The winter holidays are here, and you and your family might be getting ready to cook the special, traditional dishes you’ve enjoyed every year; you might also be paging through magazines and cookbooks, looking for something new to try, or perhaps for a special party dish to celebrate the season. In today’s post, we’re serving up some words that you might find in recipes. Bon appétit!

julienne (joo-lee-EHN) noun/verb
Food that has been cut into very thin strips about the size of a matchstick, or the process of cutting food in that fashion. The word may come from the name of a 17th-century cook at the royal court in France who created a soup using vegetables cut in this way.

piquant (pee-KAHNT) adjective
Pleasantly spicy, sharp, or tart in taste, or otherwise stimulating to the palate and senses. The word comes from the French word piquer which means “to sting, to prick.”

albumen (ahl-BYOO-min] noun
This is the technical name for what we commonly call the “egg white” – the clear liquid surrounding the egg yolk which is made up of approximately 75% water and 25% protein compounds called albumins.

dredge (DREHDJ) verb
To cover a raw ingredient with a dry coating such as flour or breadcrumbs before frying it, in order to give the food a light crunchy crust. The non-culinary meaning of “to search or excavate the bottom of a sea floor” is completely unrelated.

bergamot (BER-guh-maht) noun
A small citrus fruit with a fragrant peel. Oil from the peel is used in Earl Grey tea, in candy making, and in some perfumes. The flesh of the fruit is very acidic, like a lime, and is generally not eaten.

vermicelli (ver-mih-CHEHL-ee) noun
There’s an English idiomatic expression “I’ll go eat worms” that means you’re feeling sorry for yourself. When you’re eating the long thin pasta called vermicelli, which means “little worms” in Italian, you’re not really eating worms, of course. However, pasta is widely regarded as a “comfort food” – something you eat when you’re feeling sad and need a soothing dish – so perhaps there is a connection after all!

gastronomy (gas-TRON-uh-mee) noun
A word created in the early 19th century by French poet Joseph de Berchoux to refer to “good living” but which is now generally used to refer to fine dining, or the study and creation of gourmet food. The word shares the same general etymology as the adjective gastric, meaning “related to the stomach.”