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Turned Carrots?

post #1 of 20
4/30/08 at 4:48pm
Thread Starter 
Saw a recipe this morning that called for 2 cups of turned carrots. Never heard of that. What are turned carrots?

Tks, scb
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post #2 of 20
4/30/08 at 5:16pm
It's a french trimming technique. I think it's properly spelled tourne with an accent on the E that I'm not going to figure out at this moment. It's basically a football shape, about an inch long but size can vary, with 7 sides.

Phil
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post #3 of 20
4/30/08 at 8:12pm
Tournée Cut: Cooking Terms: RecipeTips.com

Phil is right.

"Competition" tourne have 7 sides. Turn of the century Russo-French cuisine, the most OCD of all, allowed for 5, 6 or 7. I don't remember what Escoffier said and I'm too lazy to go look. Most people, including me, find 8 easier. As Phil said, there's no set size, but it's very important to be consistent in a given service. I use the reference points on my knife to get consistent sizes.

The right way to START learning to make this cut is to hard boil a bunch of eggs, let them dry and cool, stick masking tape to the shells, and practice carving it off. Once you get terminally frustrated trying to make ovoid cuts, cut sticks of 3/4" square-cross section, the length of the distance between rivets on your knife (about 1-3/4"). Hold the edge of a small knife against one of the four long edge, move the stick so the knife carves a 45 deg angle, taking about 1/3 of each adjacent face. Turn the stick as you approach the end, so the cut trails towards the center. Take your time -- you'll become so bored the cut becomes automatic, at which point your technique and speed can improve -- slightly. I'm told you can come to actually enjoy it. I wouldn't know.

If the whole thing seems tedious and anal beyond belief, I understand you can buy frozen, turned carrots. But I have no idea from where you'd buy them.

BDL
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post #4 of 20
4/30/08 at 9:15pm

Nightmares of culinary school

:chef:Tournes are so flipping stupid and worthless. Only macho guys and two really anal women in my class were any good at it. I found it a waste of time and effort... just peel some nice small carrots and go from there....and don't buy those little ones in the bags....they are gross.
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post #5 of 20
5/1/08 at 2:26am
Thread Starter 
Thanks, guys ...

scb
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post #6 of 20
5/1/08 at 2:41am
Sounds like something as an exercise in knife skills that doesn't make a lot of difference to the end result. Unless you're counting the facets as you eat them.
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post #7 of 20
5/1/08 at 3:00am
it sounds like an exercise in obsessive-compulsive cooking techniques. i really wonder at the person who invented this sort of thing. Seven sides rather than 8 or 6, now, really!
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post #8 of 20
5/1/08 at 3:48am
If you have big ugly carrots and want to present them in a nice way sometimes tournee is the best.

You tournee the carrots, use some of the peelings for stock, the rest for terrine.
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post #9 of 20
5/1/08 at 7:25am
I feel like we should grade the cuts like diamonds. clarity, etc....:lol:

almost looks too.....fake, or mass produced. say, if they showed up on a plate at the local decent restaurant I'd have thought the opposite of elegant.
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post #10 of 20
5/1/08 at 8:10am
The idea from a culinary standpoint is to have the veg cut to the same size so that every piece is cooked a point at the same moment. Veg saute extremely well cut this way. They really hop around the pan, provided it isn't warped -- in which case they all roll downhill.

Carrots are actually one of the better candidates because you can make use of the natural curves of the outside to define the shape. Cut barrels. Quarter the barrels along their long axes. Each quarter has a 3 sided cross section, with one of the sides curved. Cut along each interface, then along the apex of the ellipse. Et viola! 7 faces.

When you consider the amount of food that's wasted making these cuts; that the culinary value can be accomplished in other ways appropriate for each vegetable (coining carrots, dicing potatoes to name two examples); and the amount of a skilled worker's time required, tourne may cross the line from into decadence. For some people, that's the point.

BDL
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post #11 of 20
5/1/08 at 8:18am
If ever served these in a restaurant, I don't think I could ever eat them comfortably knowing all the frustration that goes into making just one.

