- Raft: Crust formed during production of consommé.
- Reconstitute: To soak dried foods in a liquid to rehydrate.
- Red Juice: To boil a sauce or liquid rapidly until the sauce is boiled down or evaporated and it thickens.
- Refreshing: Submerging a hot food item in cold water to quickly stop the cooking process. Also known as an ice bath.
- Reheat: To re-warm food.
- Remouillage: The process of reusing bones for a second stock. French meaning “rewetting”.
- Render: To make solid fat into liquid by melting it slowly.
- Ricer: a Sieve-like tool used to force soft foods through to evenly break up the product, such as potatoes.
- Rind: To describe the outer skin of citrus fruits.
- Roast: To cook by dry heat in an oven.
- Roll Up Jelly-Roll Fashion: To roll dough avid filling together, beginning with narrow side of dough, avid ending with a log shape. Seal ends of dough.
- Rolling Boil: To describe a mixture that cooks or boils so hard it cannot be stirred down.
- Rondeau: Shallow wide straight-sided pot with loop handles.
- Roulade: Slice of meat, poultry or fish rolled around a stuffing.
- Rub: To apply a seasoned mixture, dry or a paste, onto the surface of meat, providing flavor to the meat.
- Raclette: A Swiss unpasteurized cow’s milk cheese, and also the name of dish of the same cheese served melted under a grill with potatoes, pickles and various condiments.
- Radicchio: Member of the chicory family used in Italian cooking as well as salads. Radicchio has attractive red leaves with a bitter flavour. Pronounced RAD-ick-ee-YO
- Ragout: French term for a thick stew, usually of meat. Pronounced rag-OO, its Italian equivalent is ragu.
- Raisin: Dried white muscatel or seedless Thompson grapes.
- Raita: Combined chopped vegetables, often apple or cucumber, in a thick creamy yoghurt flavoured with spices such as cumin and coriander and served as an accompaniment to meats, curries or vegetables.
- Ras el hanout: Means ‘head of the shop’. A traditional blend of Moroccan spices, showcasing the best spices a merchant might have for sale. It can include paprika, cumin, ginger, orris root, saffron, dried flowers, ginger, turmeric, fennel and bay leaf.
- Ratatouille: A southern French classic of eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, capsicum, garlic and olive oil cooked together and served either hot or cold. Pronounced RAT-a-TOO-ee.
- Ravigote: A French sauce of vinegar, white wine and shallots, much like a thick vinaigrette.
- Ravioli: A filled pasta, typically consisting of two sheets of pasta pressed together to contain a mixture of meat, cheese or vegetables in a square or circular package. Raviolo is the singular form.
- Reduction: The opposite process to oxidation, in which a wine is deprived of oxygen. It can give a wine a whiff of overboiled cabbage. While there’s little you can do to improve an oxidised wine, a bit of aeration should get rid of reductive odours.
- Remoulade: A French condiment of celery or shredded celeriac with mayonnaise, capers, mustard, cornichons and herbs.
- Ricotta: Soft white cow’s milk cheese; roughly translates as ‘cooked again’. Is made from whey, a by-product of other cheese making, to which fresh milk and acid are added. Ricotta is a sweet, moist cheese with a fat content of around 8.5 per cent and a slightly grainy texture. It is used in both savoury and sweet recipes.
- Rillettes: A French dish of pork, duck or goose meat (or rabbit or fish) cooked to shreds in fat and served cold as a spread for toast, like a coarse pate. Pronounced REEY-et.
- Roquefort: A blue-veined French cheese made with raw sheep’s milk. Its importation has had a chequered history with Australian quarantine and customs.
- Rosé: Most rosés are made from red wine grapes that are macerated for a short time in order to extract a small amount of colour and very little tannins. Rosés used to be despised by wine snobs but are increasingly popular as people discover that not only do they make great summer wines, they’re also great for food matching, and can stand up to anything from Asian flavours to charcuterie, salads and barbecues.
- Rosewater: Distillation of rose petals that retains the intense fragrance and flavour of fresh roses. Rose water has been used for centuries in Eastern countries. Available from specialty grocers.
- Roti: The Indian term for bread, it also often indicates the flatbread chapati, and the Indian-derived pancake-like flatbreads common to Indonesian and Malaysian cooking, as well as in the West Indies.
- Rotolo: An Italian term for a roll, usually a sheet of pasta rolled to contain sweet or savoury ingredients. See also roulade.
- Rouille: Literally, rust, a French condiment (essentially mayonnaise with chilli, garlic, bread and fish broth) traditionally served with bouillabaisse and other fish soups.
- Roux: Butter and flour cooked together to form a paste used to thicken sauces or soups.
- Radiation: The transfer of energy by waves, such as infrared or light waves.
- Ravier (rahv-yay): Oval relish dish.
- Recipe: A set of instructions for producing a certain dish.
- Reduce: To cook by simmering or boiling until quantity is decreased; often done to concentrate flavors.
- Reduction: 1) A liquid that has been concentrated by cooking it to evaporate part of the water. 2) The process of making such a liquid.
- Relish: A type of appetizer consisting of raw or pickled vegetables.
- Risoot: A moist Italian dish of rice cooked in butter and stock.
- Rissolé: Browned. Often referring to potatoes cut in small shapes, parboiled, and browned in hot fat.
- Roast: To cook foods by surrounding them with hot, dry air, in an oven or on a spit over an open fire.
- Roe: Fish eggs.
- Roesti Potatoes: Boiled potatoes that have been grated, formed into small cakes, and pan-fried until crisp.
- Rolled-in Dough: Dough in which a fat is incorporated into the dough in many layers by using a rolling and folding procedure.
- Roquefort: A blue-veined cheese made in Roquefort, France, from sheep’s milk.
- Rotisserie: An item of cooking equipment that slowly rotates meat or other foods in front of a heating element.
- Rotisseur (ro-tee-sur): Cook who prepares roasted, braised, and broiled meats.
- Rough Prep: The preliminary processing of ingredients to the point at which they can be used in cooking.
- Royal Icing: An icing made of confectioners’ sugar and egg whites, used for decorating.
- Russet: Starchy potato often used for baking and deep-frying.
- Rye Blend: A mixture of rye flour and hard wheat flour.
- Romaine lettuce: Popular variety of lettuce with elongated, pale-green leaves characterized by their crisp texture and slightly pungent flavor.
- Romano cheese: Italian variety of cheese traditionally made from sheep’s milk, now made from goat and cow’s milk as well. Sold either fresh or aged. Similar but more tangy than Parmesan.
- Rice: is the seed of the grass species Oryza sativa or less commonly Oryza glaberrima. The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera Zizania and Porteresia, both wild and domesticated, although the term may also be used for primitive or uncultivated varieties of Oryza.