Language tip of the week: cook

In this weekly post, we bring more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary to English language learners. These tips are usually based on areas of English which learners find difficult, e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, synonyms, etc.

This week’s language tip looks at some other ways of saying cook:

boil to cook food in boiling water: Boil the potatoes for about 20 minutes.
simmer to allow something to boil very gently: Bring the sauce to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer gently.
bake to cook food, especially bread or cakes, in an oven: I spent all afternoon baking cakes.
roast to cook meat or vegetables in an oven with fat or oil: Roast the chicken in a hot oven.
fry to cook food in hot oil: Do you want your eggs fried or boiled?
broil American to cook food under or over a very strong heat. The British word is grill: Broil the pork chops about four inches from the heat for four minutes on each side.
grill British to cook food under or over a very strong heat. The American word is broil: The lamb patties can be grilled in the oven very quickly.

Here are some more specialized cooking verbs:

braise to cook meat or vegetables quickly in oil, then add a small amount of liquid and cook them slowly in a container with a lid on
poach to cook something in water, milk, or another liquid that is boiling gently
parboil to boil food until it is only partly cooked
sauté to cook something quickly in a small amount of butter or oil
stew to cook slowly in liquid
stir-fry to cook food quickly by moving it around in hot oil