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Glossary Selection
Popcorn | |||
| Popcorn or popping corn is a type of maize which puffs up when it is heated in oil or by dry heat. Special varieties of corn are grown to give improved popping yield. Some wild types will pop, but the cultivated strain is Zea mays L. subsp. mays (Everta Group), which is a special kind of flint corn. First developed by precolumbian Native Americans, popcorn is now a popular snack food all over the world. | |||
Porgy Fish | |||
| The firm, flaky white flesh of the porgy is low in fat and delicately flavorful. A bony fish, porgy can be a bit difficult to eat. Porgy and other bony fish are best roasted--the meat slips off the bones more easily, and the bones tend to soften during cooking. This is also a fine fish for baking, broiling, grilling, and pan-frying. Make sure the scales have been removed before using this fish. Whole fish should look alive, with bright, reflective skin and red gills. If the fish has not been scaled, ask your fishmonger to do this for you. | |||
Pretzel | |||
 | A yeasted dough that is typically rolled into a long rope and often knotted. They can be crisp or soft and chewy. | ||
Prawn | |||
| Prawns are edible, shrimp-like crustaceans. As used in commercial farming and fishery, the terms shrimp and prawns are generally used interchangeably. In European countries, particularly the United Kingdom, the word prawns is more commonly on menus than the term shrimp, which is used more often in the United States. Australia follows this European/British use to an even greater extent, using the word prawn almost exclusively. | |||
Poussin | |||
 | A French term for a very young chicken. | ||
Pousse-cafe | |||
| A pousse cafe is a kind of cocktail in which the slightly different specific gravities of various liqueurs are used to create an array of colored layers. | |||
Pound cake | |||
| Pound cake is an American English name for a type of fruit cake known in British English as a Madeira cake. Its name originated from the ingredients used in quantities of Imperial pounds. This results in a large, dense cake not often suited to modern American tastes, though the style (if not the size) is still popular in Britain. American pound cakes are lighter, but often contain an abundance of butter, to provide a rich taste. | |||
Poulet | |||
| A French term for a very young chicken. | |||
Pot roast | |||
| Pot roast is a braised beef dish. Pot roast is typically made by browning a roast-sized piece of beef (taken from a tougher cut) to induce a Maillard reaction, then slow-cooking in an acidulated liquid in a covered dish. | |||
Potato flour | |||
 | Potato starch or potato flour are a thickener, interchangeable with cornstarch. | ||