Meunière (, , ; See also on

Wiktionary Wiktionary (, ; , ; rhyming with "dictionary") is a multilingual, web-based project to create a free content dictionary of terms (including words, phrases, proverbs, linguistic reconstructions, etc.) in all natural languages and in a number o ...

.) is both a

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

sauce and a method of preparation, primarily for fish, consisting of

brown butter ''Beurre noisette'' (, literally: hazelnut butter, loosely: brown butter) is a List of sauces, type of warm sauce used in French cuisine. It can accompany savoury foods, such as winter vegetables, pasta, fish, omelettes, and chicken.

, chopped

parsley Parsley, or garden parsley (''Petroselinum crispum''), is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae that is native to Greece, Morocco and the former Yugoslavia. It has been introduced and naturalisation (biology), naturalized in Eur ...

, and

lemon The lemon (''Citrus'' × ''limon'') is a species of small evergreen tree in the ''Citrus'' genus of the flowering plant family Rutaceae. A true lemon is a hybrid of the citron and the bitter orange. Its origins are uncertain, but some ...

. The name suggests a simple rustic nature, i.e. that to cook something was originally to cook it by first

dredging Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing d ...

it in flour.

Preparation

Meunière sauce is a variation on a brown butter sauce. While there is general agreement on the addition of parsley and lemon, some include ingredients such as

Worcestershire sauce Worcestershire sauce or Worcester sauce (UK: ) is a fermented liquid condiment invented by pharmacists John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins in the city of Worcester in Worcestershire, England, during the first half of the 19th century ...

, red wine vinegar, or beef stock. Another common variation is to use pecans rather than almonds in an ''amandine''.

Fish meunière

There are two primary ways to prepare the fish (most popularly, sole or trout). One is by

sautéing Sautéing or sauteing (, ; , , 'jumped', 'bounced', in reference to tossing while cooking) is a method of cooking that uses a relatively small amount of oil or fat in a shallow pan over relatively high heat. Various sauté methods exist. Descr ...

—first

the fish in seasoned flour (white flour or corn flour) and then cooking in a hot sauté pan with a small amount of

clarified butter Clarified butter is butter from which all milk solids have been removed. The result is a clear, yellow butter that can be heated to higher temperatures before burning. Typically, it is produced by melting butter and allowing the components to ...

. The alternative method is to pan-fry or deep fry the floured fish. In pan frying, oil or a combination of oil and butter is used—up to perhaps 2 cm deep. Deep frying is done in either a large fry pot or in a stand-alone deep fryer. The floured fish is completely submerged in the hot oil. The frying techniques result in a crisper texture, but the sauce will need to be made separately. The sautéed fish will have a softer skin by comparison, but allows for the possibility of creating the sauce '' à la minute'' after the fish has been removed by adding fresh butter, parsley, and lemon.

Creole cuisine

''Trout meunière'' and its variation ''Trout amandine'' ( speckled seatrout crusted in

almonds The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree from the genus ''Prunus''. Along with the peach, it is classified in the subgenus ''Amygdalus'', distinguished from the other subgenera by corrugations on the sh ...

, traditionally served with a meunière sauce) are bedrock dishes of New Orleans Creole cuisine. The abundance of seafood from the nearby Gulf of Mexico makes the simplicity of the meunière style appropriate.

Galatoire's Galatoire's is a French restaurant at 209 Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. History Jean Galatoire, an immigrant from a small village near Pau, France, in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains, ...

claims to sell more ''Trout meunière amandine'' than any other dish.

Soft-shell crab Soft-shell crab is a culinary term for crabs that have recently molted their old exoskeleton and are still soft. Soft-shells are removed from the water as soon as they molt or, preferably, just before to prevent any hardening of their shell. Cat ...

and redfish are also often available ''à la meunière''. '' Oysters en brochette'' is typically served with a meuniere sauce.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meuniere Sauce Sauces