Mirepoix - what's the point?

Question

So, upon years of thought, I've decided to ask the question: what does a Mirepoix actually add to a recipe?

I get the onions. That's easy. The carrots? Sure, why not? Celery? No. No, I do not understand. It tastes of little and, in any recipe calling for a Mirepoix, stews and whatnot, that delicate flavour is easily lost. So, then, I ask, what is the point of it? Fibre? Surely not.

Members of this board: please enlighten me.

Answer

Mirepoix is an aromatic and I believe the proper ratio is 2 parts onion, 1 part carrots, 1 part celery. It's as basic to cooking as salt and pepper. Celery definitely has a unique flavor profile and if anything I might not notice the carrots. Even in stews I can taste a hint of the mirepoix. 
If you were to make a basic chicken stock what would you use?

Answer

I believe the point of mirepoix is the underlying complexity that it lends to the stock. The point isn't to be able to pick out each flavor, but to have a broth with more depth.

It's like so many other things where you're going for layers of flavor...I like to add a few shakes of a few different hot sauces when I make chili, for example, and while I can't pick out any one of them in particular, the overall flavor of the chili is more interesting.

I have made stock with the full trinity of onions/carrots/celery and also just onions, and to my taste buds, using all three tastes significantly better. I play with other veggies too, sometimes adding leeks or garlic to the mirepoix.

Answer

A sautéed vegetable mix like this is common through out the world, but the exact choice varies. This combination of onion, carrot and celery is basically French. 
From the wiki article:
"Similar combinations, both in and out of the French culinary repertoire, may include leeks, parsnips, garlic, tomatoes, shallots, mushrooms, bell peppers, chilies, and ginger, according to the requirements of the regional cuisine or the instructions of the particular chef or recipe. The analagous soffritto (frequently containing parsley) is the basis for many traditional dishes in classic Italian cuisine, and the sofrito serves a similar purpose in Spanish cuisines. In Cajun cuisine, a mirepoix or (jocularly so-called) "holy trinity" is a combination of onions, celery and bell peppers."

Answer

I sometimes make "All Purpose Gravy"--a 2003 recipe from Cook's Illustrated, from canned broth/stock and a mirepoix mix. It's not a disappointing substitute for "real" gravy at all.

Answer

Celery adds not only a grassy note but the salty note. Recall that salt has been a heavily taxed commodity for much of history (most notoriously in much of France), so using sodium-rich ingredients was a thrifty way around this. 

Anyway, I find celery more important than carrot. The most common mistake I find it overuse of carrot.

Answer

One word - Flavor.

Answer

If you feel that you can't taste the celery in a stock, then it should be impossible to "over-do" the celery in a stock. 

That is not the case.

Answer

I don't believe in cooking only by the rules. I follow the rules because they embody years of experience, but I can easily depart from them if my taste leads me in another direction. In the case of mirepoix, I can understand Leibowitz's hesitation and question. I think the answer lies in the complexity of flavors. But I don't think it is as straightforward as we might imagine. 
If you work with colors, they interact in complex ways--for example retinal fatigue from one color may affect your perception of another. Or to use another comparison, when I weave, I often use analagous color schemes. But I most often add a "zinger" from across the color wheel. It makes the closely-grouped analagous colors sing.
Again, in music, you not only have harmonies based on the scale to consider, you also have contrasts in the "color" or different instruments playing the same note. Often a minor dischord or an unexpected instrumental color adds immeasurably to the total mix. 
The same in cooking. I dislike anchovies, but there are some dishes that I wouldn't cook without them. They become undercover agents that add to the harmonic mix.
 I may add clove to a vegetable soup. If it is strong enough to taste by itself, I've overdone it. But I can tell when it is missing. The slightly bitter flavor of celery has a similar function. If it stands out, it may be too much. But something is missing when it isn't there. 
In perfumery, there may be dozens of scents. A sensitive nose may pick out many of them, but a great many others fill out the body of the scent. 
Or a good wine may have a great many flavor and scent components. You can't pick out all of them. But without them, the wine would taste thin and mono-dimensional.
For me a mirepoix provides body to a stock. And, truth to tell, sometimes I may elaborate on it, depending on the food. I may put garlic in one, or a bit of tomato paste, or perhaps a small amount of diced turnip, or even some fresh ginger. I don't want any of these ingredients to stand out. But I want the fullness they add to the flavor.

