You’re sick of writing “add” and “place” in recipes, aren’t you? (If not, you should be.)
Here’s help. Use some of Julia Child’s verbs. I spent a pleasurable hour reading through Mastering the Art of French Cooking to compile this list for you. Just look at this variety!
- Arrange
- Baste
- Beat
- Blend
- Brown
- Build
- Bury
- Carve
- Check
- Chop
- Close
- Cool
- Correct
- Cover
- Crumple
- Cut
- Decorate
- Discard
- Divide
- Drape
- Drop
- Dry
- Film
- Fold
- Follow
- Form
- Force
- Glaze
- Insert
- Lay
- Leave
- Lift
- Make
- Melt
- Mince
- Mix
- Moisten
- Mound
- Open
- Pack
- Paint
- Pierce
- Pour
- Prepare
- Press
- Prick
- Pull
- Puree
- Push
- Quarter
- Raise
- Reduce
- Refresh
- Reheat
- Replace
- Return
- Ring
- Roast
- Roll
- Salt
- Saute
- Scatter
- Scoop
- Scrape
- Scrub
- Season
- Separate
- Set
- Settle
- Shave
- Simmer
- Skim
- Slice
- Slide
- Slip
- Slit
- Smear
- Soak
- Spoon
- Spread
- Sprinkle
- Stir
- Strain
- Strew
- Stuff
- Surround
- Taste
- Thin
- Tie
- Tilt
- Tip
- Top
- Toss
- Trim
- Turn
- Twist
- Warm
- Wilt
- Wind
- Wrap
* * *
That’s it for Julia Child’s verbs. You might also like:
(Disclosure: This post contains an affiliate link. Photo by Max Delsid on Unsplash)
Thank you for compiling such a thorough, and thoroughly useful, list Dianne!
My pleasure, Amanda. I hope you find a few you can use.
Brilliant! We could all use a few several hours with Julia. I’m printing this and it’s going on the office bulletin board. Thank you Dianne!
My pleasure, Rebecca. You’re such an active recipe writer that I know you’ll make good use of these.
Thank you, Dianne! This is so helpful and wonderful!
You’re welcome. Hey if Julia can do it, so can we!
Thank you Diane for compiling such a thorough list. I’ll be referring to it often, for sure. It’s true that these words certainly do help to get a clearer picture and I’m especially intrigued by the word, “BrownBuild”. I’ll have to look that one up.
Yeah, me too. That’s what happened when I put in the “more…” feature of WordPress.
Love this list. It will be so helpful. Thank you, Dianne!
You are most welcome, Marie.
That’s a great list, thank you. I made a list of active verbs when my job required report writing!
Have bookmarked for future use.
They must have been the most lively reports ever, Pat. Great idea.
Love this, thank you! Though I have to say, no one has cooking verbs quite like Simon and Minty Marchmont. 🙂 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfN4_52loC4
“As firm and moist as Tom Cruise after a hot bath.” Love it! Thanks for sharing it, Leah. I did not know about this show.
THANK YOU for taking the time to do this.
You’re welcome, Ana-Marija. Since I also write recipes, it’s also quite selfish of me.
What an a excellent reference, Dianne. I’ve bookmark it and will refer to it regularly. David Leite, speaking at a conference I attended, challenged everyone to come up with 100 adjectives to describe food other than delicious. I started my list but never completed it. This post has inspired me to get cracking and get it finished.
“BrownBuild”. I’m looking that up!
I’d like to see that list! David is a good friend.
Re BrownBuild, that’s what happens when you put a “more” break in your post, a la WordPress. I have fixed it.
I’m looking for another word to describe this fantastic list, Dianne. Thank you.
I’ll take fantastic, thank you very much. I really can’t take any credit at all.
Nice 🙂
Thank you CJ.
As a big fan of lists, Julia and cooking, I am grateful to you for having compiled this!
Sure! Actually I am a fan of those three things too.
How I love thee…let me count the ways! 100 ways that I love and appreciate this list!
Oh good. Could you write out all 100 ways please? Just kidding.
What a great idea – thanks, Dianne!
My pleasure, Susanne. And it really was.
Love this list! Dinne, thank you so much!
