Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

To moisten with liquid while cooking. To moisten or bathe meats in their own savory fluids, aqueous elements, or additional flavoring substances during the culinary process.  

An aromatic herb of the mint family used in seasoning foods. Basil Rathbone, star of the 1940s Sherlock Holmes movies, took his given name from the same source as basil the herb. Both names derive from the Greek name for the herb, basiliskos, literally meaning the little king, which entered Latin as basilicus before being…

Term used to describe materials that retard or prevent water (thus, water barrier), grease (thus, grease barrier) or water-vapor resistant (thus, prevent transmission of water vapor). Object or structure that blocks an action or flow or separates parts from one another. An obstacle, impediment, obstruction, boundary, or separation.  

A system of coding products for computer readout used to improve inventory control, pricing and manufacturing schedules. A parallel array of alternately spaced black bars and white spaces representing a coded number, numbers, or letters, depending on the format employed. It is used clinically for patient sample identification.  

To cook in a highly seasoned vinegar sauce usually over coals or in a spit.  

Leavening agent which acts through release of carbon dioxide during baking. Leavening agent that releases CO2 when wet. The gas is trapped in the dough mix, giving volume and fragility or tenderness to the mix when baked. Bicarbonate of soda, also known as sodium bicarbonate, is an inorganic substance utilized as a leavening agent. It…

To cook by dry heat in an oven. The most interesting facts about the word bake do not involve what it developed from, but what it developed into. Near the beginning of the eleventh century, the word appeared in Old English as bacan, having developed from a Germanic and—before that—an Indo-European source that meant simply…