Monday, January 5, 2009

Mirepoix

I often refer to mirepoix ("meer pwah") in my posts. This term from classic French cuisine refers to a small dice of aromatic vegetables for flavoring dishes. When I write "5# mirepoix" on the prep list, our cooks know this is short-hand for "five pounds of onions, carrots, and celery in 3/8" (1 cm) dice in the ratio 2 parts onion to one part each carrot and celery." The 2:1:1 ratio is fairly classic, but many chefs would want a mirepoix in equal parts of each ingredient.

Now were I to write "5# trinity" on my prep list, I would be talking about five pounds of mirepoix of the Cajun holy trinity: onions, peppers, and celery, again with a 2:1:1 ratio.

And if I wanted some other vegetables, I would write something similar to "5# mirepoix of butternut squash, turnips, parsnips, celery root, and rutabaga." The prep cooks would give me equal parts of each unless I specified otherwise.

While I'm on the subject, a similar preparation is the brunoise, 1/8" (3mm) dice of similar vegetables. Brunoise ("bru nwahz") is almost always cut for show (for final garnish that is) so the emphasis is on consistently perfect, identically sized cubes of vegetables.

No comments:

Post a Comment