Top Ingredients in French Cooking

by Sarah

Question: What are the top ten mostly used ingredients in French cooking. I know they say the three main ingredients to French cooking are butter, butter, and butter. But what are the others?

Answer: Hi Sarah - Thanks for sumbitting your question!

Coming up with any single list of French ingredients would be impossible, but I will give you my list and maybe someone else will submit their ideas.

Was it Julia Child who said that about the French and butter? Anyway, it is true that many French recipes include generous amounts of butter, so it would probably top most lists of ingredients. But since you have already mentioned it, I'll skip to some other popular and distinctive ingredients.

• shallots


• leeks


• onions


• crème fraîche


• eggs


• wine


• olive oil


• vinegar


• bouillon


• mustard

Here's a much longer list that I started a while back: French Ingredients.

The key to French cooking however is not the particular ingredients. Rather it is the time, care and consideration that will go into selecting the food, whatever it may be. Very high quality ingredients are the cornerstone of French cuisine.