Mirepoix
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A Template:Lang (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell, Template:IPA) 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, Template:Lang 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 Template:Lang 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.<ref name="CIA" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Further cooking, with the addition of tomato purée, creates a darkened brown mixture called Template:Lang.
Similar flavour bases include the Italian Template:Lang, the Spanish and Portuguese Template:Lang/Template:Lang (braised onions, garlic and tomato), a variation with tomato paste instead of fresh tomato of the Eastern Mediterranean and Balkans region, the German Template:Lang (leeks, carrots and celeriac), the Polish Template:Lang (leeks, carrots, celeriac and parsley root), the Russian/Ukrainian Template:Lang or Template:Lang (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).
History
Although the cooking technique is probably older, the word Template:Lang dates from the 18th century and derives, as do many other appellations in French cuisine,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> from the aristocratic employer of the cook credited with establishing and stabilizing it: in this case,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Charles-Pierre-Gaston François de Lévis, duc de Lévis-Mirepoix (1699–1757), French field marshal and ambassador and a member of the noble family of Lévis, lords of Mirepoix, Ariège in Languedoc (nowadays in the department of Ariège) since the 11th century.<ref>French Wikipedia: Maison de Lévis.</ref>Template:Circular reference According to Pierre Larousse (quoted in The Oxford Companion to Food), the Duke of Template:Lang was "an incompetent and mediocre individual ... who owed his vast fortune to the affection Louis XV felt toward his wife and who had but one claim to fame: he gave his name to a sauce made of all kinds of meat and a variety of seasonings".<ref name="DavidsonJaine2006">Template:Cite book</ref>
The term was not encountered regularly in French culinary texts until the 19th century, so it is difficult to know what a dish Template:Lang was like in 18th century France. Antoine Beauvilliers,<ref>French cuisine §Food establishments §History.</ref> for instance, in 1814, gives a short recipe for a Template:Lang which is a buttery, wine-laced stock garnished with an aromatic mixture of carrots, onions, and a Template:Lang. Marie-Antoine Carême, in 1816, gives a similar recipe, calling it simply "Mire-poix".<ref name="CarêmePlumery1817">Template:Cite book</ref> By the mid-19th century, Jules Gouffé refers to Template:Lang as "a term in use for such a long time that I do not hesitate to use it here".<ref name="DavidsonJaine2014">Template:Cite book</ref> His Template:Lang is listed among essences and, indeed, is a meaty concoction (laced with two bottles of Madeira), which, like all other essences, was used to enrich many a classic sauce. By the end of the 19th century, the Template:Lang had begun to take on its modern meaning, although it still regularly included meat. Joseph Favre, in his Template:Lang (Template:Circa, 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.<ref name="Alan Davidson 1999 p. 509">Alan Davidson, Oxford Companion to Food (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 509.</ref> The Template:Lang is very similar to the Template:Lang, except that the Template:Lang is designed to be brought to the table and eaten with the dish or alone as a side dish.<ref name= "Alan Davidson 1999 p. 509"/>
According to the 1938 Template:Lang, a Template:Lang may be prepared Template:Lang (with meat) or Template:Lang (without meat).<ref>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.</ref> Template:Lang is sometimes called a Template:Lang<ref>Larousse Gastronomique, Montagné, Prosper, and Gottschalk, eds., introduction by A. Escoffier and Philéas Gilbert (Paris: Librerie Larousse, 1938), p. 690.</ref> (although strictly speaking this term more accurately merely designates the technique of dicing with a knife). A Template:Lang 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.<ref>The 1938 Larousse (op. cit.) recommends the addition of thyme and powdered bay leaf to the Template:Lang, for example.</ref> The analogous Template:Lang (frequently containing parsley) is the basis for many traditional dishes in classic Italian cuisine, and the Template:Lang serves a similar purpose in Spanish cuisines.
Traditionally, the weight ratio for Template:Lang is 2:1:1 of onions, celery, and carrots;<ref name= "CIA">Template:Cite book</ref> the ratio for bones to Template:Lang for stock is 10:1.Template:Citation needed When making a white stock, or Template:Lang, parsnips are used instead of carrots to maintain the pale colour.
International versions
German Template:Lang
Template:More citations needed section Template:Lang (Template:IPA) means 'soup greens' in German; the Dutch equivalent is Template:Lang. Soup greens usually come in a bundle and consists of a leek, a carrot, and a piece of celeriac. It may also contain parsley, thyme, celery leaves, rutabaga (swede), parsley root, and onions. The mix depends on regional traditions, as well as individual recipes. The vegetables used are cold-climate roots and bulbs with long shelf lives. Template:Lang act as herbs and impart hearty, strong flavours to the soup or sauce, providing a foil for other strong tasting ingredients such as dried peas and beans or pot roast.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Large chunks of vegetables are slow cooked to make flavourful soups and stocks, and are discarded when the vegetables have given up most of their flavour. Finely chopped Template:Lang are browned in fat and used as a basis for a finished sauce. The vegetables may also be cooked long enough until they fall apart, and may become part of the sauce or pureed to form the sauce.Template:Citation needed<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Italian Template:LangTemplate:Anchor
Template:Redirect-distinguish In Italian cuisine, onions, carrots and celery are chopped to form a Template:Lang,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and then slowly cooked<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> in butter or olive oil, becoming Template:Lang.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It is used as the base for most pasta sauces, such as ragù (Template:Lang), but occasionally it can be used as the base of other dishes, such as sauteed vegetables. For this reason, it is a fundamental component in Italian cuisine. It may also contain garlic,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> shallot, or leek.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
According to the Italian restaurateur Benedetta Vitali, Template:Lang means 'underfried' and is "a preparation of lightly browned minced vegetables, not a dish by itself". At one time it was called "false Template:Lang", because Template:Lang was thought to vaguely recall the flavour of meat sauce.<ref>Benedetta Vitali, Soffritto: Tradition and Innovation in Tuscan Cooking (Berkeley, Toronto: Ten Speed Press, 2001), pp. 7–8.</ref>
Polish Template:Lang
Template:Lang (Template:IPAc-pl) is the Polish word for soup vegetables or greens. The word literally means 'Italian stuff' because Queen Bona Sforza, who was Italian and married Polish King Sigismund I the Old in 1518, introduced this concept to Polish cuisine.<ref>Wloszczyzna Template:Webarchive about.com</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A Template:Lang may consist of carrots, parsnips or parsley root, celery root or celeriac, leeks, and savoy or white cabbage leaves, and sometimes celery leaves and flat-leaf parsley.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The most typical, packaged combination is celery root, parsley root, carrots, and leeks. Template:Lang is usually cut up to uniform size and boiled to form a flavor base for soups and stews.Template:Citation needed
See also
References
External links
- 'Mirepoix', entry in The Food Timeline