (for meat): leave cooked meat alone for a few minutes before cutting, so the juices settle.
Marinate: soak in a spiced mixture before cooking.
Strain / sieve (chhanna): pour through a sieve or cloth to remove solids.

For the English and Hindi names of ingredients, see the lists of spices, dals and grains and vegetables.

Questions people ask

What is the difference between tsp and tbsp?

tsp is a teaspoon, 5 ml. tbsp is a tablespoon, 15 ml, three times as much.

What does fold mean in baking?

To combine gently with a spatula, cutting down and turning the mixture over, so that the air beaten into it is not lost.

What is tadka called in English?

Tempering: whole spices heated briefly in hot oil or ghee until they crackle.

What does simmer mean?

To cook on low heat with small, slow bubbles, below a full boil.