If you are a French cooking enthusiast and wish to learn classic French cooking then the first thing you will have to do is to learn the best French cooking techniques. You will have to get equipped with the fundamental French cooking techniques that will help you cook from simple to the most sophisticated French dishes.
To start with you dont have to by heart all the French cooking techniques. So here are a few most basic French cooking techniques that would make your French cooking easier and comfortable.
What is Glace de Viande
This is one of the most essential French cooking techniques and this is why you should be learning it first. Glace de Viande actually stands for glazing the meat. This technique is generally used in almost all the meat recipes as French prefer to glaze the meat before adding it to the main dish.
Every student, attending a frenc cooking class, is taught about how to glaze a meat. Glace de Viande is a level higher because this technique is generally used for thicker meats, and glazing helps the meat juice condense quickly. Simply blend the steak or roast juices and drippings with 5 cups of stock. Then boil the mixture till the concoction reduces to a quarter of the initial content. Lastly, you can find out whether the glaze is ready by simply placing a spoon into the meat and when the thick mixture sticks to the spoon then it is ready.
How to Julienne
Another great French cooking technique that you will have to understand is how to julienne. You would have noticed that most of the French recipes have long and thinly cut vegetables into them. This is called julienne vegetables and there are many other food items that are julienne. This is why you ought to know this technique to make the dish look as though you have a French chef to cook for you.
It is very easy. You have to simply cut the vegetables and food items obliquely or in other terms sidelong. To do this you will need to be equipped with the right cutting tool. A normal knife will not be of much use and so you should have a knife specially used for julienning.
Both the French cooking techniques form the most basic of all the techniques. However, you have a variety of French cooking techniques that you will get to learn as and when you advance to complex cooking recipes.