Mirepoix (cuisine)
Encyclopedia
A mirepoix is a combination of celery
(either common pascal celery or celeriac
), onion
s, and carrot
s. Mirepoix, either raw, roasted or sautéed
with butter, is the flavor base for a wide number of dishes, such as stocks
, soup
s, stew
s and sauce
s. The three ingredients are commonly referred to as aromatics.
Similar combinations of vegetables are known as holy trinity
in Creole cooking, refogado in Portuguese, soffritto in Italian, sofrito
in Spanish, suppengrün (soup greens) in Germany and włoszczyzna in Poland.
(1699–1757), French field marshal and ambassador and a member of the noble family of Lévis, lords of Mirepoix
in Languedoc
since the 11th century. According to Pierre Larousse
(quoted in the Oxford Companion to Food), the unfortunate Duke of Mirepoix 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":
The term is not encountered regularly in French culinary texts until in the 19th century, so it is difficult to know what a dish à la mirepoix was like in 18th-century France. Beauvilliers, 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
. Carême
, in the 1830s, gives a similar recipe, calling it simply Mire-poix; and, by the mid-19th century, Gouffé
refers to a Mirepoix 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
!), which, like all other essences, was used to enrich many a classic sauce. By the end of the 19th century, the mirepoix had taken on its modern meaning and Favre in his Dictionnaire universel de cuisine (c. 1895, 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. The matignon
is very similar to the mirepois, 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" (lean). Mirepoix au maigre is sometimes called a brunoise
(though strictly speaking this term more accurately merely designates the technique of cutting into small dice
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 analagous 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. In Cajun cuisine, a mirepoix or (jocularly so-called) "holy trinity"
is a combination of onions, celery and bell peppers.
Traditionally, the weight ratio for mirepoix is 2:1:1 of onions, celery, and carrots; the ratio for bones to mirepoix for stock is 10:1. When making a white stock, or fond blanc, parsnip
s are used instead of carrots to maintain the pale color.
version of mirepoix is called soffritto (not to be confused with the Spanish sofrito
). According to the American reference work The Joy of Cooking, an Italian soffritto is made with olive oil
rather than butter, as in France, and may also contain garlic
, shallot
, leek
, and herbs. From Tuscany in central Italy, restaurateur Benedetta Vitali writes that soffritto means "underfried", describing it as: "a preparation of lightly browned minced vegetables, not a dish by itself".
Celery
Apium graveolens is a plant species in the family Apiaceae commonly known as celery or celeriac , depending on whether the petioles or roots are eaten: celery refers to the former and celeriac to the latter. Apium graveolens grows to 1 m tall...
(either common pascal celery or celeriac
Celeriac
Celeriac is also known as celery root, turnip-rooted celery or knob celery. It is a kind of celery, grown as a root vegetable primarily for its large and bulbous hypocotyl rather than for its stem and leaves. The swollen hypocotyl is typically used when it is about 10–12 cm in...
), onion
Onion
The onion , also known as the bulb onion, common onion and garden onion, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The genus Allium also contains a number of other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion The onion...
s, and carrot
Carrot
The carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange in colour, though purple, red, white, and yellow varieties exist. It has a crisp texture when fresh...
s. Mirepoix, either raw, roasted or sautéed
Sautéing
Sautéing is a method of cooking food, that uses a small amount of fat in a shallow pan over relatively high heat. Ingredients are usually cut into pieces or thinly sliced to facilitate fast cooking. The primary mode of heat transfer during sautéing is conduction between the pan and the food being...
with butter, is the flavor base for a wide number of dishes, such as stocks
Stock (food)
Stock is a flavoured water preparation. It forms the basis of many dishes, particularly soups and sauces.- Preparation :Stock is made by simmering various ingredients in water, including some or all of the following...
, soup
Soup
Soup is a generally warm food that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables with stock, juice, water, or another liquid. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ingredients in liquids in a pot until the flavors are extracted, forming a broth.Traditionally,...
s, stew
Stew
A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables , meat, especially tougher meats suitable for slow-cooking, such as beef. Poultry, sausages, and seafood are also used...
s and sauce
Sauce
In cooking, a sauce is liquid, creaming or semi-solid food served on or used in preparing other foods. Sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to another dish. Sauce is a French word taken from the Latin salsus, meaning salted...
s. The three ingredients are commonly referred to as aromatics.
