as a verb and in the kitchen, means to give food a smooth, shiny, often transparent finish.
This can be achieved in various ways, one of which is to apply a coating of something which has these qualities, for example aspic, often used over fish.
Other examples of cold glazes are coating a cake with a suitable jam such as apricot; or applying a fruit syrup glaze (made by reducing the syrup in which fruit has been poached and then thickening with arrowroot) to, say, a cooked pastry shell.
Many kinds of glaze require heat to be effective. Thus, if vegetables are cooked with butter and sugar they will emerge with a shiny finish. Loaves of bread or buns may be coated with beaten egg or milk, or the like, before being baked; and the process of baking turns the coating into a glaze (using white of egg alone gives a clear glaze, whole egg gives medium brown, and yolk alone a rich brown). Similarly, if a dessert has sugar sprinkled on it and is then put briefly under a hot grill, it will acquire a shiny glaze, which will be brown underneath a transparent surface.
In the Orient, some other forms of glaze are used. When the Japanese cook things in teriyaki style (teri meaning gloss, see Japanese culinary terms) they use a sweet glaze based on soy sauce. See Peking duck for an example of Chinese glazing, using maltose.
Meat glaze is a special case. It is made by prolonged reduction of a meat stock, resulting in a syrupy liquid. See glace (de viande).
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
