Mise en place
Everydaymeez-ahn-PLAHSS
The discipline underneath everything else
Full prep completed before heat goes on: everything cut, measured, positioned. Said as “mise” in kitchens of every language.
AtlasMise en place (§01)
The words with no substitute — said in French (or Japanese) in any kitchen — plus the English and Danish for everything else, and the tools your own recipes call for.
A lexicon has one job: to tell you what a thing is called and what it means — a tool, an action, a technique — so a recipe never stops you cold. This one is built to sit beside the Technique Atlas. Where the Atlas teaches you to do a technique, the Lexicon tells you what to call it, and points back to the Atlas card where it lives.
The vocabulary is filtered hard. Section one keeps only the words with genuinely no substitute — the French (and two Japanese) terms said untranslated in an English or Danish kitchen alike, each with a plain-English pronunciation. The next sections give the English word, and the verified Danish beside it, for everything that does have a substitute. The obvious ones are gone. The last section is equipment — not a gadget catalogue, but the specific tools the recipes in your Drive actually ask for, each with a link to search its image.
Cross-references point to the Atlas (§ numbers) and, where useful, to the recipe corpus in your inspiration index — so a term here connects to a real card and a real dish.
These are said in the original language regardless of what's spoken around them — there's no English or Danish word that means the same thing. Each carries a plain-English pronunciation, since that's the point of a loanword: you have to be able to say it.
meez-ahn-PLAHSS
The discipline underneath everything else
Full prep completed before heat goes on: everything cut, measured, positioned. Said as “mise” in kitchens of every language.
AtlasMise en place (§01)
AHN-tray
Means opposite things in France and the US
In France, the course before the main; in the US, the main itself. Worth knowing before it trips up an order abroad.
Watch forNo word resolves the ambiguity — you have to know the country.
ah-lah-KART
Ordered individually, not as a set menu
Dishes chosen and priced one by one, cooked to order.
ContrastPrix fixe — a fixed multi-course menu at one price.
ah-mooz-BOOSH
The chef's free opening bite
A single small bite before the meal, not ordered and not on the menu — a taste of the kitchen's intent.
Hear itNo single English or Danish word covers it.
ahn pah-pee-YOHT
Sealed and steamed in its own moisture
A dish, usually fish, sealed in paper so it steams in its own juices.
AtlasSteaming fish (mushimono style), §04 — same principle, different wrapper.
vol-oh-VAHN
A hollow puff-pastry shell
A light pastry case built to hold a filling.
Hear itOccasion vocabulary, not weeknight.
zhoo-lee-EN
Thin matchstick cut
Roughly 2–3mm × 2–3mm × 5cm strips.
AtlasKnife cuts vocabulary (§01); corpus tag knife.
broon-WAHZ
Fine dice — a julienne cut again crosswise
Roughly 2–3mm cubes. Built by dicing a julienne.
AtlasKnife cuts vocabulary (§01).
shif-oh-NAHD
Herbs or leafy greens sliced into ribbons
Stack, roll tightly, slice thinly crosswise.
Deploy onMassaging raw kale, herb-forward salad (atlas §03, §10).
meer-PWAH
The aromatic base: onion, carrot, celery
Roughly diced 2:1:1 — the foundation of stocks and braises. Italian soffritto is the same idea.
AtlasChicken stock (§08); corpus REC-24 soffritto 2:1:1.
mah-say-DWAHN
Small, even dice — vegetable or fruit
Roughly 5mm cubes, or a mixed diced fruit/vegetable dish.
Hear itStandard in Danish professional kitchens too.
pah-YAR
A cutlet pounded to even thinness
Chicken, here, pounded between film for fast, uniform cooking.
AtlasSauté (chicken paillard), §06 — the 6-minute weeknight protein.
soh-TAY
Quick, high-heat cooking with pan movement
Small fat, high heat, tossing the pan. Root of the English verb.
AtlasSauté (chicken paillard), §06; corpus tag sautéing.
kon-FEE
Slow-cooked and preserved in fat at low heat
Both a cooking method and a preservation technique.
AtlasConfit (oil-cooked at low heat), §03.
flahm-BAY
Alcohol ignited in the hot pan
Burns off harshness while concentrating flavour.
