A Dash of This, A Smidgen of That

As you prepare for holiday cooking and baking and uncover family recipes from their vintage boxes, you may find the instructions unclear with terminology you're unfamiliar with — even if it is a side dish your family has come to expect every year. And while they're with us in spirit, you can't easily ask Great-Aunt Louise what her delicate cursive and outdated cooking terms instruct. In addition, old cookbooks and family recipes often assume a preexisting understanding and skill level of the kitchen, so they're often vague and don't provide specific measurements (hence the pinches, dashes and smidgens). This leaves more instruction to be desired by home cooks who don't frequently cook from scratch, especially now that we are more reserved from food production. To ease the cookbook deciphering, here are vintage cooking terms beyond a pinch, dash or smidgen: Acidulate: To make slightly acidic. Aitchbone: Slang for H-bone, or hipbone — a cut of beef. Aspic: A savory jelly made with meat stock, set in a mold containing pieces of meat, seafood, eggs. Beetle: A wooden kitchen utensil used to mash food. Bain-Marie: Also called a water bath or double boiler. Barding: To cover meat and cook it in fats to keep the meat moist and infused with flavor Bear an egg: To make a brine with enough salt so that an egg will float. A floating egg ensures the solution is concentrated enough to effectively preserve meat. Bruise: The technique of tearing apart or gently crushing foods (usually herbs or vegetables) to bring out their full flavor. Browned flour: Flour that is browned in the oven, stored in a jar and used to thicken and color gravies. Dessertspoon: A measure of volume equivalent to two teaspoons. Forcemeat: A mixture of ground raw or cooked meat, poultry or fish combined with vegetables, breadcrumbs, spices or seasonings. Frizzle: To fry bacon or other thinly sliced meat until the edges ruffle. Gill: Generally considered to be 5 liquid ounces, however depending on when the recipe was written, it could mean a quarter of an American pint (4 liquid ounces). Macerate: To soak food (often fruit) in liquid to break it down and infuse with flavor. Oleo: Oleomargarine, an older name for margarine and often used interchangeably. Pot liquor: The flavorful and nutritious broth left over after cooking vegetables, greens or beans. It can be used like pasta water as an additive to soups and stews. Salad oil: A neutral-flavored, light oil (canola oil, vegetable oil, sunflower oil, etc.) as opposed to a stronger flavored oil like extra virgin olive oil. Saleratus: An early form of a leavening agent, originally potassium bicarbonate; a precursor to modern baking soda. Slow Oven: Oven temperatures are often described in relation to speed. A slow oven is around 300 to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Quick (or Fast) Oven: Conversely, a quick oven is around 375 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.