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Vocabulary Quiz
throw• yeast • dissolve • consistency
break • glob • dough • sit
  1. To finish the cookies you have to put a of jam on the top of each one.
  2. To clean your mouth just a spoonful of salt in some warm water and move it around your mouth.
  3. After you make the cake you have to let it for 30 minutes before you serve it.
  4. It's a lot easier to melt the chocolate if you  up the bars before you put them in the pan.
  5. The of this soup is a lot more liquid than I remember.
  6. I think this is old because the bread didn't rise.
  7. Don't measure the raisins, just in about a half a bag.
  8. I already made the , we just have to bake the cookies now.
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434 Baking Bread
Alan gives the basics for baking bread.

  • Transcript
  • Audio Notes

throw in

Depending on how much you want to make, first of all, you throw in the flour into a big mixing bowl.

Used like this, 'throw in' is an informal way to say add. We would usually use it like this when the amount of something that we want to add isn't specific. Notice the following:

  1. Can you wait just a few minutes? I need to throw in some laundry to be washed.
  2. The cake is even better if you throw in a handful of nuts.


When yeast gets in direct contact with salt, it will not make the bread rise.

'Yeast' is actually a live fungus that is used in baking or making beer. It has a very distinct smell that is noticeable in fresh baked bread. It is used to make the bread big and full of air. Notice the following:

  1. He works in a bakery so his clothes always smell like yeast.
  2. After the jar of yeast is open you have to keep it in the refrigerator.

dissolve or break up

Break up the yeast into the water or dissolve it in water and pour it in the flour mixture.

When a solid 'substance' dissolves it changes from its solid form to combine with with a liquid. For example, when you put sugar in hot coffee or tea it dissolves and mixes with the liquid when you stir it. When you 'break something up' it is solid and you separate it into smaller pieces. If you want to put ice in a class, but the ice piece is too big you need to break it up to put it in the glass. Notice the following:

  1. The water needs to be really hot or the sugar won't dissolve.
  2. You have to break up the chocolate bar into little pieces and cover the top of the cake with them.


Mix everything until you get the consistency that you want.

When you are talking about cooking, 'consistency' refers to how liquid or solid something is. It is a where the substance is compared to a complete liquid or a complete solid. Notice the following:

  1. The dough should have the consistency of oatmeal.
  2. The consistency of this pudding is really strange.

dough or glob

Mix them until the dough is developed and it's a glob and then you pull it off the bowl.

'Dough' is the combination of all of the ingredients in bread or cookies before you cook it. You can use the word 'glob' to refer to a ball or lump of a substance that you can make into different forms, like clay. Notice the following:

  1. Is this how the dough is supposed to look?
  2. That spaghetti looks terrible. It's just a big glob of pasta.

let it sit

Pull the dough off the bowl and let it sit on the bench for about five minutes.

When you 'let something sit' you leave it in one particular place for a period of time without touching it. Notice the following:

  1. Put the bread in a warm spot and let it sit for a few hours.
  2. After you take the cookies out of the oven you should let them siit for 2 minutes before taking them off the tray.