Hear it“Flambere” in Danish — same word, Danish ending.
grah-tee-NAY
Finished under intense heat until browned
Broiler or salamander, until the top browns and bubbles.
Deploy onBlomkålsgratin (corpus KAL-20), any cheese-topped bake.
day-glah-SAY
Lifting the pan's fond with liquid
Adding liquid to a hot pan to dissolve the browned bits after searing.
AtlasPan sauce (déglaçage), §08 — “deglacere” in Danish.
FON
Stock, or the browned pan residue after searing
Two related meanings — what déglaçage is designed to rescue.
AtlasPan sauce (§08); “fond” unchanged in Danish.
soo-VEED
“Under vacuum” — precision low-temp cooking
Cooking sealed and submerged at a closely held temperature.
AtlasSimplified sous vide (§11); corpus REC-10 stockpot sous-vide.
oh-lahn-DEZ
Emulsified egg yolk and clarified butter
One of the five mother sauces.
AtlasHollandaise & béarnaise, §11 — occasional/treat.
bay-shah-MEL
Milk thickened with a white roux
The base of gratins and creamy bakes.
Deploy onStuvet hvidkål, blomkålsgratin (corpus KAL-06, KAL-20).
burr-BLAHN
An emulsified butter sauce
Built on a wine-shallot reduction, finished with cold butter.
AtlasNamed directly — ankake, §08.
burr nwah-ZET
Brown butter — cooked until nutty
Butter cooked until the milk solids brown and smell of hazelnut.
AtlasBrown butter (beurre noisette), §08; corpus KAL-23, REC-28.
koo-LEE
A smooth, pourable purée
Strained smooth, savoury or sweet.
AtlasVegetable purée (cream-cooked method), §03.
gas-TREEK
Caramelised sugar deglazed with vinegar
A sweet-acid reduction — the base for fruit-forward sauces.
AtlasNamed on the duck breast card, §06.
ban-mah-REE
Water bath, for gentle indirect heat
A container set inside a larger pan of water.
Deploy onHollandaise, melting chocolate — no shorter word for it.
kuh-NEL
An oval shape formed with two spoons
For mousse, ice cream, or purée.
Hear itNo English or Danish word for the shape.
DAH-shee
Japanese stock — kombu & bonito
The umami foundation of Japanese cooking. Japanese, not French — kept here because it's the same kind of untranslatable loanword.
AtlasDashi (ichiban), §08.
oo-MAH-mee
The fifth taste — savoury depth
Japanese loanword, now universal; the taste of glutamate — in dashi, tomato, aged cheese, mushroom.
AtlasDashi (§08); corpus tag references throughout.
The French word for each exists, but it's not what gets said. English name first, verified Danish second. Obvious ones (grill, roast) were cut — you don't need a card to know what “roast” means.
Brief boil, then an ice-water bath to halt cooking
Danish keeps the French root with a Danish ending. Atlas: Big-pot blanching (§03); corpus tag blanching.
Gentle cooking in barely-simmering liquid
French root, Danish conjugation. Atlas: Poached eggs (§06); corpus KAL-14 pocheret rogn.
Sear first, then slow-cook covered in liquid
Atlas: Braising vegetables (§03); corpus tag braising, REC-01, KAL-05/11.
Gentle cooking of aromatics in fat, no colour
A native Danish word, distinct from the French étuver. The opening move of most soups and braises.
High heat, browning the surface to build fond
Danish has its own word, not from French. Atlas: Searing & the Maillard reaction (§01); corpus tag searing.
Simmering a liquid down to concentrate flavour
Both a French-rooted and a native Danish option. The second step of most pan sauces.
General shallow-fat cooking in a pan
The everyday Danish word. Atlas: Pan-fried mackerel & sardine (§04).
Low, gentle, extended cooking
The Danish traces through English, not French. Atlas: Hearty bean soup (§02); corpus KAL-01/21 simmer+blend.
How something is cooked, in the words actually used — plus one deliberate exception.
Cool, red centre
The French saignant is the pro term, rarely said casually.
Pink centre, firmer than rare
The French à point is the professional word for exactly this.
Cooked through, no pink
A native Danish word, no French root.
Soft, yielding — the goal of a long braise
The French fondant describes the same, but mør is what Danish recipes say.
