Mirepoix

One of my recent posts was commented on by a fellow blogger (hello Jenny Eatwell) who mentioned the importance of the ‘trinity’ of onion, celery and carrot in cooking various dishes. The French term for this trinity is mirepoix and here’s the answers to a few questions about it. If you have any more then please get in touch.

Ready for the Chop

1. What is mirepoix? – You know when you’re making a stew or a soup or a broth and the first thing you do is fry off some chopped onion, celery and carrot, well that combination is the classic mirepoix and the usual ratios are 2 parts onion, 1 part celery, 1 part carrot.
2. Are there any variations of mirepoix? – There are loads and it depends which part of the world you are in, take a look at the Wikipedia entry and you’ll see variations from Cajun and Creole cooking (Holy Trinity), Portuguese (refogado), Italian (soffritto), Spanish (sofrito), German (suppengrün) and Polish (włoszczyzna). All of these are slightly different and each will give you a boost towards recreating the authentic flavours of these different cuisines.
3. What’s the point of mirepoix? – Essentially this adds a complexity to the base flavour of whatever you’re looking to create. Onions give a bit of acidity, the carrots give sweetness and the celery provides an earthy, salty, almost grassy flavour.