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French culinary words and phrases
They can be used to make a menu sound fancy, or just because a restaurant is, in fact, a fancy French restaurant. Either way, you're guaranteed to see French words on an English menu at least a few times in your dining life, if not many, many times. Here's what some of those French terms actually mean: le gratin [grah-ta(n)] A gratin is basically a dish that has a cooked cheese and/or breadcrumb topping. Gratiné(e) is the adjectival form of this word. In other words, a gratiné(e) dish (also sometimes called a dish au gratin [oh grah-ta(n)]) is a dish cooked in the gratin style. However, it can also simply mean that the dish was browned, or cooked until it looks brown. Finally, a gratinée is just another way of saying a French onion soup (au gratin), or onion soup with a toasted cheese and bread topping. les (pommes) frites [pohm freet] (f.) Whether said by its full name, pommes frites, or its abbreviation, frites, this phrase always means one thing: French fries (or chips, if you're British). au jus [oh zhew] Literally meaning with juice, this phrase traditionally refers to serving meat with a sauce of the meat's own juices. However, outside of France it can also refer to a light sauce typically made from beef broth and other flavorful ingredients like soy sauce, garlic, and red wine. la béchamel [bay-shah-mehl] One of the classic French sauces, béchamel is a basic white sauce made with roux and hot milk. And, if you're wondering, le roux [roo] is a mixture of flour and fat (such as butter) that is used to thicken many French sauces. The word roux literally means reddish-brown in French. le beurre [buhr] Speaking of butter, beurre is just the French word for butter. A beurre blanc (literally, white butter) is a heavy sauce made from butter (of course), shallots, and white wine and/or vinegar. Sometimes cream is added as well, although apparently this is "frowned upon" by purists. Lemon juice might also be included. niçoise [nee-swahz] The literal translation is of Nice, in reference to the famous city of Nice that lies along the French Riviera in the region of Provence. When used with food, niçoise refers to the cuisine of Nice, a style of cooking that typically involves using anchovies, tomatoes, black olives, and garlic. La salade niçoise [sah-lahd nee-swahz] (Nice-style salad) usually includes all of those ingredients plus tuna, hard-boiled eggs, green beans, potatoes, lettuce, capers, and onions or shallots. Niçoise olives are a type of small, dark-colored olive primarily grown in Provence. (à la) lyonnaise [ah lah lyoh(n)-nehz] Similar to niçoise, this term means in the style of Lyon. Lyon is a city in central France that is famous for its cuisine. Although Lyon is well-known for many types of dishes, something made à la lyonnaise usually has onions as one of the primary ingredients. le confit [koh(n)-fee] In French, the verb confir [koh(n)-feer] means to preserve. The related word confit means something preserved by cooking it in its own fat. In other words, duck confit (or le confit de canard [koh(n)-fee duh kah-nahr], if you want to go all the way French) is a leg of duck that has been cured with salt and then cooked in duck fat. The duck is then typically cooled and stored in a container full of duck fat. If stored in this way, it can last for a long time (many weeks or even months) depending on where it's placed and the container it's placed in. Tags: French food, menu, vocabulary
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