dough

dough, batter, paste are quasi-synonyms often confused in their modern cookery senses. All denote a mixture of flour, liquid, salt, and supplementary ingredients, but each suggests a difference both in consistency as a result of the variety and proportion of ingredients and in use.

Dough applies to a mixture with only enough liquid in relation to the flour to bind the ingredients while leaving the mixture sufficiently stiff to knead or to shape before baking. Ordinarily other ingredients (as a leavening agent, fat, and sugar) are included to improve the texture, flavor, and nutritive qualities of the ultimate product which includes such items as bread, biscuit, rolls, and some kinds of cake and cookies.

Batter applies to a thinner mass in which the proportion of liquid is much greater than in dough; characteristically, also, it contains eggs, and often baking powder, sugar, and fat. It may be used for cakes that are shaped by the pan in which they are baked or for those that are poured in small amounts on a hot griddle or pan and quickly cooked. Batter also designates a similar mixture of flour, liquid, and eggs into which raw food (as fish or oysters) are dipped before frying in hot fat.

Paste applies to a mixture like dough in its stiffness and in its admitting of being rolled and shaped but differs in implying the use of a large proportion of fat and a very small proportion of liquid; it names, therefore, the mixture out of which pastries (as pies and tarts) are made.