Crackling, shattering texture
The French croustillant exists but sprød is what's said.
The exception — Italian, not French, said unchanged everywhere
Firm to the bite. English, French, and Danish all borrow this from Italian rather than translating it. Atlas: Quinoa pilaf, Donabe rice (§02, §08).
The classical French names exist and sometimes get used professionally, but a Danish home recipe reaches for its own word first. Obvious ones (tomato sauce, brown butter) were cut or moved to §01.
Cooked fat-and-flour paste for thickening
“Roux” circulates in pro Danish kitchens, but a home recipe says opbagning. Atlas: béchamel-based cards.
Natural, reduced juices from a roast or sear
“Jus” is the fancier word for the same thing; sky is the home-cook word.
Egg yolk and cream whisked in off the heat
The French liaison exists as a loanword; legering is the plain Danish term.
Not a generic gadget list — every tool here is one the recipe corpus in your Drive actually calls for, from the everyday knife to the Japanese donabe. English name, Danish shopping word, and where it shows up.
The one tool every recipe assumes
A 20cm blade handles nearly all cutting. The three-finger grip on the blade (not the handle) is the foundation. Atlas: The three-finger knife grip (§01); corpus tag knife runs through the whole corpus.
Uniform thin slices, fast
Adjustable-blade slicer — the quickest route to even slices. Use the guard. Corpus: KAL-13, KAL-18 raw kohlrabi ribbons.
Peeling, and ribboning vegetables
Beyond peeling, it shaves vegetables into ribbons for quick “pasta.” Corpus: REC-04/05 peeler-ribbon, KAL-17 peel ribbons.
Fine zest, garlic, hard cheese
A fine rasp for citrus zest, garlic paste, parmesan. Atlas: Salt & acid pair (§01) leans on zest.
Coarse grating — cheese, vegetables
The everyday grater for cheese, carrot, cabbage.
Turning fish without tearing it
Thin, flexible, slotted — slides under delicate fillets. Atlas: Sautéing salmon skin-down (§04).
Pulling pin-bones from fillets
Precise removal of the fine bones a knife can't grip. Atlas: Filleting a whole fish (§04).
Emulsifying and aerating
Balloon whisk for vinaigrettes, mayo, eggs. Atlas: Mayonnaise/aioli (§08); corpus REC-19 whisk-emulsify.
Moving cut food; dough work
Scoops chopped vegetables off the board; divides and handles dough. Atlas: Kneading & stretch-and-fold (§09).
An extra pair of heat-proof fingers
Turning, lifting, tossing at the stove or grill. Corpus tag grilling.
The end of guessing doneness
A probe reads internal temperature in seconds — the single biggest reliability upgrade for protein. Atlas: Resting protein (§01); corpus REC-08/27 probe, TEC-14 probe to 140F.
Weight, not volume
Baking and fermentation need weight for consistency. Atlas references it repeatedly; corpus REC-14 ferment by weight.
Blending in the pot
A stick blender purees soups and emulsifies sauces without transferring. Corpus: REC-09/35 immersion-blend.
Smooth purees and sauces
Upright jug blender for the smoothest soups and dressings. Corpus: REC-23/25 blend, KAL-01/21.
Straining to silk
Pushes soups and sauces to a smooth finish; the home stand-in for a chinois. Corpus: REC-23 sieve, REC-25 strain, KAL-28 sigtet.
A hard, even sear
Holds and radiates heat for the best crust. Atlas: Searing & the Maillard reaction (§01); corpus REC-12/29 dry-sear.
Everyday small-batch cooking
Sauces, grains, blanching small amounts.
Braising and slow cooking
Heavy lidded pot, stovetop-to-oven. The French call it a cocotte. Atlas: Braising vegetables (§03); corpus REC-01/02, KAL-11 ovnbraiseret.
Stock, soup, big-batch blanching
Tall and wide for long-simmered stocks. Atlas: Chicken stock (§08); corpus KAL-28/29, REC-10.
Roasting, in a single layer
Low rim, wide surface — the vehicle for high-heat roasting. Atlas: High-heat roasting (§03); corpus REC-11, KAL-19/24.
High-heat stir-frying
Sloped sides for fast, moving heat. Corpus: Grøn keto wok m/ kylling/laks.
