Using Cartouches: Beneficial or Bunk?

[Chris Amirault]

Snow day today, so I decided to make a quick and simple daube (eG Cook-Off here). Last night, I dumped the three pounds of cubed chuck into a bowl with some aromatics and a bottle of gifted red wine. This morning I went through the rest of the preparations, browning the meat, preparing some porcinis, grabbing tomatoes from the fridge, mirepoix, etc. Then I reached for the parchment paper to make a cartouche.

Folding the rectagular paper in halves and cutting a radius-sized piece of pie:

Snip off the point and unfold:

Crumple under warm water and place on the surface of your braise:

We've talked a bit about cartouches before (click for a discussion in the ossobuco Cook-Off), and the cartouche-plus-lid approach is taught at FCI. But we've never really gotten down to brass tacks about it.

What's the science here? What's lore?

Is a cartouche a substitute for a lid, and, if so, why use both?

Are all of these steps -- folding, cutting, drilling a hole, moistening -- necessary?

Does it matter what temperature at which you're cooking? (Lower amounts of moisture are released below the boiling point, in particular.)

[heidih]

I am interested to see what others have to say. I am "pot poor" so I often make something in a pot larger than it needs to be. This technique makes sense because when I lift the lid I often end up with tons of condensation that runs off and I wonder if I am losing flavors.

[nakji]

A drop lid is used in Japanese cooking for braising vegetables in dashi, according to what I've read in "Washoku", to keep the vegetables from rattling around too much and becoming ragged and broken up. I'd like to know how meat benefits.

[Pierogi]

I am interested in the answers too, although I rarely use a cartouche. When I have, it's at the instruction of a specific recipe, and not as result of a hard and fast adherance to a vaunted technique. And, when I have used them, I haven't a) wet them down before placing them, or b) cut a hole in the middle.

I also can't say I've noticed any appreciable difference in braises where I've used them. The dishes have turned out just fine....perhaps they would've even without the cartouche?

[Mjx]

I've been racking my brains to remember where I read this, so I can give credit, but I've had no luck:

What I recall reading is that a cartouche is meant to be used without a lid, when you've reached the point at which you want to reduce, but not lose too much of the remaining fluid, avoid drying pieces that begin to poke above the surface of the liquid, and avoid the creation of a 'skin' on the surface; that you fold it because it is important to 'attend to the details' (which phrase makes me think I may have come across this in an Italian cookbook when I was a kid, and that the word stuck in my head because it was unusual). Since the paper is then crumpled, this reason for folding seems as probable as any.

I'm also guessing (probably because of the colossal mess last night's peposo made of our stovetop) that a significant part of a cartouche's original function was to reduce/prevent the mess created by the spatter you tend to get, as reduction progresses.

Edited January 13, 2011 by Mjx (log)