BEHIND THE SCENES

MISE EN PLACE—A FRENCH PHRASE EVERY HOME COOK SHOULD KNOW

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When Bridget, Julia, and Becky prepare recipes on TV they always have each ingredient prepared and measured into its own glass bowl. Yes, this looks nice on television, but our test cooks follow the same procedure when the cameras aren’t rolling. This practice has a fancy French name—mise en place, which means “to put in place”—but the concept is really quite simple. Prepare your ingredients before you start cooking.

To stay organized from the get-go, the test cooks measure out the amounts required in their recipes and then individually label each ingredient with its corresponding quantity, such as 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, 2 large egg whites, 1 cup toasted chopped walnuts, and so on. (Note that some ingredients such as onions and garlic are best prepared just before cooking, rather than in advance.) The measured and labeled ingredients are then kept together, by recipe, on large baking sheets and stored. When the test cooks are ready to cook, they grab their prepped ingredients and are ready to go. Try mise en place at home—you’ll find it useful not only in helping you keep on track when tackling an involved recipe (think labor-intensive holiday meals) but also for day-to-day cooking—prepping your ingredients the night before will allow you to walk in the door after work and get dinner on the table fast. And since you can focus on what’s cooking (rather than preparing ingredients), you eliminate the risk that something will burn or overcook.