frenching in cooking

Meanings

1. 1phraseuncountable

   The cooking technique of scraping meat off the ends of rib or chop bones so they look neat and cook evenly.

   Grammar: Used as an uncountable noun phrase; it refers to the activity or process, not a countable item.

   Patterns

   • frenching in cooking
   • the frenching of something

   Frenching in cooking is often done on racks of lamb before roasting.

   The chef demonstrated frenching in cooking by trimming the bones clean.

   Proper frenching in cooking makes the chops look more elegant on the plate.

2. 2phraseuncountable

   The result of this technique: meat that has been trimmed so the bones are exposed and clean.

   Grammar: Also uncountable; refers to the finished state of the meat, not individual pieces.

   Patterns

   • the frenching on something
   • nice frenching

   The frenching on these lamb chops is very even.

   You can see the frenching clearly where the bones are scraped.

Common combinations

frenching a rack of lamb

Frenching a rack of lamb takes steady hands and a sharp knife.

frenching the bones

He spent ten minutes frenching the bones before seasoning the meat.

do the frenching

The butcher offered to do the frenching for us.

frenched rack

A frenched rack of lamb looks impressive when served.

Synonyms and how they differ

trimming

Trimming is the general term for cutting away unwanted parts; frenching is a specific kind of trimming that exposes bone ends.

scraping

Scraping describes the action of removing meat from the bone, but it does not imply the neat, decorative result that frenching does.

Word family

frenched adjective

Describes meat that has had the bones trimmed in this way, as in 'frenched lamb chops'.

Commonly confused: frenching in cooking or Frenching?

Practice

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