Straining

Passing a sauce, stock, or purée through fine mesh to refine its texture.

What it means in a kitchen

Straining is the quiet final step that turns a competent sauce into a silky one. It holds back solids — onion skins, herb stems, broken egg-yolk strands — that don't belong in the finished texture. A chinois is the classical French strainer; in a home kitchen, a fine-mesh strainer covers most of the job.