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A quenelle () is a mixture of creamed

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 ...

meat Meat is animal Tissue (biology), tissue, often muscle, that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted and farmed other animals for meat since prehistory. The Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of vertebrates, including chickens, sheep, ...

, sometimes combined with

breadcrumbs Breadcrumbs are a culinary ingredient consisting of flour or crumbled bread of varying dryness, sometimes with seasonings added. They are used for a variety of purposes, including breading or crumbing foods before frying (such as breaded cutlet ...

, with a light egg binding, formed into an egg-like shape, and then cooked. The usual preparation is by

poaching Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set against the huntin ...

. Formerly, quenelles were often used as a garnish in

haute cuisine ''Haute cuisine'' (; ) or ''grande cuisine'' is a style of cooking characterised by meticulous preparation, elaborate presentation, and the use of high quality ingredients. Typically prepared by highly skilled gourmet chefs, haute cuisine dish ...

. Today, they are more commonly served sauced as a dish in their own right. Similar items are found in many cuisines. By extension, a quenelle may also be another food made into a similar shape, such as

ice cream Ice cream is a frozen dessert typically made from milk or cream that has been flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as Chocolate, cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit, such as strawberries or peaches. Food ...

, sorbet,

butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of Churning (butter), churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 81% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread (food ...

, or mashed potato quenelles.

Etymology

The word quenelle is attested from 1750. The commonly accepted etymology is that it derives from the German ''

Knödel Knödel (; and ) or Klöße (; : ''Kloß'') are Boiling, boiled dumplings commonly found in Central European cuisine, Central European and East European cuisine. Countries in which their variant of is popular include Austria, Bosnia, Croatia, ...

'' (

noodle Noodles are a type of food made from unleavened dough which is either rolled flat and cut, stretched, or extruded, into long strips or strings. Noodles are a staple food in many cultures and made into a variety of shapes. The most common noo ...

dumpling Dumplings are a broad class of dishes that consist of pieces of cooked dough (made from a variety of starchy sources), often wrapped around a filling. The dough can be based on bread, wheat or other flours, or potatoes, and it may be filled wi ...

).; ''Petit Robert'', 1972;

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

, Draft Revision, Dec. 2007; the old '' Larousse Gastronomique'', however, reports that some writers trace it to an Old English word ''knyll'', while Dietrich Behrens in'' Über deutsches Sprachgut im Französischen'', ''Giessener Beiträge zur romanischen Philologie'' Vol. 1 (1923), proffers dialectical German ''Knollen'' or ''Knöllen'', meaning "ball", as a possible origin.

''Quenelles de brochet''

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

and Nantua are famous for their ''quenelles de brochet'' ( pike quenelles), often served with sauce Nantua (crayfish sauce) or ''sauce mousseline'' (cream sauce) and run under a grill. The classic dish of ''quenelles de brochet Nantua'' or simply ''quenelles Nantua'' consists of pike quenelles with sauce Nantua, both pike and crayfish being specialties of the Nantua area. Pike quenelles were invented by a chef named Bontemps to deal with the pike's "multitude of long, fine, forked bones". ''Quenelles de brochet'' are prepared in many ways, but most recipes first prepare a panade, essentially a thick

white sauce White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wavelen ...

, then combine the panade with fish, and put the mixture through a sieve such as a tamis, yielding a forcemeat. The quenelles are shaped from the forcemeat and then poached. They may be served sauced and grilled, or with a variety of sauces.Ann Pringle Harries, "Fare of the Country: Delicate Pike Quenelles, a Lyons Tradition", ''New York Times'', 4 August 199

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References

Garde manger Cuisine of Lyon French cuisine Fish dishes Culinary terminology {{France-cuisine-stub

Etymology

''Quenelles de brochet''

See also

References