Maltese dish names often tell you the main ingredient or how it is cooked. Tewm means garlic, mimli means stuffed or filled in a recipe name, and il-forn points to the oven. Learning a few of these words makes a recipe list or menu much easier to read.

This is a cooking glossary, with examples from the recipes on this site. It is not a complete dictionary or a guarantee of every restaurant’s ingredients. For quantities and substitutions, use the ingredient guide; for an introduction to the dishes themselves, use Maltese food explained.

What Does Tewm Mean?

Tewm is garlic. In a dish name, bit-tewm means with garlic. Ful bit-Tewm pairs broad beans with garlic, while Qarnit bit-Tewm uses octopus. The shared words describe the flavouring, not the same main ingredient. See the dictionary entry for tewm.

Fresh cloves, dried garlic, and garlic powder behave differently in a pan. Follow the form and amount given in the recipe instead of treating the translated name as a shopping quantity.

Vegetables, Beans, and Flavourings

Fresh broad beans and dried beans need different preparation. Similarly, a large marrow for stuffing is not necessarily interchangeable with a small courgette without changing the size of the portions. The English meaning gets you to the right ingredient family; the recipe tells you which form to buy.

Meat, Fish, and Cheese

The type of meat or cheese still matters. Laħam alone does not specify beef or pork, and ġbejniet does not tell you whether a cheeselet is fresh or dried. Read the filling as well as the title before choosing a dish.

Cooking Words in Recipe Names

Mimli describes the filling technique, not a vegetarian dish. Stuffed vegetables may contain meat, rice, cheese, or eggs. Our marrows and peppers have their own ingredient lists; do not infer dietary suitability from the vegetable in the name.

Bread and Sweet Ingredients

• Ħobż means bread. Ħobż Malti is the loaf recipe; Ħobż biż-Żejt is a prepared bread dish with oil, tomato, and toppings in this version.
• Lewż means almonds. Biskuttini tal-Lewż are almond biscuits.
• Qastan means chestnuts. Imbuljuta tal-Qastan combines them with chocolate and spice.
• Għasel means honey, but the name Qagħaq tal-Għasel does not establish the filling: our rings use treacle or dark molasses.

Finding Names Without Maltese Letters

You may see hobz, gbejniet, qaghaq, or pizelli when a keyboard or label omits Maltese letters. The site’s recipe search accepts these spellings as well as ħobż, ġbejniet, qagħaq, and piżelli.

Try one main word first, then narrow by ingredient or category. If you are deciding what to cook rather than translating a name, the recipe collections group dishes into meals, techniques, and occasions.