Similar combinations of vegetables are known as holy trinity
Holy trinity (cuisine)
The holy trinity is the Cajun and Louisiana Creole variant of mirepoix: onions, bell peppers, and celery in roughly equal quantities. This mirepoix is the base for much of the cooking in the regional cuisines of Louisiana...
in Creole cooking, refogado in Portuguese, soffritto in Italian, sofrito
Sofrito
Sofrito is a combination of aromatic ingredients which have been cut in very small pieces, and slowly sauteed or braised in cooking oil for 15-30 minutes....
in Spanish, suppengrün (soup greens) in Germany and włoszczyzna in Poland.
History
Though the cooking technique is probably older, the term mirepoix dates from the 18th century and derives, as do many other appellations in French cuisine, from the aristocratic employer of the cook credited with establishing and stabilizing it: in this case, Charles-Pierre-Gaston François de Lévis, duc de Lévis-MirepoixCharles-Pierre-Gaston François de Lévis, duc de Lévis-Mirepoix
Gaston Pierre de Lévis, known as the duc de Lévis-Mirepoix , maréchal de France and ambassador of Louis XV, was a member of a house that had been established in Languedoc as seigneurs of Mirepoix, Ariège since the 11th century.The chef de cuisine of the duc de Lévis-Mirepoix established the...
(1699–1757), French field marshal and ambassador and a member of the noble family of Lévis, lords of Mirepoix
Mirepoix, Ariège
Mirepoix is a communes in the Ariège department in southwestern France.-History:The original town was virtually destroyed by flooding of the Hers-Vif river on 16 June 1289...
in Languedoc
Languedoc
Languedoc is a former province of France, now continued in the modern-day régions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées in the south of France, and whose capital city was Toulouse, now in Midi-Pyrénées. It had an area of approximately 42,700 km² .-Geographical Extent:The traditional...
since the 11th century. According to Pierre Larousse
Pierre Larousse
Pierre Athanase Larousse was a French grammarian, lexicographer and encyclopaedist. He published many of the outstanding educational and reference works of 19th-century France, including the 15 volume Grand Dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle.-Early life:Pierre Larousse was born in Toucy, where...
(quoted in the Oxford Companion to Food), the unfortunate Duke of Mirepoix was "an incompetent and mediocre individual. . . who owed his vast fortune to the affection Louis XV
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
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":
The term is not encountered regularly in French culinary texts until in the 19th century, so it is difficult to know what a dish à la mirepoix was like in 18th-century France. Beauvilliers, 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
Bouquet garni
The bouquet garni is a bundle of herbs usually tied together with string and mainly used to prepare soup, stock, and various stews. The bouquet is cooked with the other ingredients, but is removed prior to consumption....
. Carême
Marie-Antoine Carême
Marie Antoine Carême , known as the "King of Chefs, and the Chef of Kings" was an early practitioner and exponent of the elaborate style of cooking known as haute cuisine, the "high art" of French cooking: a grandiose style of cookery favored by both international royalty and by the newly rich of...
, in the 1830s, gives a similar recipe, calling it simply Mire-poix; and, by the mid-19th century, Gouffé
Jules Gouffé
Jules Gouffé was a renowned French chef and pâtissier. He was nicknamed :l'apôtre de la cuisine décorative ....
refers to a Mirepoix 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
Madeira wine
Madeira is a fortified Portuguese wine made in the Madeira Islands. Some wines produced in small quantities in California and Texas are also referred to as "Madeira", or "Madera", although those wines do not conform to the EU PDO regulations...
!), which, like all other essences, was used to enrich many a classic sauce. By the end of the 19th century, the mirepoix had taken on its modern meaning and Favre in his Dictionnaire universel de cuisine (c. 1895, 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. The matignon
Matignon (cuisine)
In cooking, a matignon is a mirepoix in which the ingredients are minced rather than diced, and more flavorings added. Matignon, unlike mirepoix, is not a part of the food preparation per se, but is always served at the table.-Ingredients:...
is very similar to the mirepois, 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
Larousse Gastronomique
Larousse Gastronomique is an encyclopedia of gastronomy. The majority of the book is about French cuisine, and contains recipes for French dishes and cooking techniques...
