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Mirepoix
Two ounces larding pork cut in small pieces, one small, sound, sliced carrot, one small, sound, sliced onion, one branch sliced celery, one stalk fresh sliced leek, two branches chopped parsley, one sound, crushed bean of garlic, twenty whole peppers, one sprig bay leaf, two cloves and one saltspoon thyme; then use as per directions.
This is a component, not a dish: a fat-and-aromatic base to be sweated and then buried under a braise or a stock. The ingredient list is complete; the method is assumed, so here it is.
- The hinge: sweat, do not brownRender the pork gently over low heat, then add the vegetables and cook 10-15 minutes until soft and translucent with no colour. Browning here turns a delicate braising base into something closer to a browned mirepoix, which is a different flavour altogether.
- Larding porkFresh unsmoked pork fatback or salt pork, cut in small dice. Unsmoked pancetta or a piece of fat belly works; avoid smoked bacon, which will dominate everything cooked on top of it. If using salt pork, blanch it briefly first or you will over-salt the finished sauce.
- SaltspoonAbout a quarter teaspoon. It is a measure of volume, not of salt, and here it applies to the thyme.
- Bean of garlicA single clove; the phrasing most likely renders the French gousse d'ail, though that is an inference from the wording rather than anything the book states. Crushed rather than chopped.
- Sprig bay leafOne bay leaf.
- Whole peppers and clovesTwenty whole peppercorns and two whole cloves, left whole so they can be removed. If the mirepoix is to be strained out with a spoon rather than passed through a sieve, tie the peppercorns, cloves and bay in a scrap of muslin.
- Cut sizeFor a braise that cooks an hour or more, a rough 1/2-inch dice is right. For a quick fish braise or a sauce that will be strained in twenty minutes, cut finer so the vegetables give up their flavour in time.
- YieldRoughly two cups, enough to line the pan under a 3-4 lb joint, a braised bird, or a few pounds of fish bones for a fumet. Scale freely; the proportions matter more than the totals.
Mirepoix is generally traced to the household of the 18th-century Duc de Lévis-Mirepoix, the dish being credited by tradition to his cook rather than to the duke himself — the attribution is culinary folklore repeated in the classic French manuals rather than a documented fact. What distinguishes this version from the plain carrot-onion-celery trio most cooks now mean by the word is the pork fat and the whole spices, which put it closer to the older restaurant mirepoix — a seasoned fat cushion laid under braised meat and fish, discarded or strained out at the end. Alexander Filippini, long of Delmonico's in New York, included it in The International Cook Book as a cross-referenced component; it is the sort of entry a professional kitchen keeps for reference rather than a thing anyone sat down to eat.