Whetstone: A special dense, grained stone used to sharpen or hone knives.
Whip: To beat rapidly to incorporate air and produce expansion, as in heavy cream or egg whites.
Whisk: To combine two or more ingredients using a kitchen tool with looped wires, incorporating air as the mixture is beat. Sometimes referred to as whip.
Wilt: To heat food until limp, such as to add a hot dressing to leafy vegetables like spinach for a wilted spinach salad.
Wafer: A thin, crisp, unsweetened biscuit with a papery texture mad e by cooking a batter between hot plates, served with ice cream and sometimes sandwiched together in several layers with a sweet or savoury cream filling to form a wafer biscuit.
Waffle: A crisp golden brown pancake mad e by cooking a batter between two metal waffle irons which have corresponding indentation s and protrusions so that the waffle when cooked has a series of indentations on both sides. Usually served hot with butter or maple syrup or cold with whipped cream or ice cream.
Waffle iron: Two thick metal plates hinged along one edge with handles at the opposite edge and with heated indented mating surfaces which give waffles their characteristic appearance.
Wasabi: The edible root of a plant Wasabia japonica, which only grows in Japan. The skinned, pale green root has a fierce flavor rather like horseradish. It is grated and served like this or made into a paste for use with sashimi or in sushi. It can also be dried to a pale brown powder. Also called Japanese horseradish, mountain hollyhock wasebi.
Wakame: Japanese name for a curly leafed brown saltwater algae with a subtle taste and soft texture used dried in salads or boiled soft as a vegetable.
Weight measure: The most accurate method of measuring ingredients using the gravitational force exerted on the material to deflect a calibrated spring or by balancing the weight of the ingredient against a known weight using a lever.
Wedding breakfast: The celebratory meal after a marriage ceremony which has taken place in the morning much more elaborate than a breakfast.
Wedding cake: A celebratory cake served at a wedding feast. In the UK it is a rich fruit cake covered with almond paste and royal icing elaborately sculpted. In France it is a conical heap of profiteroles, held together with caramel.
Wedge: A triangular cut from the circumference to the centre point of a round cake, cheese, pie, etc. Between 4 and 12 wedges are normally cut from a circle. Also is a triangular shape such as a wedge of lemon, or a wedge of pie.
Welsh pancake: (Wales) Pancakes but made with buttermilk instead of milk and cooked thicker than normal. Served hot and buttered or may be filled with leftovers or specially prepared meat or fish fillings. Also called crempog.
Welsh parsley pie: (Wales) a type of quiche made with an egg custard containing a little flour and sugar and a good amount of chopped bacon and parsley. Baked at 205°C until cooked and the custard set. Also called pastai persli.
Welsh potato cakes: (Wales) a yeast raised potato cake made from milk, flour, boiled potatoes and butter (10:6:4:1). Yeast (1:12) on flour is mixed with the warmed milk and butter and made into a dough with the flour and potatoes, kneaded then proved for an hour , shaped into cakes and baked at 200°C until golden brown. Also called teisennau tatws.
Western sandwich: (United States) a scrambled egg or omelette sandwich with sautéed ham, sweet peppers and onions. Also called Denver sandwich western.
Whey: The translucent liquid which is formed when coagulated milk separates into a semisolid portion (curds) and a liquid portion (whey). It contains most of the lactose of the milk and a small amount of protein and fat. Usually a waste product but sometimes boiled or acidified to separate more solids from which a kind of cheese is made.
Whey cream: Any cream or fat still remaining in whey after the curds have been separated in cheese making
Wheat flakes: Partially boiled cracked wheat crushed between rollers then dried, lightly toasted and used in muesli and as a breakfast cereal.
Wheat germ: The embryo of the wheat grain which is removed from white flour. It constitutes about 2% of the total weight of the grain, consists mainly of fat and protein and contains most of the B and E vitamins. Often sold separately as a food supplement.
Wheat germ flour: (United States) The pulverized germ of wheat usually dry-fried or roasted before use.
Wheat germ oil: The oil extracted from wheat germ used as a health supplement and high in vitamin E, which is destroyed by heating.