I’m reading some books on food and travel these days, and was thinking of making such a list, mostly for my own use. But now your post inspires me, so when I’m ready I will forward my list to you and if you deem appropriate you can share it with the readers.
All the best!!
PS. What a bad luck, my day-time work got so hectic and demanding that it leaves right now almost no time for my hobby:-(
I look forward to the Christmass vacation, just to reconnect…
Well, that does sound like an overwhelming task. This one was easy, just an hour to write them all down, and then let the computer alphabetize them. Maybe you need a more manageable list.
A great list of useful verbs for reference! Thank you Dianne.
Hello Lynn! I think this is your first comment. Thanks for saying hi. You are most welcome.
WOW…. I think this is the problem most food/recipe writers have, trying to come up with different ways to say almost the same thing. Thank you so much for the list, and how can you not love Julia?
Yes and we do get lazy, writing the same dull verbs over and over. You’ve got to hand it to Julia, I agree.
Hi, Dianne. Great blog. I read “My Life in France” recently and it was this very thing–her choice of words–that enchnanted me. Of course, your list here is more on the practical side, but she had the most vivid, charming, old-timey (in some cases) way of describing things. One of my favorites was calling her career/writing “cookbookery.” 🙂
Yes, her voice was so vivid and full of her personality. It holds up beautifully even if it is a little old fashioned.
This is great!!! This will come in very handy. I have copied this list to use as an aide when working on a recipe.
Yes, that is its intention. I hope you find it useful.
Brilliant, Diane. Thank you so much for again enriching our craft. Too often we’re blocked and think there just can’t be another way to articulate or communicate the food prep or cooking action — and the like magic – You — and Julia whip up our imaginations and give us “food for thought.” Cheers!
Oh now, maybe Julia is brilliant, not me. She must have worked so very had to come up with all this original and lively language. Thanks, Leeann.
This is a great resource, Diane. I might have to do the same with adjectives. While writing 60 headnotes about almonds, Julia would have been helpful inspiration.
Lynda, I take it you’re writing a cookbook using almonds? Congrats! Yes, you’ve got to come with something fresh every time, and that’s tough. There is a long list of adjectives in Will Write for Food. Take a look.
I SO needed this – many thanks and enjoy a lovely Thanksgiving.
You are most welcome, Liz. Thanks for your kind wishes for Thanksgiving, but I will be in Canada teaching, and they have already celebrated it in October, so it’s just another day. I hope yours and Larry’s is wonderful.
Thank you so much Dianne for such a useful list. I will refer to it often!
Glad to have written something useful for you, Maria.
Hi Dianne, this is an amazing list of verbs. Thanks for putting it together and generously sharing it with us. As always, you rock! All the best to you.
Thanks Betty Ann. Since I write recipes, it is also useful for my own selfish reasons.
This is a great list, Dianne. Thank you!
I love the use of more unconventional verbs for recipes. Smear is a wonderful word. How about plaster? Slather?
Love the new website design. Very nice!
Melissa
You’re welcome, Melissa. I like those additional adjectives of yours very much. “Plaster” implies a sense of humor — which I find comes in handy when cooking!
Wonderful list! Beats surfing the thesaurus for relevant but diverse array of verbs – which is what I end up doing while writing. 🙁 Thank you!
Oh yes, I surf thesauruses also. Most of the time they are helpful, but sometimes the words are just a little off. Glad this list will come in handy.
Thank you Dianne! This gave me an idea for my culinary mystery!
Your next book? What a hoot. I’ve read several of those for fun.
Marvelous list! I don’t even write recipes but I noticed that many of these verbs conjure up vivid and even violent images (e.g., pierce, crumple, push, twist, quarter, bury). What a great way to grab the reader’s attention. Thanks, Dianne
Vivid and even violent images! I never thought of that. But it does sound like a bit of a wrestling match when you read those words one after another.
What a fantastic list! Thank you for compiling this, Dianne (and for ALL the work you do for us recipe writers)!
My pleasure, Alanna. Recipe writing is still a learning experience for me as well, so this blog is a good outlet.
Love this post! Thanks a mil, will start using now!
You’re welcome Leticia. If I knew how to say that in Brazilian, I would give it a shot.
