''En papillote'' (; French for "enveloped in paper"), or ''al cartoccio'' in Italian, is a method of

cooking Cooking, also known as cookery or professionally as the culinary arts, is the art, science and craft of using heat to make food more palatable, digestible, nutritious, or Food safety, safe. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely, from ...

in which the food is put into a folded pouch or parcel and then

baked Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but it can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot stones. Bread is the most commonly baked item, but many other types of food can also be baked. Heat is gradually t ...

. This method is most often used to cook

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

or vegetables, but lamb and

poultry Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of harvesting animal products such as meat, Eggs as food, eggs or feathers. The practice of animal husbandry, raising poultry is known as poultry farming. These birds are most typ ...

can also be cooked ''en papillote''. It is a combination cooking method of

baking Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but it can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot Baking stone, stones. Bread is the most commonly baked item, but many other types of food can also be baked. Heat is ...

and

steaming Steaming is a method of cooking using steam. This is often done with a food steamer, a kitchen appliance made specifically to cook food with steam, but food can also be steamed in a wok. In the American Southwest, steam pits used for cooking ha ...

. This method of cooking has been popular since the 17th century in France.

Method

The parcel is typically made from folded parchment paper, but other material, such as a

paper bag A paper bag is a bag made of paper, usually kraft paper. Paper bags can be made either with virgin or recycled fibres to meet customers' demands. Paper bags are commonly used as shopping bag, shopping carrier bags and for packaging of some co ...

or aluminum foil, may be used. The parcel holds in moisture to steam the food. The pocket is created by overlapping circles of paper or foil and folding them tightly around the food to create a seal. The moisture may be from the food itself or from an added moisture source, such as

water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

, or

stock Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...

. The choice of

herb Herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal purposes, or for fragrances. Culinary use typically distingu ...

seasoning Seasoning is the process of supplementing food via herbs, spices, and/or salts, intended to enhance a particular flavour. General meaning Seasonings include herbs and spices, which are themselves frequently referred to as "seasonings". Salt may ...

s and

spice In the culinary arts, a spice is any seed, fruit, root, Bark (botany), bark, or other plant substance in a form primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of pl ...

s depend on the particular

recipe A recipe is a set of instructions that describes how to prepare or make something, especially a dish (food), dish of prepared food. A sub-recipe or subrecipe is a recipe for an ingredient that will be called for in the instructions for the main r ...

being prepared. The parcel can be opened at the table to allow people to smell the aroma when it opens.

Regional and local variations

Asia

Indonesian cuisine has a variation on en papillote using leaves to steam food. With large leaves (e.g.

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

, '' Xanthosoma'', or

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...

) widely available across the archipelago, Indonesians have long used them in food preparation. The leaves are used to wrap food before cooking it either by steaming or grilling. The Indonesian method requires no additional moisture, and in some dishes, the leaf wrappings may also be eaten. Popular Indonesian dishes that employ this cooking method include ''

pepes ''Pepes'' is an Indonesian cooking method using banana leaves as food wrappings. The banana-leaf package containing food is secured with ''lidi seumat'' (a small nail made from the central ribs of coconut leaves) and then steamed or grilled on ...

'', ''

botok ''Botok'' or ꦧꦺꦴꦛꦺꦴꦏ꧀ ''(Bothok)'' (sometimes called ''Bobotok'' in its plural form or ''Botok-botok'') is a traditional Javanese dish made from grated coconut flesh which has been squeezed of its coconut milk, often mixed wi ...

'', ''

buntil Buntil is a traditional Indonesian- Javanese dish of grated coconut meat mixed with ''teri'' (anchovies) and spices, wrapped in papaya, cassava, or taro (or other similar aroids) leaves, then boiled in coconut milk and spices. It is a favourite ...

'', and '' otak-otak'' (variations of this dish are also commonly available in neighboring Singapore and Malaysia). Chinese Beggar's Chicken is encased in mud or clay before being heated directly on a fire. The legend surrounding its origination was to prevent any aroma from escaping while it was being cooked.

New Orleans

''Pompano en papillote'', pompano fish baked ''en papillote'' with vegetables and shrimp, crab or oyster meat, is a specialty of

Louisiana Creole cuisine Louisiana Creole cuisine (, , ) is a style of cooking originating in Louisiana, United States, which blends African cuisine, West African, French cuisine, French, Spanish cuisine, Spanish, and Native American cuisine, Native American influenc ...

. It was invented at Antoine's Restaurant in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

References

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External links