Whipped butter: Softened butter whipped to incorporated air so as to make it easy to spread.
Whipped cream: Cream containing between 35% and 40% butterfat which is whipped to incorporate air and to begin linking up the fat globules to make it a semi-solid. If whipping is carried on for too long the fat will become the continuous phase and it will turn to butter.
White chocolate: A white, chocolate-tasting confectionery item made from bleached cocoa butter and white sugar.
White long-grain rice: A polished long grain rice with the bran and outer coating removed giving separate fluffy grains when cooked. Requires about 15 minutes boiling to cook.
White meat: Term used for the breast flesh of poultry to distinguish it from the dark meat of the legs. Also used of pork and veal.
White sugar: Fully refined sugar, either granulated, caster or icing.
White vinegar: A colorless transparent vinegar either spirit vinegar or a decolorized malt vinegar. Often used for pickling.
Wholegrain wheat: Dehusked wheat grains.
Whole meal bread: Bread made from whole meal flour. Also called Graham bread.
Whole meal flour: A flour produced from dehusked wheat grains containing both the bran and the wheat germ. Also called whole wheat flour.
Whole milk: (1.United Kingdom: Full cream milk) (2.United States: Cows’ milk with a least 3.25% butterfat and 8.25% non-fat solids).
Worcestershire sauce: (England) a thin strong-flavoured sauce usually used to add flavor to sauces and cooked dishes. Made commercially from vinegar, molasses, sugar, salt, anchovies, tamarind, shallots, garlic and spices.
Washed curd: Milk curds that have been separated from the whey and washed in water lowering the acid content in the cheese.
Washed rind cheese: Surface ripened cheese which are ‘washed’, or doused with a mixture of brine, whey and in many cases wine, cider, brandy or other alcohol, to encourage friendly bacterial growth.
Water chestnut: Eleocharis dulcis, the Chinese water chestnut or water chestnut, is a grass-like sedge native to Asia, tropical Africa, and Oceania. It is grown in many countries for its edible corms. The water chestnut is not a nut at all, but an aquatic vegetable that grows in marshes, under water, in the mud.The Bulbous corm of a type of sedge plant used raw or cooked in Chinese and other Asian cuisines. Sold tinned, they are occasionally available fresh from Asian grocers.
Water spinach: An aquatic plant used as a vegetable in many Asian cuisines, often stir-fried with shrimp paste. Also known as kang kong.
Watercress: Aquatic plant with small, round sharply-flavoured leaves used as a garnish and in salads.
Welsh rarebit: Also Welsh rabbit, a savoury consisting of cheese (usually cheddar) cooked to a paste with mustard, butter and beer (and sometimes Worcestershire sauce, which is often offered as a condiment), then spread on toast and grilled.
Wet dog/sweaty saddle: Characteristic aromas of wines infected by brettanomyces.
White asparagus: More delicately flavoured asparagus kept pale by keeping soil mounded around the stalks to prevent light reaching them. Green asparagus is a fine substitute.
Whitebait: Young fish under 50mm long, usually served deep fried. The very small fish – under 30mm, and sometimes known as neonata – are usually served bound with egg and made into fritters.
Wine scores: Most wine trade professionals not only take notes on wines when they taste but also give the wines a score. These can range from marks out of 20 or marks out of 100 (à la Robert Parker) to a five-star rating system, or maybe both. But even among the pros there’s a certain amount of debate as to how accurate these scores can ever be.
Witlof: A vegetable comprising a tight head of yellow-tipped white leaves of Belgian chicory (a name which it is sometimes sold under). Crisp and slightly bitter, witlof which can be eaten raw, or gently cooked, whether roasted, grilled or au gratin, which brings out its natural sweetness.
Wash: 1) To brush or coat a food item with a liquid such as egg wash or milk. 2) The liquid used in this procedure.
Waxy Potato: A young potato high in sugar and low in starch.
Weak Flour: Flour with a low protein or gluten count.
White Pekin: The most common breed of domestic duck in the United States.
Whitewash: A thin mixture or slurry of flour and cold water.
Winterized Oil: Vegetable oil that stays clear and liquid when refrigerated.
