- Industry: Printing & publishing
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Founded in 1941, Barron's Educational Series is a leading publisher of test preparation manuals and school directories. Among the most widely recognized of Barron's many titles in these areas are its SAT and ACT test prep books, its Regents Exams books, and its Profiles of American Colleges. In ...
A mortar is a bowl-shaped container and a pestle is a rounded, batlike instrument. As a pair, the mortar and pestle are used for grinding and pulverizing spices, herbs and other foods. The pestle is pressed against the mortar and rotated, grinding the ingredient between them until the desired consistency is obtained. The mortar and pestle are usually made from the same material, generally marble, hardwood, porcelain or stoneware. The Mexican term for mortar and pestle is "molcajete Y tejolete. "
Industry:Culinary arts
A classic Chinese specialty made from the nest of an Asian bird similar to the swift. These birds attach their nests to cavern walls in Southeast Asia by using a gelatinous spit. Because of their hazardous location, the nests are dangerous to collect and therefore very expensive. White nests and black nests are the two types used. The more desirable of the two are the white nests, composed mainly of the weblike strands of saliva and containing few foreign particles. Black nests contain feathers, twigs and insects and are labor intensive to clean. Both types must be cleaned and soaked overnight before using. They're available in Chinese markets.
Industry:Culinary arts
The Middle Eastern equivalent of clotted cream, kaymak is made by gently heating milk (usually from water buffaloes or goats) until a rich, semisolid layer of cream forms on the surface. After it's cooled, the kaymak is typically used as a spread for bread.
Industry:Culinary arts
The olive branch has long been a symbol of peace, and the silvery-leaved olive tree has been considered sacred at least as far back as the 17th century b. C. Native to the Mediterranean area, the olive is a small, oily fruit that contains a pit. It's grown both for its fruit and its oil in subtropical zones including the United States (Arizona, California and New Mexico), Latin America and throughout the Mediterranean. Olive varieties number in the dozens and vary in size and flavor. All fresh olives are bitter and the final flavor of the fruit greatly depends on how ripe it is when picked and the processing it receives. Underripe olives are always green, whereas ripe olives may be either green or black. Spanish olives are picked young, soaked in lye, then fermented in brine for 6 to 12 months. When bottled, they're packed in a weak brine and sold in a variety of forms including pitted, unpitted or stuffed with foods such as pimientos, almonds, onions, jalapeños, etc. Olives picked in a riper state contain more oil and are a deeper green color. The common black olive or Mission olive is a ripe green olive that obtains its characteristic color and flavor from lye curing and oxygenation. Olives that are tree ripened turn dark brown or black naturally. The majority of these olives are used for oil but the rest are brine or salt-cured and are usually packed in olive oil or a vinegar solution. The Greek kalamata and the French niçoise olives are two of the more popular imported ripe olives. Dry-cured olives have been packed in salt, which removes most of their moisture and creates dry, wrinkled fruit. These olives are sometimes rubbed with olive oil or packed with herbs. Both domestic and imported olives are available bottled, canned and in bulk year-round in a variety of forms including whole (pitted, unpitted and stuffed), sliced and chopped. Unopened olives can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 years. Once opened they can be refrigerated in their own liquid (in a nonmetal container) for several weeks. See also olive oil.
Industry:Culinary arts
A hybrid blackberry variety with dark red color and sweet, juicy flesh. See also berries.
Industry:Culinary arts
A thin metal or lacquered wooden box divided into compartments. The bento box is used in Japan for storing separate small dishes that comprise an individual meal (most often lunch). In Japan, the bento lunch, which is commonly available at train stations, represents fast food elevated to high culinary art and design. Each of the country's 5,000 stations sells a unique box lunch that reflects the cooking of the region. The beautifully designed bento boxes can take on myriad shapes including masks, tennis rackets, nuts, golf balls or other objects both traditional and whimsical. More than twelve million bento-box meals are sold to hungry travelers and commuters in Japan each day.
Industry:Culinary arts
Extracted from soybeans, this light yellowish oil is high in both polyunsaturated fats (58 percent) and monounsaturated fats (23 percent), and low in saturated fats (15 percent). It's used extensively in the United States in the manufacture of margarine and shortening. Soybean oil has always been popular as a cooking oil in Chinese cuisine and is gaining favor in the United States because it is inexpensive, healthful and has a high smoke point. See also fats and oils.
Industry:Culinary arts
A rich pie with a layer of dark chocolate custard, topped with a layer of rum custard. The top is garnished with sweetened whipped cream and chocolate shavings.
Industry:Culinary arts
Thin, hollow pasta about twice as thick as spaghetti; similar to bucatini.
Industry:Culinary arts
1. Abbreviated term for french fries. 2. Another name for mountain oysters.
Industry:Culinary arts
