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Bake - To cook food by surrounding with hot, dry heat in an enclosed space.
Baby back ribs - A slab of ribs cut from the pork primal loin and weighing 1.75 pounds or less.
Bamboo steamer - An assembly of stacked bamboo baskets with one 
lid that is placed over boiling water in a wok to steam foods. The steamers are available from 4 to 11 inches in diameter, and should be steamed and washed before initial use. See more Chinese cooking utensils here.
Baste To brush or spoon drippings or a prepared mixture over food intermittently as it cooks. This adds to the flavor, provides color or glaze, and helps prevent food from drying out.
Batter - A mixture, usually containing flour, milk or water, eggs and a leavening agent - that may be baked into a foodstuff or used to coat food before baking or frying.
Beat - To vigorously stir a food. Beating quickly adds air to a liquid and ensures thorough mixing of ingredients.
Beef fillet - The undercut of the sirloin of beef that is tender and has a delicate flavor.
Beta Carotene - A naturally occurring nutrient found in plants and vegetables that acts as an antioxidant. When consumed, beta carotene is converted into vitamin A.
Bind - to add ingredient that holds other ingredients together
Blanching -
Method 1 : Dip food into boiling water for a few minutes, then plunge it into cold water. This is use for helping to remove the skins from tomatoes, peaches, almonds, or for shrinking fruit, for example apples.
Method 2 : Place the food in cold water and bring it to boil. Remove the food and plunge it into cold water to cool it rapidly. This method is used for preparing offal or meat sundries for cooking.
Blending - This means mixing thoroughly. In the case of thickening a liquid with flour, blending is the term used to describe the process of mixing the flour to a smooth paste with a little cold liquid, before adding the hot liquid.
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Boiling - Strictly speaking, this means cooking food in boiling water (A liquid is boiling when the surface is continually agitated by large bubbles). In practice, however, many 'boiled' foods are cooked at a temperature below boiling point, that is, they are simmered or poached. All meat, fish, poultry and stews should be simmered. Vegetables, peas, puddings, beans, lentils, etc are boiled. Sufficient heat should be applied to keep the liquid bubbling gently. |
| Violent boiling should be avoided. It wastes fuel; it does not cook the food any faster, it tends to make the food break up and so spoils the appearance; the liquid is evaporated too quickly with the consequent danger of the food burning. There are one or two exceptions to this rule; for example, when one wants to drive off water quickly from syrup or a sauce to make it thicker, then violent boiling with the lid off hastens the process. |
Bouillon A seasoned broth or stock produced by cooking meat, vegetables or fish in liquid and straining out all particulate matter. Used as a base in many recipes.
Breast - The fleshy white meat between the neck and abdomen of poultry.
Brisket - A cut of beef (or mutton) taken from the breast section; sold without the bone and divided into two sections. The flat cut has minimal fat and is usually more expensive than the more flavorful point cut, which has more fat. Brisket requires long, slow cooking.
Broiling - To cook with direct, high heat radiating from an overhead source.
Broth - Flavored liquid obtained from simmering meat, fish or vegetables.
Brown stock - Made by browning/caramelizing bones, meat, vegetables and other seasoning ingredients, then simmering in a liquid; can be used as a soup base or a variety of dishes.
Brunoise - refers to cutting food into small dice where 1/8-inch square is the standard.
Bruise - to crush an aromatic ingredients slightly to release its flavor and aroma.
Buddha Jumping over the Wall - The dish consists of double-boiled thick soup containing shark's fin, abalone, sea cucumber, mushroom, conpoy, chicken stock and other expensive ingredients. It is supposed to be so tasty that even the Buddha, a vegetarian, would find it irresistible, hence its name.
Butterfly - to halve food (usually meat, poultry, or shellfish) horizontally without cutting all the way through, so that the food opens like a book or a butterfly’s wings.
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