Thread: Pinçage?

blake murphy wrote:

> are folks familiar with this? i mean caramelized onions, sure, but i
> don['t think i've seen the term or idea before.
>
> your pal,
> blake

I never knew it had a name but yes, I've done this on occasion when
making a particular soup of my fathers. We always caramelized the
tomato conserva/paste (just a large tablespoon or two) in the pot with
the veggies (after we sauteed the veggies but) before the addition of
other ingredients.

"blake murphy" <[email protected]> ha scritto nel messaggio
news:tqsf5xbk729c.14iw4hiyi4hze$.[email protected]..
> of course, i've heard of mirepoix, but not its apparent cousin, pinçage.
> francis lam of *slate* has a discussion here (after a somewhat hokey
> intro):
>
> <http://www.salon.com/food/francis_lam/2010/05/28/mirepoix_pincage/index.html>
>
> are folks familiar with this? i mean caramelized onions, sure, but i
> don['t think i've seen the term or idea before.
>
> your pal,
> blake

In the kitchen everything has its name in one language or the other or in
several. In life there is always someone who will pull it out of the hat
they found it in to make you feel uninformed.
There are 8 specific ways to peel and cut potatoes in the classic kitchen
and each has its name. I had to learn to make them and their names. I
reckoned it was pretty useless info and set about forgetting them instantly.
Forget this one, too.

blake murphy wrote:
> of course, i've heard of mirepoix, but not its apparent cousin, pinçage.
> francis lam of *slate* has a discussion here (after a somewhat hokey
> intro):
>
> <http://www.salon.com/food/francis_lam/2010/05/28/mirepoix_pincage/index.html>
>
> are folks familiar with this? i mean caramelized onions, sure, but i
> don['t think i've seen the term or idea before.
>
> your pal,
> blake

Over cooked veggies can have an enhancing effect, especially when
combined with meat stock, but the result seems to me to be an enhanced
meat flavor. I prefer the less cooked vegetable stock to which some
cooked meat may be added before serving. I am not a vegetarian, but i
do like to cook my meats and veggies separately. Obviously some dishes
use long cooked veggies to very good effect, but in general, for my
soups and stew, ragouts, casseroles, risottos & etc. i like a quickly
cooked veggie stock.

I have caramelized onions on top of the stove in oil for various dishes,
and have seen 5 - 10 pounds of onions, thinly sliced, caramelized in hot
oil in an iron skillet on top of the stove and then put into an oven for
an hour to further fully caramelize into an mahogany colored mass of
onion pulp that is then used with other fresh onions in a beef stew type
dish and French onion soup, although i first ran across the deep
carmelization in the Belgian carbonad flamanad de boeuf (sp?) recipe.

Here's an image i keep to remind me why i never made a lot of this
deeply caramelized onions.

http://www.artinthepicture.com/artis...ou/onions.jpeg

Granted the food processor has rendered this once formidable task into
something less arduous, still, i rarely make enough food to make it
worth while.

Even the remarkable flavor that is attained by this method is not
impressive enough to me, in comparison to freshly chopped raw vegetables
with which to make a stock, to make this deep carmelazation a standard
part of my cooking.

It also seems to me that less cooking time and very low heat is better,
for vegetable stock making. It seems to me that if a veggie stock is
cooked too hot it loses a lot of flavor.

I often roast a bird on a bed of chopped veggies to which i add enough
water to just cover the mound of diced veggies, replenishing as needed
during the roasting of the bird.

The resulting stock can then be drained, defatted and used au jus, as
is, or reduced and used as a glaze or as the base of a sauce or gravy
with the additions of any roux, wine, butter etc.
--

Mr. Joseph Paul Littleshoes Esq.

Domine, dirige nos.

Let the games begin!