Here’s a motto that will improve your food immensely: Mise en place (pronounced MEEZ-ahn-plahss). It’s French and it means, loosely “put everything in its place”, and it is the best thing from France since Pinot Noir.
Before I learned mise en place, this was a typical scenario: I’m going to make a barbecue sauce. The recipe calls for me to heat some onions in oil until limp, add fresh garlic, add spices, add ketchup, then vinegar, and molasses. So I get the pan hot, add the oil, and start chopping the onions. The oil starts smoking so I pull the pan off the stove. The smoke alarm goes off, so I turn on the vent fan, finish chopping, toss the onions in the pan, which cools off the oil, so I put it back on high and head for the fridge to get the ketchup. But there’s none there because the wife used it up on her lunch, so I run to the pantry for backup, where I hear the smoke alarm going off again because the onions are burning. So I have to clean the pan and start all over again.
Mechanics know the concept of mise en place. Before you raise the hood, read the manual and get all your tools ready. Surgeons too. Chef Anthony Bourdain calls it his religion. Here’s how to prevent disaster, make better food, and make cooking more fun, by practicing mis en place.
1) Read the entire recipe, start to finish.
2) Clear off your work area.
3) Get all your tools together. That means charcoal, gas, knives, bowls, pans, paper towels, spices, etc. Clean the grill.
4) Go through the ingredients in the order they appear in the recipe and wash, measure, and chop them as described in the recipe. Measure accurately. Remember a tablespoon has a level top, not a big round hill in the center and valleys along the edges. Put the ingredients on plates so they are easy to handle.
5) Preheat the grill or oven.
6) Start assembling and cooking.
7) Clean as you work. There’s plenty of time while pots are boiling and meats are searing to wash your utensils and get them ready in case you need them again. If nothing else, it will make the cleanup when you’re done go faster. It also keeps my wife from making that disgusted look at me. The one with her hands on her hips. You know…
High quality websites are expensive to run. If you help us, we’ll pay you back bigtime with an ad-free experience and a lot of freebies!
Millions come to AmazingRibs.com every month for high quality tested recipes, tips on technique, science, mythbusting, product reviews, and inspiration. But it is expensive to run a website with more than 2,000 pages and we don’t have a big corporate partner to subsidize us.
Our most important source of sustenance is people who join our Pitmaster Club. But please don’t think of it as a donation. Members get MANY great benefits. We block all third-party ads, we give members free ebooks, magazines, interviews, webinars, more recipes, a monthly sweepstakes with prizes worth up to $2,000, discounts on products, and best of all a community of like-minded cooks free of flame wars. Click below to see all the benefits, take a free 30 day trial, and help keep this site alive.
Post comments and questions below
1) Please try the search box at the top of every page before you ask for help.
2) Try to post your question to the appropriate page.
3) Tell us everything we need to know to help such as the type of cooker and thermometer. Dial thermometers are often off by as much as 50°F so if you are not using a good digital thermometer we probably can’t help you with time and temp questions. Please read this article about thermometers.
4) If you are a member of the Pitmaster Club, your comments login is probably different.
5) Posts with links in them may not appear immediately.
Moderators