Interesting Facts for Culinary Foodies:
Mirepoix (pronounced, meer pwah) is known to be named after an eighteenth-century Frenchman field marshal chef (Duc du Levis-Mirepoix).
Mirepoix is a flavoring made from diced vegetables, seasonings, herbs, and meat, often placed in a pan to cook with meat, fish, soup, etc.
Finely chopped vegetables, as onions, celery and carrots. It’s often used as a bed for meat that is to be braised. Mirepoix is also well known as a base/foundation of French Cuisine(s).
The vegetables are generally cut all the same size to your liking which could vary from finely diced to larger cubes. It all depends on how fast you need the vegetables to soften and release their flavors.
Mirepoix ingredients are the same as those for matignon (a mirepoix in which the ingredients are minced rather than diced, and more flavorings added) with the following differences: the vegetables are cut into large or small brunoised according to how the Mirepoix is to be used and the raw ham is replaced by lean salt belly of pork cut in dice and blanched. Lightly brown all the ingredients in a little butter. Matignon is cut 125 g (4 1/2 oz) red of carrot, 125 g (. 1/2 ox) onion, 50 g (2 oz) celery and 100 g (3 1/2 oz) raw ham all into thin paysanne; add 1 bay leaf and a sprig of thyme. Stew together in a little butter and deglaze with a little white wine.
Above is a picture of Duc du Levis-Mirepoix
NOTES:
Photo Credit: Zoe/Position in the Kitchen
Food Prep/arranged/sliced by: Zoe/Position in the Kitchen in June 2023
Escoffier: The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery, Escoffier [1903], the first translation into English by H.L. Cracknell and R.J. Kaufmann of Le Guide Culinaire in its entirety (New York) 1979