Product Code Database
A italics=unset ( , ) is a mixture of diced vegetables cooked with fat (usually butter) for a long time on low heat without colouring or browning. The ingredients are not sautéed or otherwise hard-cooked, because the intention is to sweeten rather than caramelise them. Historically including various meats before settling at its current meaning as a vegetable base, italics=unset is a long-standing part of French cuisine and is the flavour base for a wide variety of dishes, including stocks, soups, stews, and sauces.
When the italics=unset is not precooked, the constituent vegetables may be cut to a larger size, depending on the overall cooking time for the dish. Usually the vegetable mixture is onions, carrots, and celery (either common 'Pascal' celery or celeriac), with the traditional ratio being 2:1:1—two parts onion, one part carrot, and one part celery. Further cooking, with the addition of tomato purée, creates a darkened brown mixture called pinçage.
Similar flavour bases include the Italian soffritto, the Spanish and Portuguese sofrito/refogado (braised onions, garlic and tomato), a variation with tomato paste instead of fresh tomato of the Eastern Mediterranean and Balkans region, the German Suppengrün (leeks, carrots and celeriac), the Polish włoszczyzna (leeks, carrots, celeriac and parsley root), the Russian/Ukrainian smazhennya or zazharka (onion, carrot and possibly celery, beets or pepper), the United States Cajun/Creole holy trinity (onions, celery and bell peppers), and possibly the French duxelles (mushrooms and often onion or shallot and herbs, reduced to a paste).
The term is not encountered regularly in French culinary texts until the 19th century, so it is difficult to know what a dish à la mirepoix was like in 18th century France. Antoine Beauvilliers,French cuisine §Food establishments §History. for instance, in 1814, gives a short recipe for a Sauce à la Mirepoix which is a buttery, wine-laced stock garnished with an aromatic mixture of carrots, onions, and a bouquet garni. Marie-Antoine Carême, in 1816, gives a similar recipe, calling it simply "Mire-poix". By the mid-19th century, Jules Gouffé refers to italics=unset as "a term in use for such a long time that I do not hesitate to use it here". His mirepoix is listed among essences and, indeed, is a meaty concoction (laced with two bottles of Madeira wine), which, like all other essences, was used to enrich many a classic sauce. By the end of the 19th century, the italics=unset had begun to take on its modern meaning, although it still regularly included meat. Joseph Favre, in his Dictionnaire universel de cuisine (, reprinted 1978), uses the term to describe a mixture of ham, carrots, onions, and herbs used as an aromatic condiment when making sauces or braising meat.Alan Davidson, Oxford Companion to Food (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 509. The matignon is very similar to the italics=unset, except that the matignon is designed to be brought to the table and eaten with the dish or alone as a side dish.
According to the 1938 Larousse Gastronomique, a mirepoix may be prepared au gras (with meat) or au maigre (without meat).Since the 17th century, recipe books in France had been organised so readers could plan meals in accordance with prescribed days for fasting according to the Catholic liturgical calendar. See Sean Takats, The Expert Cook in Enlightenment France (Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press) p. 110. Mirepoix au maigre is sometimes called a brunoise Larousse Gastronomique, Montagné, Prosper, and Gottschalk, eds., introduction by A. Escoffier and Philéas Gilbert (Paris: Librerie Larousse, 1938), p. 690. (although strictly speaking this term more accurately merely designates the technique of dicing with a knife). A mirepoix au gras contains diced ham or pork belly as an additional ingredient. Similar combinations, both in and out of the French culinary repertoire, may include leeks, parsnips, garlic, tomatoes, shallots, mushrooms, bell peppers, chilies, and ginger, according to the requirements of the regional cuisine or the instructions of the particular chef or recipe.The 1938 Larousse (op. cit.) recommends the addition of thyme and powdered bay leaf to the mirepoix au maigre, for example. The analogous soffritto (frequently containing parsley) is the basis for many traditional dishes in classic Italian cuisine, and the sofrito serves a similar purpose in Spanish cuisines.
Traditionally, the weight ratio for italics=unset is 2:1:1 of onions, celery, and carrots; the ratio for bones to italics=unset for stock is 10:1. When making a white stock, or fond blanc, parsnips are used instead of carrots to maintain the pale colour.
According to the Italian restaurateur Benedetta Vitali, soffritto means 'underfried' and is "a preparation of lightly browned minced vegetables, not a dish by itself". At one time it was called "false (ragoût", because soffritto was thought to vaguely recall the flavour of meat sauce.Benedetta Vitali, Soffritto: Tradition and Innovation in Tuscan Cooking (Berkeley, Toronto: Ten Speed Press, 2001), pp. 7–8.
|
|
