Cooking glossary

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Sieve

A semi-circular bowl-shaped mesh with small holes and a handle. Plastic and metal sieves are available and are used to aerate and remove lumps from dry ingredients, eg pass the flour through a sieve or to remove pips and lumps and produce a smooth result from wet ingredients, eg pass the raspberries through a sieve, pressing with the back of a spoon.

Sift

To pass dry ingredients through a sieve to aerate and remove lumps.