Hey Dianne,
Article is so useful for my bloggers mums i am sharing it now on my Facebook Fan page amazing help 🙂
Oh wonderful! Thanks so much for doing so.
This is wonderful, Dianne, and a lot of fun, to boot. I have been meaning to add a section to my blog (as a very slowly reorganize it) on references for bloggers and this will find its place. Food and cooking vocabulary is so rich, it is funny that we don’t all automatically use a larger vocabulary. I wonder if part of the reason that Julia’s was was because she learned to cook in French?
Interesting idea, Jamie. It does tax your brain in a different way, and maybe it added to her creativity. It is fun to wonder how she came up with so many good verbs. Did they just come to her, did she struggle, did she have a list like this? We’ll never know.
This is the reason you are my first bookmark. I love these types of posts. They’re really helpful and improve food blogs on the whole!
Thanks so much Dianne 🙂
Oh that’s sweet, Samantha. Thanks very much.
What a useful list Dianne – will save this for later use. Do you buy any chance have a similar list of adjectives? I am always struggling for better ways to say ‘delicious’.
Yes I do, Glenda. Currently they are in my book, Will Write for Food, on p. 161.
Dianne, thank you so much for taking the time to compile this list and for sharing it with other writers. What a generous and thoughtful thing to do. Bless you!
Awesome post and thank you for the suggestions! I’ve just started to read you book, Will Write for Food, and I’m loving it so far. I recently started a blog in February and I’m always looking to improve it (and me). 🙂
My pleasure, Tina. I hope you’ll be a regular reader and commenter. Good luck with the blog.
Hi Dianne,
I have recently purchased your book “Will write for food”, awesome book and I am only on chapter 4! I have just started reading your blog and finding it so helpful. I am 50 years old (soon to be 51) and have always wanted to write a cookbook, so I thought I would start with blogging about food while planning menues and researching different ingredients that I will be using in my meals.
I am 100% focused on doing this and finally be happy in doing what I want in life.
Looking forward to following your blog.
Linda from St. Sauveur, Qc Canada
Wonderful to hear from you, Linda. Best of luck with your blog. That sounds like the best way to start.
This is an extraordinary list for a recipe writer. Thank you so so much for sharing.
My pleasure. It was fun to make the list and read old recipes. I probably could have gone on.
This is a wonderful list of 100 verbs. I saw it a few weeks ago, bookmarked it and kept coming back for reference. Just wanted to thank you for generously sharing this and the other very helpful posts on food writing. Happy Holidays, Dianne!
You are most welcome, Betty Ann. Thanks for all the comments this year.
All the work you did to compile this list makes my life– and the writing lives of my students– so much easier! Thank you for this and all your wonderful posts. Never stop!
Happy New Year
-Marge
Thank so much Marge. I have been showing your ASF award-winning essay to students so they can see what a great one looks like. Happy New Year to you and David.
I think I need to post this next to my desk! Can we do adjectives next? 🙂
Thanks Laurie. I list adjectives in my book, on page 161. Take a look!
Will definitely be using some of these, thanks!
This is a wonderful tool — I just happened upon it on your site, which I have been reading for years. Somehow I missed this post, though. I look forward to sharing it with my Food Writing students this afternoon.
Hello Tenaya! Thank you. It’s a delightful way to remember that Julia was not just a great recipe developer but a creative and precise wordsmith as well.
this is real help for my cooking class thank you!!!!!
My pleasure!
Hi, I like your post. I recently published an post on storing beef. I love to make my own meat for Christmas!. We will be creating a tasty ice cream to go with it. The teeny boppers will be off school and I am sure they are going to enjoy it.
Thank you so much, Clotilde! It was fun to assemble this list.
I’m a bit disappointed. Because I opened the link through Chocolate and Zucchini I thought it would be in French! How about a follow up Clotilde for those of us learning the language? Thank you Dianne for doing the hard work. Jackie
I believe you can read her blog in both languages, Jackie. Click on the Francais button on the right.
Hello Jackie, I have now put together an equivalent list in French if you want to review it: http://chocolateandzucchini.com/vf/interlude/200-verbes-ecrire-recettes/