Culinary Terms

Every summer I have I have an influx of self-invited house guests. My free-loading family are fussy eaters, so I need your help to to plan some menus, swot up some recipes and find out what all those cooking terms mean!

See next post for the answers: if you got at least eight right, you are a Kaleidoscope Masterchef!

1. Cousin Nicholas has just returned from three years at agricultural school in the Po Valley, in Italy. He will be staying for a week. I am going to lay in a stock of Po Valley Arborio, just to make him feel at home. What am I going to buy?

a  A short-grained rice used to prepare risotto.
b  A full-bodied red wine.
c  A smooth-textured goat milk cheese.

2.  Battuto is going to be a feature in my kitchen this summer, because Cousin Vinnie is coming for an extended visit from New Jersey (the family grapevine whispers that he is avoiding his colleague Tony Soprano, due to a misunderstanding involving a baseball bat.) Vinnie loves Italian food and is very good at whipping up marvellous aromatic pasta sauces. What is battuto?

a  A small pestle for crushing spices.
b  A spiced, matured Italian ham, thiny sliced.
c  A combination of chopped raw vegetables for sautéing.

3.  Great-aunt Clothilde, now a very old lady, (but still feisty!) was a heroine of the French Resistance: she wormed all manner of secrets out of a handsome blond German officer – among the family, opinions differ on exactly what methods she employed. She likes steamed asparagus, but has been known to throw the plate at me if I serve it with a Hollandaise sauce instead of the very similar Béarnaise. Hollandaise sauce is an emulsion of butter and egg yolks, with lemon juice. What makes Béarnaise different?

a  Béarnaise contains a touch of cognac.
b  Béarnaise uses shallots and tarragon instead of lemon juice.
c  Béarnaise is made with goose fat instead of butter.

4.  Auntie Mabel is a lovely person and an ideal house guest, but unfortunately she and her spoilt teenage son come as a set. Young Marmaduke is a very fussy eater: the only thing he enjoys without complaints and criticism, is bisque. Needless to say, we'll all feel pretty much bisque'd out by the end of summer! What are we having to eat nearly every day?


a  Soup made with a puree of crustaceans / vegetables.
b  Stuffed crepes.
c  French caramel fudge.

5. Granddad is no trouble … he has struck up a friendship with one of my neighbours, known as Faux Freddie because he paints faux Jackson Pollocks and illegally distils faux Calvados. Granddad spends all his time at Freddie's, playing chess and helping Freddie with the calvados quality control checks. (This entails frequent tasting.) From what does Freddie make his liquor?

a  Chestnuts
b  Pears
c  Apples

6. The twins, whose favourite childhood story was Robin Hood, are just back from competing in the archery World Championships. They have set up butts in my back garden, totally ruining the lawn. I was about to kick theirs, when they presented me with a charming gift: a traditional Chinoise they had bought for me in China. What is it?
a  A fine-meshed conical strainer for straining sauces.
b  A celadon bowl.
c  A small porcelain Pekingese dog.

7.  My stepsister Belinda … the daughter of Dad's fourth (or is it his fifth?) wife, is a terrible cook, but she makes excellent cornichons. No al fresco lunch under the Moreton bay fig tree on a hot summer's day is complete without a good supply of Belinda's cornichons. What are they?


a  Cream horns.
b  Tiny gherkins pickled in seasoned wine or cider vinegar.
c  Smoked oysters wrapped in prosciutto

8.  Auntie Natasha was a ballet dancer who defected from a sight-seeing tour of the Louvre while the Bolshoi was touring in Paris in the Fifties. Uncle Fabrice was a Parisian art conservator. He was painstakingly cleaning an Old Master, when she burst into his studio, hissing: "Hide me!" He covered her with a drop cloth and they lived happily ever after. Auntie never lost her taste for Russian caviar, which makes her a more expensive house guest than most! Beluga is her favourite. Why is it so called?

a  Czar Peter II gave the monopoly to the Beluga family.
b  It comes from the Beluga sturgeon.
c  It is named after "Bibi" Beluga, the mistress of Prince Felix Yusupov – he used to eat his caviar out of her high-heeled slipper.

9.  Family folklore has it that Uncle Alf is distantly related to his namesake Alfred Hitchcock. His portly figure, helped by his hearty appetite, is certainly very similar! Aunt Hortense rather cattily likes to point out that Uncle Alf doesn't need the affrioles he loves so much ! What are they?

a  Hors d’oeuvres or small titbits served as appetisers.
b  Profiteroles with extra thick cream.
c  Thimble-sized drinks to stimulate the appetite.