Here at school the students' failed tournes go into the fryer along with other inferior cuts of potato and get turned into "signature fries" for the cafeteria.
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post #12 of 20
5/1/08 at 8:57am
Tossing perfectly good carrots in the stock is a bigger waste. At least by turning carrots you can use the balance for stock. Use it also for terrines. It's a beautiful way to combine your brocolli stems. Red and green veggie terrine.

I agree that tourne potatoes is a waste, but a half chateau is, in terms of labor and money, the most economical way to elegantly present a potato.
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post #13 of 20
5/1/08 at 1:33pm
kuan,

When it came to spuds (or les spuddes as they're called in France), I'd always thought of chateau as large tourne and cocotte as small. I'm mostly either auto-didact, or was taught by auto-didacts when it comes to this stuff so my terminology isn't that strong. Most of it probably comes from La Bonne Cuisine de Madame E. Saint Ainge, anyway.

But my questions were practical.

Do you blanch yours off before sauteing? Or, just start with raw potatoes.

BDL
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post #14 of 20
5/1/08 at 2:23pm
Meh, tournee'ing is just another technique to add to your arsenal....

True, with some stuff like carrots, it may be a waste of time. But glazed turned carrots, parsnips, and turnips--with glazed (real) pearl onions and chopped parsley accompanying a nice braised piece add a lot of class and the sales price can justify the labour involved. Besides, a good kitchen never throws away stuff, carrot trimmings can go into clarification, puree soups, vegetable terrrines, etc.

Potatoes are a different story. Two or three turned pots as an acompaniement to a nice plate is well worth the effort. Fondant potatoes (turned pots braised in boullion and butter, glazed with glace de viande) NEVER fail to please. If using pre-peeled pots the trimmings can go for "staff fries", mashed pots, duchesse, etc.

Like I said, it's skill to add to your arsenal.....
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post #15 of 20
5/1/08 at 2:26pm
Or the peels are good for 'skins, with bacon and cheddar. :D For the BOH that is.

BDL: I normally just start them in the pan, finish in the oven.
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post #16 of 20
5/1/08 at 5:00pm
I have a French keyboard so I can type tourné very easily....

also soufflé, crème glacée, champêtre, comment ça va... and so much more...

héhéhé!
Luc H.
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post #17 of 20
5/1/08 at 10:15pm
Thread Starter 
Tourné can be typed on a plain old American keyboard as well.

scb
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post #18 of 20
5/1/08 at 10:22pm
I can copy and paste :crazy:

soufflé, crème glacée, champêtre, comment ça va... :p
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post #19 of 20
5/2/08 at 6:40am
I used to hate turning veg, now, funny enough, I only do it home, to unwind. And yes, I put that on my resume.

Once you're good at it the waste isn't so bad. I remember at school our beginner class started off with something like 40-50% waste. Bowls overflowing with trim, good lord that was shameful! Of course all that waste was put to use in the production kitchen. Except for turnips. A couple of Chefs encouraged us, unofficially of course, to accidentally throw turnip trim away. 15 Kilo's of turnip trim for staff meals gets a little old I guess.

As an aside turning doesn't just apply to the barrel shaped roots and tubers. I was taught that the term generally refers to any veg. trimming that is done off board (such as artichokes, or fluting mushrooms).

--Al
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post #20 of 20
5/3/08 at 10:43pm
My Chef used to want to throttle me when I didn't cut the carrots the same size (no matter what the shape was). I was green, had just come from being the dishwasher to being a kitchen hand - totally thrown into it with no training but they must have seen some sort of promise ( I ended up alright I guess).

She was a fiery little Italian lady and would yell at me "What would your mother say if you served her carrots cut like that?!?!?!" I replied, "She'd eat them, because she loves me" That gave her the best laugh I ever heard her have. Then she calmly explained why. I was 17 and knew nothing. She ended up becoming a very good friend after that. All over a carrot . Go figure :)
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