Cooking Definitions - Foodinitions!
Because who wants to read a dictionary?

Mirepox

Every little Ma-and-Pa
In Arles can make a mirepoix
Dice onion, carrot, celery
Then sweat them for your brasserie.

Contrast to The Trinity

Now, if you're in New Orleans
They don't like carrots? So it seems
Instead of doing mirepoix
The Trinity is coup de gras.

The Trinity

To do a Trinity, you sweat
Some onion, celery, then get
(Not the carrot) use instead
Bell peppers, green ones, not the red.

Just for fun, I'll coin them "foodinitions" i.e., definitions for "foodies." Why "potluck"? Like that proverbial box of sweet treats of Gump fame, you never know what you're going to get.

Charcuterie Definition

Terrines or ham, pâtés, confit
Or anything thing that pork can be
Preparing them - Charcuterie
Before refrigeration, see?

What's a Brasserie?

A brasserie's a little place
Where unpretentious is the pace
Where patrons of a Frankish wont
Dine in a simple restaurant

The Technique of Sweating

Sweating food means cooking that
In just a very little fat
For vegetables, just shy of browned
- Good if mirepoix's around.

Only the largest food websites offer nice cooking definitions, but boutique sites like this one aim to please with whatever it takes to engage you, the visitor, with information that is not only useful for the home cook, but also, fun to read.

Start Sauces and Soups with Basic Flavors

Season sauces, soups, and stews
All begin with bases you
Choose Maripoix or Trinity
To be the chef you wanna be.

What's a Chiffonade?

Veg'tables sliced into shreds
Slightly more than merely threads
Well, that's classy chiffonade
To garnish soups or even scrod.

Example of a Chiffonade

Stack up a pile of basil leaves
Tidy like some bundled sheaves
Then roll that stack like a cigar
Slice from one end and there you are.

What's a Julienne Cut?

When a vegetable is firm:
Jicama? Carrot? Those you "turn"
Cut them up like matchsticks then
And call the thing a julienne

Expand your food vocabulary and smile at the same time. Please visit Formula Easy Recipes for the chapters on Potluck Poetry and Foodinitions often - we'll keep adding - promise! :)

After you've read the cooking definitions, want to see some recipes as poems?