French Culinary Vocabulary

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Au Jus

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a light sauce for beef recipes,
"with [its own] juice"

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Bearnaise

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a reduction sauce made of clarified butter and egg yolks, tarragon, shallots and chervil and simmered in vinegar.

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Beurre Manie

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a dough, consisting of equal parts of soft butter and flour, used to thicken soups and sauces.

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Compound Butter

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butter that has a flavor, or additional ingredient(s) added to it.

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Coulis

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a form of thick sauce made from puréed and strained vegetables or fruits

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Deglaze

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removing bits of food from a pan in order to make a sauce with them

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Depoulller

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adding a few drops of cold water to a sauce, while it is being cooked, so that the scum rises to the surface

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Mirepoix

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onions, carrots, and celery

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Monter au Beurre

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melted butter that remains emulsified at high temps

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Napper

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to cover

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Roux

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cooked mixture of wheat flour and fat, traditionally clarified butter. It is the thickening agent of four of the mother sauces

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Sachet

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small cloth bag made of cheesecloth, containing various herbs and spices

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Slurry

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but it means so much to gravy, sauce, and stew. You can thicken anything with a proper slurry

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Temper

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"Temper" is a culinary term meaning to stabilize certain products. For instance, when a hot liquid, like soup, is mixed with cold cream, it is added slowly, whisking the entire time, so the dairy product doesn't curdle.

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difference between standardized recipe and cookbook recipe

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cookbook: set of written instructions for producing a specific food or beverage

standardized: a recipe producing a known quality and quantity of food for a specific operation

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why not salt stock during prep

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no way to know what the stock will eventually be used for

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difference between brown and white stock

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brown stock caramelizes bones and mirepoix and adds tomato product

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white stock simmer time

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3 to 4 hours

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brown stock simmer time

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8 hours

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fish stock simmer time

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30 45 mins

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sauce vs gravy

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flour is added after meat is cooked in order to thicken the pan juices

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Escouiffiere

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(28 October 1846 – 12 February 1935) was a French chef, restaurateur and culinary writer who popularized and updated traditional French cooking methods. He is a legendary figure among chefs and gourmets, and was one of the most important leaders in the development of modern French cuisine. Much of Escoffier's technique was based on that of Antoine Carême, one of the codifiers of French Haute cuisine, but Escoffier's achievement was to simplify and modernize Carême's elaborate and ornate style.

Alongside the recipes he recorded and invented, another of Escoffier's contributions to cooking was to elevate it to the status of a respected profession, introducing organized discipline to his kitchens. He organized his kitchens by the brigade de cuisine system, with each section run by a chef de partie.

Escoffier published Le Guide Culinaire, which is still used as a major reference work, both in the form of a cookbook and a textbook on cooking.