, a mirepoix may be prepared "au gras" (with meat) or "au maigre" (lean). Mirepoix au maigre is sometimes called a brunoise
Brunoise
Brunoise is a culinary knife cut in which the food item is first julienned and then turned a quarter turn and diced again, producing cubes of a side length of about 3 mm or less on each side or 1/6 inch cubes. In France, a "brunoise" cut is smaller, 1 to 2 mm on each side. Common items to be...
(though strictly speaking this term more accurately merely designates the technique of cutting into small dice
Dicing
Dicing is a culinary knife cut in which the food item is cut into small blocks or dice. This may be done for aesthetic reasons or to create uniformly sized pieces to ensure even cooking...
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
French cuisine
French cuisine is a style of food preparation originating from France that has developed from centuries of social change. In the Middle Ages, Guillaume Tirel , a court chef, authored Le Viandier, one of the earliest recipe collections of Medieval France...
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 analagous soffritto (frequently containing parsley) is the basis for many traditional dishes in classic Italian cuisine, and the sofrito
Sofrito
Sofrito is a combination of aromatic ingredients which have been cut in very small pieces, and slowly sauteed or braised in cooking oil for 15-30 minutes....
serves a similar purpose in Spanish cuisines. In Cajun cuisine, a mirepoix or (jocularly so-called) "holy trinity"
Holy trinity (cuisine)
The holy trinity is the Cajun and Louisiana Creole variant of mirepoix: onions, bell peppers, and celery in roughly equal quantities. This mirepoix is the base for much of the cooking in the regional cuisines of Louisiana...
is a combination of onions, celery and bell peppers.
Traditionally, the weight ratio for mirepoix is 2:1:1 of onions, celery, and carrots; the ratio for bones to mirepoix for stock is 10:1. When making a white stock, or fond blanc, parsnip
Parsnip
The parsnip is a root vegetable related to the carrot. Parsnips resemble carrots, but are paler than most carrots and have a sweeter taste, especially when cooked. The buttery, slightly spicy, sweet flavor of cooked mature parsnips is reminiscent of butterscotch, honey, and subtle cardamom...
s are used instead of carrots to maintain the pale color.
Soffritto
The ItalianItalian cuisine
Italian cuisine has developed through centuries of social and political changes, with roots as far back as the 4th century BCE. Italian cuisine in itself takes heavy influences, including Etruscan, ancient Greek, ancient Roman, Byzantine, Jewish and Arab cuisines...
version of mirepoix is called soffritto (not to be confused with the Spanish sofrito
Sofrito
Sofrito is a combination of aromatic ingredients which have been cut in very small pieces, and slowly sauteed or braised in cooking oil for 15-30 minutes....
). According to the American reference work The Joy of Cooking, an Italian soffritto is made with olive oil
Olive oil
Olive oil is an oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps...
rather than butter, as in France, and may also contain garlic
Garlic
Allium sativum, commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion genus, Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, and rakkyo. Dating back over 6,000 years, garlic is native to central Asia, and has long been a staple in the Mediterranean region, as well as a frequent...
, shallot
Shallot
The shallot is the botanical variety of Allium cepa to which the multiplier onion also belongs. It was formerly classified as the species A. ascalonicum, a name now considered a synonym of the correct name...
, leek
Leek
The leek, Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum , also sometimes known as Allium porrum, is a vegetable which belongs, along with the onion and garlic, to family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Allioideae...
, and herbs. From Tuscany in central Italy, restaurateur Benedetta Vitali writes that soffritto means "underfried", describing it as: "a preparation of lightly browned minced vegetables, not a dish by itself".
It is the foundation on which many Tuscan sauces, and other dishes are built. At one time it was called "false ragout", because soffritto was thought to vaguely recall the flavor of meat sauce.According to Vitali mastery of the soffritto is the key to an understanding of Tuscan cooking. Her classically restrained Tuscan soffritto is garlic-less and simply calls for a red onion, a carrot, and a stalk of celery—all finely minced by hand and slowly and carefully sauteed in virgin olive oil in a heavy pan until the mixture reaches a state of browning appropriate to its intended use.