Pass
This is as great a word in cookery as it is in legerdemain. "Pass!" says the juggler, and the pigeon vanishes. A. French cook passes almost everything through a sieve, and according to the theory of evolution, he will himself one day pass through the sieve and become a purée. But the grand and peculiar use of the word for which it has a place in this dictionary implies a process of cookery. A cook will speak of passing a fowl, or a piece of meat, or vegetables. In the French kitchen they have not only the verb passer, but also (which is the same thing) faire revenir. To pass is to pass in butter over the fire; in short, to fry lightly for a minute or two, so as to create a rich surface on what it is intended to finish by a different process of cooking-say by stewing. To pass in a trifle of butter is to frying what the preface is to the book, the prologue to the play and the overture to the opera.