“Mise en place.” Have you heard this term before? If you are seasoned in the kitchen, chances are you are familiar with it. If not, you are about to save so much time and stress by learning this simple concept.
What Is Mise En Place?
“Mise en place” is a french phrase meaning “putting in place” or “everything in its place.”
Pronounced MEEZ-ahn-plahs, it is a philosophy used by professional chefs and in many home kitchens alike. It acts as a noun, a verb, and a state of mind; that is, mise en place refers to the physical set up of your ingredients, the act of preparing your workspace, and an organized and intentional state of mind.
Mise en place is the one thing that has saved me so much time and stress in the kitchen. Especially on those days I have a toddler clinging to my ankles. (Which is almost every day.)
The Importance of Mise En Place
How many times have you found yourself in the middle of a recipe only to realize one step of the recipe is going to take an extra 20 minutes you hadn’t accounted for? Or you were missing an ingredient? How bout when you’ve got two things cooking on the stove, one in the oven and, blast it, you forgot you’ve got to chop the vegetables before the garlic burns and the rice is about to boil over and the sweet potatoes are 1 minute and 38 seconds from being done and they are going to get cold before the rest of the meal is ready and AAAHHHH!!…..
This is cooking without mise en place. You don’t want this. But it has, I’m sure, happened to you so many times as it has me. I definitely used to cook meals in a very disjointed manner. And it made cooking so unpleasant for me. These days I enjoy it a lot more.
Reading the recipe ahead of time, gathering and prepping your ingredients, and working in an organized manner takes discipline. It can appear that taking the extra time to do these things will cause the cooking process to take longer. Whether this is true or not, I don’t know. What I do know is adopting this practice will save you the stress of a burnt, cold, or frazzled meal.
Achieving Mise En Place in Your Kitchen
Step 1: Plan Your Menu
For a long time, I thought meal planning was a staple in the average homemaker’s routine. But I’m finding more and more that not as many people as I thought are meal planners. The very first step you have to take before getting to the core of mine en place is to plan your menu.
Plan several meals ahead of time. You don’t have to plan a week of meals at a time, though I highly recommend this method. But at least plan 3-4 days of meals ahead of time to save yourself from making trips to the store too frequently. If you are constantly shopping, you are probably never going to feel like dedicating yourself to the preparation of a decent meal. Make your trips to the store worthwhile and stock up for several meals at one time.
Plan meals with ingredients that overlap. Save yourself time and money and plan meals that have common ingredients or ingredients that you already have on hand. If I plan to cook something that only uses half a head of cabbage, I try to plan another meal that will use the other half. This way less goes to waste.
Likewise, if I have a stockpile of rice on hand, I plan at least one meal based around that ingredient. I may even alter a recipe to include that ingredient instead of something else. For instance, I may plan to make burrito bowls. If the recipe calls for black beans and quinoa but I already have rice and pinto beans, I will adjust by using those items instead. Save time, save money, save some space in your pantry!
Lastly, don’t plan meals that will cause you to buy ingredients you may rarely or never use again. I used to do this and have ended up having to throw out so many expired items–just because I got the hankering to try some dish that had fish sauce in it. Do yourself a favor and, if you don’t plan to use it again, substitute.
Step 2: Do Your Shopping
The next step is obvious: do your shopping! If you are a mom like me, it may be even EASIER to order your groceries online for pick up. I can say that doing this the majority of the time has saved me so much stress. Occasionally I will actually have the desire to browse the the actual grocery store, but, in general, I make the shopping as easy as possible so I can save my energy for the actual cooking.
I used to use Harris Teeter Express, but finally jumped ship and started using Walmart Grocery, which I’ve been very pleased with. Not only has it cut my grocery bill down by about 25%, but pickup is free! (Harris Teeter Express costs $4.95 per order.)
If you are interested in learning more about or signing up for Walmart Grocery, please help me out by using my referral link! –> Sign up for Walmart Grocery Pickup! Another great part of Walmart Grocery: for every referral, you receive $10 in free groceries!
Step 3: Think Ahead
One thing I’ve started doing is writing our weekly menu on my kitchen chalkboard wall. This way I can see all my options at a glance, my husband knows what to expect, and I can adjust accordingly. Write your menu somewhere you can see it and be reminded of your plans.
When you start your day, make a habit of referring to your meal options and your agenda. If what you had planned to make isn’t going to work that day for some reason, don’t be afraid to change the plan! Just make sure you are thinking about what’s for dinner BEFORE the time for dinner prep rolls around. There are few things that make cooking more stressful than trying to decide what to cook at 6:00pm.
Step 4: Read the Recipe
Read as you’re planning. Hopefully, you will take the time to actually READ the recipe as you are meal planning. Otherwise, you could end up in that situation where you are missing some vague ingredient the author failed to mention in the ingredients list. (This has happened to me!) Or, you could end up in that situation where, oops, this meal actually required preparation the night before. (Also, happened to me.)
Read before you start cooking. Refresh yourself on the recipe before you touch anything! This will give you a road map so you know the general direction you are going and not blindly diving in.
Step 5: Get ALL Your Tools and Ingredients Organized
Get Your Tools Organized. Start this meal out in an organized way that will allow you to enjoy the cooking process. As best as you can predict, get all the pots, pans, utensils, and measuring aids together that you will need. Anything that isn’t easily within reach. If you are going to have to use two skillets, a toaster oven, and a baking dish to cook your meal, put them all in their respective places so they will be at the ready.
Get Your Ingredients Organized. Now that you’ve reviewed the recipe, get every single ingredient out in front of you that you will need. Don’t make it hard on yourself by coming to step unprepared. For instance, neglecting to gather and measure your spices. Suddenly, you’re having to dig through the spice cabinet. And the ONE spice you need is elusive. Take a few extra minutes and pull everything out.
Step 6: Prepare Your Ingredients
This is, in my humble opinion, the most important step in achieving mise en place.
Have you ever noticed the ease with which chefs on TV throw a meal together? We all know they have all their ingredients prepped and ready in pretty little glass bowls and we laugh. We say, “Oh, sure, I’d enjoy cooking a lot more, too, if somebody chopped all my vegetables ahead of time!” And yet… why don’t we do this? We totally can!
Granted, you don’t have to dirty every little bowl in your kitchen, but simply do this: measure your spices out ahead of time. Chop all your vegetables and have them ready on the cutting board. Do whatever prep is necessary before you start any actual cooking so that one step can flow smoothly to the next.
Step 7: Actually Enjoy Cooking
At this point, you have successfully implemented the discipline of “mise en place” into your kitchen. If you have taken the time to plan, read, review, and prep, you will actually enjoy the cooking process. When you come to the step in the recipe “sautée the garlic for one minute,” you won’t have to stress. Your next step is ready to go! When you’ve already got the toaster oven in its place and the loaf of bread waiting, you won’t have to abandon the range to drag that stuff out at the last minute.
Bonus points if you can send Dad outside with the kids and pour yourself a glass of wine. Time to get cooking!
Can’t tell you how many times the very thing that you described above has happened to me and you are so right. When you have everything that you will need right at your fingertips instead of having to make numerous trips to the pantry in the middle of cooking, the process becomes a much more pleasant experience. Glad to know that there’s an actual term for this.
Yes! I learned all about “mise en place” in school and it was a revelation to me! You would think something as simple as getting all your stuff organized before you start would be common sense. I guess it wasn’t for me, though! Haha