| Dacquoise | This classic French cake is composed of baked nut meringues layered with buttercream. There are many names for nut meringues and meringue-based desserts -- succès, progrès, japonais among them -- and the proportions, size and type of nut(s) used varies from one to another. |
| Danish style | Usually unsalted, cultured butter. A culture is added to the cream and allowed to stand overnight for the acid flavor to develop before churning. |
| Devonshire cream | Or Devon Cream. A clotted cream produced commercially in Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset England. A thick, rich, yellowish cream with a scalded or cooked flavor that is made by heating unpasteurized milk until a thick layer of cream sits on top. The milk is cooled and the layer of cream is skimmed off. Clotted cream has 55-60 percent fat content and is so thick it does not need whipping. Traditionally served with scones and fruit. |
| Diacetyl | Primary flavor component in butter starter cultures produced by lactic acid bacteria. An antioxidant used to decrease oxidative rancidity of fat or oil. Provides buttery odor and flavor, which can become as strong as popcorn butter in high concentration, and may take on a rancid taint. Diacetyl is formed from metabolites of pyruvate. |
| Diglyceride | Glycerol combined with two fatty acids |
| Double cream | The most versatile cream as it withstands boiling, whips and freezes well. 48% fat. In the US it is known as heavy cream. |
| Drawn butter | Melted butter. |
| Edge yellowing | Evaporation of water results in a darker yellow color on the blocks of butter, starting from the edges. |
| Emulsion | Liquid droplets dispersed in another immiscible liquid. The dispersed phase droplet size ranges from 0.1 -- 10 µ m. Important oil-in-water food emulsions, ones in which oil or fat is the dispersed phase and water is the continuous phase, include milk, cream, ice cream, salad dressings, cake batters, flavour emulsions, meat emulsions, and cream liquers. Examples of food water-in-oil emulsions are butter or margarine. Emulsions are inherently unstable because free energy is associated with the interface between the two phases. As the interfacial area increases, either through a decrease in particle size or the addition of more dispersed phase material, i.e. Higher fat, more energy is needed to keep the emulsion from coalescing. Some molecules act as surface active agents (called surfactants or emulsifiers) and can reduce this energy needed to keep these phases apart. |
| Endogenous opiate peptides | Pleasure-enhancing molecules manufactured by the human brain. The pleasure response to foods may be mediated by these molecules. |
| Enzyme inactivation | Raw milk enzymes are destroyed by traditional pasteurization procedures. Heat inactivation of alkaline phosphatase (AP) is used to determine the efficiency of the pasteurization process in cream to ensure quality and safety. AP is not found in butter. |
| European-style butter | Plugra is a domestic brand. Butter with 2% more milkfat than regular butter. Since European-style butter has a lower moisture content, using it results in better pastries, icings, and sauces. |
| Fats | Saturated fas associate in closely-packed structures with van der Waals interactions all along the length of their side chains. The increase in interactions raises the melting point. These Fatty Acid aggregates are solids at room temp. Example is palmitic acid the major component of animal fats. |
| Fatty acid | A chemical molecule consisting of carbon and hydrogen atoms bonded in a chainlike structure; combined through its acid group (-cooh) with the alcohol glycerol to form triglycerides. They are carboxylic acids with long hydrocarbon side chains that may or may not contain carboncarbon double bonds. Most naturally occurring fatty acids have an even number of carbon atoms because they are synthesized from 2-carbon units. Fatty acids rarely have less that 14 or more than 20 carbon atoms in biological systems. Fatty acids are rarely 'free.' they most frequently occur as esterified components of other saponifiable lipids. Some fatty acids are essential, that is, our bodies cannot make them, therefore we have to eat them. The two essential fatty acids in humans are linoleic and linolenic acid. Butter contains a wide variety of fatty acids that contribute to its functional advantages and characteristics. The presence of short-chain fatty acids contributes to butter's quality as a softer fat. |
| Feed | Flavor characteristic attributable to feed eaten by cows and the flavors being absorbed in the milk and carried through into the butter. |
| Flat | Flavor characteristic attributable to excessive washing of the butter or to a low percentage of fats or volatile acids and other volatile products that help to produce a pleasing butter flavor. |
| Formic acid | (Methanoic acid) Stinging agent of red ants and nettles; used in food preservation. |
| Ganache | A rich paste of chocolate, cream, and sometimes butter, used as the basis for truffles and as a filling for chocolate cakes and pastries. |
| Genoise | The classic, fine-crumbed French sponge cake made by beating warm whole eggs with sugar until the mixture more than triples in volume, then folding in flour and sometimes melted butter too. |
| Ghee | Clarified butter that has been cooked longer to remove all the water so it can be stored for longer periods (both refrigerated and at room temperature). Popular in india. Can be used for deep frying. |
| Glazes | Glazes are used to give desserts a smooth and/or shiny finish. Cake glazes can be water icing (confectioners' sugar mixed with liquid), melted chocolate in combination with cream, butter and/or sugar syrup, or fondant (a thick shiny opaque icing). Pastry glazes (brushed on dough before baking) can be an egg glaze made with whole eggs or yolks; milk, cream and/or butter glaze (these produce a duller finish); sugar glaze (sugar sprinkled over milk or cream glaze), or any combinations of the above. |
| Grainy | A grainy condition imparts a granular consistency when the butter is melted on the tongue. |
| Gritty | Attributable to the use of too much salt or undissolved salt due to insufficient working of butter |