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Culinary Arts & Cooking vocabulary · Cooking Methods & Techniques

Caramelize

Meaning in culinary arts & cooking, with examples

/ˈkærəməlaɪz/verbCommon term

In culinary arts & cooking, caramelize means: To heat sugar, or food that contains sugar such as onions, until it turns brown and develops a rich, sweet, slightly bitter flavour.

In Turkish: karamelize etmek, karamelleştirmek

How it is used

Used for onions, root vegetables, fruit and sugar work in pastry. Recipes say cook until caramelized or caramelize the onions slowly. In British English it is often spelled caramelise. Crème brûlée tops are caramelized with a blowtorch.

Example sentences

  1. Caramelize the onions slowly for forty minutes; don't rush them.

  2. The sugar on the brûlée isn't caramelized enough. Give it another pass with the torch.

Common collocations

  • caramelized onions
  • caramelize the sugar
  • until caramelized
  • lightly caramelized
  • sautéTo cook small pieces of food quickly in a little hot fat in a pan, moving or tossing them so they brown evenly. From French sauter, "to jump".
  • roastTo cook meat, poultry or vegetables with dry heat in an oven, usually at a fairly high temperature so the outside browns. As a noun, a roast is a joint of meat cooked this way.
  • searTo brown the surface of meat or fish quickly in a very hot pan or on a grill, creating a dark, tasty crust.
  • pastry chefA chef who specialises in desserts, pastries, breads and other baked goods and usually runs the pastry section of a kitchen. Also called a pâtissier.

More terms: Cooking Methods & Techniques

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