Japanese clay pot for rice and hot-pot
A lidded earthenware pot that cooks short-grain rice beautifully. Atlas: Donabe / pot rice (§08).
Japanese ridged mortar & pestle
Grinds sesame, spices, miso bases; the ridges do the work. Atlas: Building the Japanese pantry (§08).
Japanese drop-lid for gentle simmering
A lid that sits directly on the food, keeping it submerged in simmering liquid. Atlas: Steaming/simmering (mushimono, §08).
Keeping ferments under brine
Holds vegetables below the surface so they ferment safely. Atlas: Lacto-fermenting vegetables (§09); corpus REC-14, KAL-07.
Direct flame for finishing
Caramelises sugar, chars skins. Corpus: REC-31 brûlée (occasional/dessert).
25 terms from the wine reference book's own glossary (Ordliste), paraphrased in English — not a translation. Comes up during tasting, shopping, and hosting; the deeper "how to think about wine" material this is drawn from lives in the Wine Companion, not here.
A toxic compound the body produces breaking down ethanol — the source of hangover symptoms.
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
Protein building blocks; red wine carries 300–1,300mg/L, up to 85% of it proline.
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
A legally defined geographic area specifying where a wine's grapes may be grown.
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
Loose grain, contributes coconut, vanilla, cedar, dill — a bolder, more assertive character than European oak.
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
From France/Hungary primarily; medium-to-tight grain depending on origin; contributes vanilla, clove, allspice, cedar.
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
Post-fermentation clarification — proteins (casein, egg white) or a vegan clay (bentonite/kaolin) bind to unwanted particles so they can be removed.
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
Grapes are cloned like other crops for favorable traits — over 1,000 documented clones of Pinot alone.
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
Whole grape clusters fermented under CO₂ in a sealed vessel — produces low-tannin, juicy, aromatic wine (classic in basic-tier Beaujolais).
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
Not technically a fermentation — a bacterial conversion of sharper malic acid to softer lactic acid. Standard in nearly all reds, some whites (e.g. Chardonnay); responsible for the buttery diacetyl note.
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
Not literal trace minerals — the term for sulfur-compound aromas read as chalk, flint, or wet gravel.
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
A wine with a touch of perceptible sweetness.
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
Overexposure to oxygen changes the wine chemically — reads as browned-apple aroma in white, artificial-raspberry/nail-polish-remover in red. Opposite of reduction.
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
Acid/alkaline scale, 1 (acid) to 14 (basic), 7 neutral. Wine sits around 2.5–4.5; a pH-3 wine is 10x more acidic than pH-4.
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
Insufficient oxygen during fermentation — yeast substitutes sulfur compounds for the nitrogen it would normally draw from the grapes. Smells like rotten egg, garlic, burnt match, cabbage; occasionally more pleasant notes like passionfruit or wet flint. Not caused by added sulfites.
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
Grape sugar left after fermentation; ranges from near-zero to ~220g/L in rare cases.
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
A preservative (SO₂), naturally present or added; typical wine levels ~10–400mg/L, 400mg/L is the EU legal ceiling.
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
Affect aroma directly — low levels can read as pleasant (mineral, tropical fruit); high levels read as rotten egg, garlic, cabbage.
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
Adding tartaric or citric acid during winemaking to raise acidity — standard in warm-climate regions, less common in the EU, more common in the US/Australia/Argentina.
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
tair-WAHR
The French concept that a region's climate, soil, slope, and traditional winemaking together shape a wine's character.
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
When a wine tastes recognizably typical of its region or style.
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
The vanilla bean's primary aromatic compound — also present in oak, which is why oak-aged wine picks up vanilla notes.
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
The winemaking process itself — turning grape juice into wine via fermentation.
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
Alcohol by volume, as printed on a label (e.g. 13.5% vol).
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
Acetic acid — the "vinegar" acid in wine. Low levels add complexity; high levels push the wine toward actual vinegar.
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.
A fungal infection (Botrytis cinerea), common in humid regions. A flaw in red/black grapes, but prized in white grapes for the honey, ginger, and chamomile notes it adds — the basis of dessert wines like Sauternes.
See alsoWine Companion — the fuller "how to think about wine" layer this glossary is drawn from.