mincing

To mince in the culinary sense is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "to cut up or grind (food, especially meat) into very small pieces, now typically in a machine with revolving blades".{{Cite OED|mincing}} The term can be traced in English usage from 1381: "Nym onyons & mynce hem smale & fry hem in oyle dolyf" ("Chop onions small and fry them in good oil").Hieatt and Butler, p. 75 The word is taken from the eleventh-century Anglo-Norman and Old French {{lang|fr|mincer, mincier}}: to cut up food into small pieces. The equivalent modern French term, {{lang|fr|hacher}}, dating from the thirteenth century, derives from {{lang|fr|hache}}, "axe".[https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A9H0041 hacher"], Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, Ninth edition.

For centuries mincing was done using kitchen knives, sometimes including a multi-bladed, double-handled chopper known most commonly in English as a {{lang|it|mezzaluna}} (Italian for "half moon") and in French as an {{lang|fr|hachoir}}. The food writer Elizabeth David wrote that this implement "produces far superior minced meat to that done in the mincing maching, for it does not squeeze out the juices" but adds "few people would care to bother with it nowadays".David, p. 47

The mincing machine was invented in the 1850s, described by Scientific American as "a cutting or mincing machine, operating by means of a cylinder, or cylinders, having tapering grooves extending from end to end". The cook and food writer Jane Grigson did not regard this development as a good thing:

{{blockindent|But with the first mincing-machines, prison, school and seaside boarding house cooks acquired a new weapon to depress their victims, with watery mince, shepherd's pie with rubbery granules of left-over meat."Grigson (1992), p. 141}}

The first mincers were hand-cranked; the meat or other food to be minced was fed into the top aperture and propelled through the grinders, emerging as mince through a die at the outlet. Electrically powered mincers have since become available. Professional mincers have dies of varying sizes, most domestic models have two: the larger die grinds coarsely; the smaller, more finely.Ruhlman, p. 112 For food that needs to be particularly finely minced it may be necessary to put it through the machine twice.

Larousse Gastronomique records numerous uses for a mincing machine, including the preparation of chicory fondue,Montagné, p. 423 fricadelles,Montagné, p. 130 haggis,Montagné, p. 479 hamburgers,Montagné, p. 485 mushroom fondue, pelmeni,Montagné, p. 723 potato fritters,Montagné, p. 432 potted meatMontagné, p. 42 and rillettes.Montagné, p. 689

Several cooks and food writers prefer finely chopped meat to minced for some recipes. For cottage pie, Grigson and Felicity Cloake do so,Cloake, Felicity. [https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/oct/21/make-perfect-cottage-pie "How to make perfect cottage pie"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220513092318/https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/oct/21/make-perfect-cottage-pie |date=13 May 2022 }}, The Guardian, 21 October 2010 as, for steak tartare, do many chefs.Kerridge, p. 75; Leith, p. 148; Ramsay, p. 197; and Torode, p. 148 David prefers finely chopped meat to minced for pâtés.David, p. 198

According to the Oxford Companion to Food, in the US, the process is usually referred to as "grinding", and the product as "ground meat".Davidson, p. 506

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book | last =David | first = Elizabeth | authorlink=Elizabeth David|title = French Provincial Cooking| date = 2008|origyear=1960 | location =London | publisher =Folio Society | oclc=809349711}}
• {{cite book | first = Alan | last = Davidson | authorlink = Alan Davidson (food writer) | title = The Oxford Companion to Food | location=Oxford | publisher =Oxford University Press | year = 1999 | url-access = registration | url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00davi_0| isbn = 0-19-211579-0 }}
• {{cite book | last = Grigson | first = Jane|authorlink=Jane Grigson | title = English Food | date = 1992| location = London | publisher = Ebury Press | isbn = 978-0-09-177043-3 }}
• {{cite book | editor-last= Hieatt | editor-first=Constance |editor-link=Constance Bartlett Hieatt| editor2=Sharon Butler|title= Curye on Inglysch: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth Century | year= 1985| location=London and New York | publisher= Oxford University Press |url= https://archive.org/details/curyeoninglysche0000unse/page/n7/mode/2up?q=%22mynce+hem+smale%22|url-access = registration| isbn= 978-0-19-722409-0 }}
• {{cite book | last= Kerridge | first= Tom |authorlink=Tom Kerridge| title= Proper Pub Food| year= 2014| location= Bath | publisher= Absolute Press | isbn= 978-1-47-290353-2 }}
• {{cite book | last= Leith | first= Prue |authorlink=Prue Leith| title= Prue: Favourite Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking and Eating| year= 2018| location= London | publisher= Bluebird | isbn= 978-1-50-989148-1 }}
• {{cite book | last = Montagné | first = Prosper |authorlink=Prosper Montagné | title = Larousse Gastronomique | date = 1976 | location = London | publisher = Hamlyn | oclc = 1285641881 }}
• {{cite book | last= Ramsay | first= Gordon |authorlink=Gordon Ramsay| title= Chef for All Seasons| year= 2010| location= London | publisher= Quadrille |url= https://archive.org/details/chefforallseason0000rams_g8j4/page/142/mode/2up?q=%22steak+tartare%22&view=theater|url-access = registration| isbn= 978-1-84-400876-6}}
• {{cite book | last= Ruhlman | first= Michael|authorlink=Michael Ruhlman | title= The Elements of Cooking| year= 2010| location= New York | publisher= Scribner | isbn= 978-1-43-917252-0}}
• {{cite book | last = Torode | first = John|authorlink=John Torode | title = Beef | date = 2008 | location = London | publisher = Quadrille | isbn = 978-1-84400-690-8}}

{{Wiktionary}}

{{Food preparation}}

Category:Cutting techniques (cooking)

Category:Food preparation techniques

Category:Culinary terminology