Answer

In school, and now in work, I've learned that mirepoix is a base. You can follow the classic, or not. It all depends on what you want or in my case, what my current boss wants or in his case, what the customer wants. There are classic starters for every part of cuisine. We use them as a grounding to start from and to go back to when we lose our bearings. Standard ways to temper chocolate, the 5 "mother" sauces (tomato, hollandaise, bechamel, veloute, espagnole), standard base for ice cream, restaurant salt (75% salt ground together with 25% black pepper), the different colors of roux, the different sizes of knife cuts, mayo, sushi rice etc. 

I look at mirepoix as a flavor I know and can change to suit my needs. It's also the main ingredient in vegetable stock, which is a main ingredient in vegetarian cuisine and healthy cooking in general.

There are different types of mirepoix (http://www.thekitchn.com/make-it-your-way-with-regional-mirapoix-178908). Or, you can decide on your own. Whenever a recipe calls for mirepoix I just know that's a trinity of veg and I'll go from there. 

Personally, I usually scrap the celery and replace it with something that's also green(ish) but not too overpowering.

Answer

The French created mirepoix because they never could master sofrito...:)

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Flava', baby, flava'.

Answer

Celery adds umami, so deepens many dishes.

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Before I make any ragu (Bolognese, oxtail, lamb, etc.), I take my mirepoix and place it in my slow cooker overnight with some olive oil. For one, my place smells amazing in the morning. Most importantly, when it gets all brown and caramelized and mulch-like, it adds significant depth of flavor that is noticeably absent without.

Answer

well, I think this combo provides a flavor base for the dish that complements and blends with the other central ingredeints. The whole is more than the parts.. Many if not all soups, stews and italian ragus start with a mix of these sauteed vegetables along with, sometimes some herbs or meat flavoring. I would say that it adds to and rounds out the flavor of the dish without each of these ingredients zinging you separately. To me the qualities added by these ingredients is of the essence of tine home cooking - hot to say you cant drop out your celery if you dont have it - but a lentil soup or stew without these seasoning vegetables would be much less flavorful.

Answer

What kind of celery is used in France?

The Wiki article for celery claims:
"In Europe the dominant variety of celery most commonly available in trade is Celeriac (Apium graveolens var. rapaceum) grown for its hypocotyl forming a large bulb (commonly but incorrectly called celery root). The leaves are used as seasoning, and the stalks find only marginal use.[citation needed]"

The large stalk kind that we see in the USA is 'pascal celery'. 

Another option in some parts of the USA is Chinese celery. I've used it a bit. The stalks are thinner, and more intensely flavored (more like the leaves). It's too tough to use for raw celery sticks.

Answer

That's interesting how we all taste things differently because, to me, celery has the most distinct flavor of the three. Onion adds that generally savory allium note, carrots a little sweetness and possibly a little earthiness, most of which gets cooked out in a slow cooking process, but celery definitely has that clear, unmistakeable, well, CELERY flavor - green, herbaceous and then almost medicinal to my palate if there's enough of it...

Answer

Since celery spoils so easily and I end up throwing most of it out, I avoid it in my mirepoix and substitute celery salt instead.

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Anybody ever use diced celery root in their mirepoix?

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For me, it's the smell of the kitchen. Like springtime's promise of summer can be better than summer itself, that intense mirepoix smell can be better than any meal that follows it. It's the smell of cooking, the promise of a wonderful meal.

Answer

Celery adds nitrates. Tastes a bit like bacon.

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Mirepoix - what's the point?

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