Mincing
Mincing is a food preparation technique in which ingredients are finely divided into uniform pieces. Originally carried out with a knife or mezzaluna, mincing became widely done with machines developed in the nineteenth century.
History
[edit]To mince in the culinary sense is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "to cut up or grind (food, especially meat) into very small pieces, now typically in a machine with revolving blades".[1] The term can be traced in English usage from 1381: "Nym onyons & mynce hem smale & fry hem in oyle dolyf" ("Chop onions small and fry them them in good oil").[2] The word is taken from the eleventh-century Anglo-Norman and Old French mincer, mincier: to cut up food into small pieces.[1] The equivalent modern French term, hacher, dating from the thirteenth century, derives from hache, "axe".[3]
For centuries mincing was done using kitchen knives, sometimes including a multi-bladed, double-handled chopper known most commonly in English as a mezzaluna (Italian for "half moon") and in French as an hachoir. The food writer Elizabeth David wrote that this implement "produces far superior minced meat to that done in the mincing maching, for it does not squeeze out the juices" but adds "few people would care to bother with it nowadays".[4]
The mincing machine was invented in the 1850s, described by Scientific American as "a cutting or mincing machine, operating by means of a cylinder, or cylinders, having tapering grooves extending from end to end".[1] The cook and food writer Jane Grigson did not regard this development as a good thing:
The first mincers were hand-cranked; the meat or other food to be minced was fed into the top aperture and propelled through the grinders, emerging as mince through a die at the outlet. Electrically powered mincers have since become available. Professional mincers have dies of varying sizes, most domestic models have two: the larger die grinds coarsely; the smaller, more finely.[6] For food that needs to be particularly finely minced it may be necessary to put it through the machine twice.[6]
Uses
[edit]Larousse Gastronomique records numerous uses for a mincing machine, including the preparation of chicory fondue,[7] fricadelles,[8] haggis,[9] hamburgers,[10] mushroom fondue,[7] pelmeni,[11] potato fritters,[12] potted meat[13] and rillettes.[14]
Several cooks and food writers prefer finely chopped meat to minced for some recipes. For cottage pie, Grigson and Felicity Cloake do so,[15] as, for steak tartare, do many chefs.[16] David prefers finely chopped meat to minced for pâtés.[17]
According to the Oxford Companion to Food, in the US, the process is usually referred to as "grinding", and the product as "ground meat".[18]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "mincing". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ Hieatt and Butler, p. 75
- ^ hacher", Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, Ninth edition.
- ^ David, p. 47
- ^ Grigson (1992), p. 141
- ^ a b Ruhlman, p. 112
- ^ a b Montagné, p. 423
- ^ Montagné, p. 130
- ^ Montagné, p. 479
- ^ Montagné, p. 485
- ^ Montagné, p. 723
- ^ Montagné, p. 432
- ^ Montagné, p. 42
- ^ Montagné, p. 689
- ^ Cloake, Felicity. "How to make perfect cottage pie" Archived 13 May 2022 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, 21 October 2010
- ^ Kerridge, p. 75; Leith, p. 148; Ramsay, p. 197; and Torode, p. 148
- ^ David, p. 198
- ^ Davidson, p. 506
Sources
[edit]- David, Elizabeth (2008) [1960]. French Provincial Cooking. London: Folio Society. OCLC 809349711.
- Davidson, Alan (1999). The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-211579-0.
- Grigson, Jane (1992). English Food. London: Ebury Press. ISBN 978-0-09-177043-3.
- Hieatt, Constance; Sharon Butler, eds. (1985). Curye on Inglysch: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth Century. London and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-722409-0.
- Kerridge, Tom (2014). Proper Pub Food. Bath: Absolute Press. ISBN 978-1-47-290353-2.
- Leith, Prue (2018). Prue: Favourite Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking and Eating. London: Bluebird. ISBN 978-1-50-989148-1.
- Montagné, Prosper (1976). Larousse Gastronomique. London: Hamlyn. OCLC 1285641881.
- Ramsay, Gordon (2010). Chef for All Seasons. London: Quadrille. ISBN 978-1-84-400876-6.
- Ruhlman, Michael (2010). The Elements of Cooking. New York: Scribner. ISBN 978-1-43-917252-0.
- Torode, John (2008). Beef. London: Quadrille. ISBN 978-1-84400-690-8.
