Cooking and food English

Audio: 5 min. 34. sec.

Let’s put away the tricky topic of grammar and exams for a moment and take a look at something that draws us all together and helps us share our lives and cultures with each other: Food!

Making meals and following recipes is a great way for us to share aspects of all of our countries, cultures and feelings, so this blog will detail some of the language needed to talk about food.

Describing food tastes

Whether you like dinner or dessert, it is always good to be able to describe your food accurately.

One of the most important parts of this is taste, something which has a lot of words that allow you to be specific about the flavour of food.

The general flavours that we refer to are Saltiness, Sweetness, Bitterness, Sourness and Savoriness.

Saltiness and savoriness are very similar flavours, but although any food with salt can be described as salty, savoury food is more specifically things such as meat, fish, cheese, mushrooms and soy.

Sweetness can be found in foods that contain sugar, whether it is artificial or natural, such as in fruit.

Things that taste bitter have a sharp and strong flavour, such as coffee, tea and various plants, vegetables and herbs.

Finally, sour foods have an acid-y “bite”, and some examples are citrus fruit like lemons and limes, yoghurt and vinegar.

Describing food textures

On top of taste, however, is another important quality: Texture.

This describes how the food feels in your mouth.

Crispy or crunchy food is hard but breaks apart with some noise when you bite it, like a potato chip.

Firm food such as cheddar cheese is a little hard but does not put up much resistance against your teeth.

Chewy food takes a lot of time in your mouth before your teeth can fully cut through it.

Soft candy or certain cuts of meat can be quite chewy.

When talking about liquids, something that is smooth is uniform in your mouth and goes down very easily.

In contrast, something thick has a lot of substance and flows slowly, so you will have to drink it more slowly as well.  

Preparation language

For anyone who cooks often, you know that the most time-consuming part of making a meal is the preparation of the ingredients at the start.

Vegetables can be chopped (cut into small pieces), sliced (cut into long, thing pieces) or diced (finely cut into very small pieces).

Sometimes ingredients need to be peeled (have their skin removed), washed (cleaned with water to remove dirt) or soaked (left in water to become soft).

Fish and meat are often marinated (left in flavoured liquid to become tastier) before they are cooked.

If you are making a dessert or a pastry, you will need to measure (check the specific amount of the ingredient) and mix (combine ingredients) what you have before it is ready to cook.

Cooking words

There are so many ways to cook food that it can be a bit confusing to remember the difference between all of them. Let’s take a look at a few of them and some common foods that are made that way.

Boiling – This is when you use hot liquid to cook and flavour food; some commonly boiled foods are rice, noodles and most soups.

Frying – Fried foods are put on a hot metal plate that has been prepared with oil. Although it can be a little bit unhealthy to eat too much fried food, this is one of the best ways to enjoy meat and other savoury foods.

Grilling – This is similar to frying, but the food sits on top of a series of metal bars so that it is more directly exposed to the heat source underneath. The number one way to cook steaks and fish, many vegetables can also be prepared this way.

Baking – Generally used for pastries, cakes and bread, baked food is put into an oven and left to sit in the heat for an extended period of time.

Roasting – Like baking, food is put into an oven, but the key difference is that roasted meals are prepared with oil to keep the food moist and flavoured as it cooks, sometimes even being reapplied during the cooking process. This is a great way to cook poultry (chicken, turkey, etc.) and to give vegetables a crispy on the outside, firm on the inside texture.

Steaming – A healthy method, steaming involves putting the food above a pot of boiling water and letting the rising steam cook the food. This is very popular with Asian-style cooking and is a common low-work way to cook vegetables.

Hopefully this language will make it easier for you to express your love for food and cooking.

A great way to practise your English is to talk about a meal you love or a recipe you often make, so take this language to heart and start sharing your passion!