My Market Year(s)

“Mise en place” is a cooking term that I learned in formal French cooking.  To me, there are three reasons to follow those teachings.  I have come to believe that there are also three meanings to “mise en place”.

The first meaning is the traditional definition that I learned which is to have everything in place before you start cooking.  If you need to open a bottle of wine, you open the wine before you start.  If you need to dice one large onion, you get that done and put in a bowl before you put heat to any pan.  If you need to measure out 1 tsp of red pepper flakes, 2 bay leaves and 1/2 tsp of fresh ground pepper – get them measured and into a bowl.  Here’s an extra bonus hint: use one bowl if they all go into the dish at at the same time.

Why?  There are three good reasons.  The first is that you will find out if you have everything you need to make a dish before you start.  You won’t be racing around looking for something to substitute for chicken broth while the onion starts to burn in the pan.  If you don’t have broth, you’ll know before you start.

The second reason is that time is of the essence often when you are cooking.  When you have built a beautiful “fond” on the bottom of the pan, an extra 15 seconds can mean the difference between a dark rich sauce and black burned floaty bits in your sauce.  Having everything ready means that your dish can flow step-by-step.  Granted, if you have a 45 minute simmer, you have time to chop the onion but I would still get it out and onto the counter (see reason 1 above).

The third reason is that you will be less likely to forget to add an ingredient to the dish if it is sitting on the counter.  If you see a small bowl of red pepper flakes, bay leaves,and  fresh ground pepper sitting on the counter, you’ll know that it belongs in the pan at some point in time.

These three reasons are good reasons to follow the traditional “mise en place” rule of always prep ahead of cooking.  It will save your dish or save you starting a dish you can’t finish.  I know that it has saved me.

But this is just the first meaning of “mise en place” in my mind.  The second meaning has to do with kitchen organization.   I put this as, “everything should have a place”.   If your smallest piano whisk always hangs on hook on the left (like mine), then a quick glance will tell you if it is clean and available when you are whisking up eggs for a frittata.  If you always put your can opener in the front of the top drawer on the right, you will cut down on time digging around while you do your mise en place as above.  Keeping things in their place is first step towards being an efficient cook.  You can easily eliminate 20 minutes of prep time just by knowing where things are your drawers and cabinets.

The final meaning of “mise en place” has to do with keeping your kitchen straight while you cook.  I put this as, “everything goes back into place”.  Done with the whisk, put it in the dishwasher or in the sink to wash but be wary of piling dirty dishes in the sink.  When you turn around with a boiling pot of pasta water and realize you need to clean out the sink before you can drain the pasta, you are risking pasta that has passed straight through al dente and into all gummy.    Dirty things go into the dishwasher.  Finished measuring spices, put the jars back into the spice drawer (where it is dark and cool but that is another post).

If you don’t do this final act of mise en place, you  will find yourself pulling a 550 degree pizza stone from the oven and turning around and around looking for someplace to set it while the heat slowly leaks through your oven mitts.  You will find yourself pulling out a cast-iron dutch-oven full of beef stew and wondering where you are going to set it just as the oven door slams shut.

Unless you have a half acre of kitchen counter space and three sinks, get into the habit of putting away and cleaning up as you go.  You will also find that the kitchen won’t be a disaster when you get through cooking.  You can sit and enjoy dinner knowing that there isn’t an hour of work to clean up the kitchen waiting for you in the next room.

I hope the three reasons to do the traditional mise en place help get you into the habit if you aren’t already.  The other practices can make your time in the kitchen easier and more enjoyable.  They have served me well over these years.

I finish with one final three-fold statement.  Mise en place is one of the three kitchen skills that will transform your cooking.  The other two are knife skills and timing.  When you get all three down, you will be able to turn out complex meals with less effort and less mess to clean up afterwards.  But that is another post.