INTRODUCTION
“Sauce is to culinary art, what grammar is to language”
- Grimande De La Royere
The word "sauce" is a French word that means a relish to make our food more appetizing. Sauces are liquid or semi-liquid foods devised to make other foods look, smell, and taste better, and hence be more easily digested and more beneficial. Because of the lack of refrigeration in the early days of cooking, meat, poultry, fish, and seafood didn't last long. Sauces and gravies were used to mask
The flavor of tainted foods. Sauces are one of the fundamentals of cooking. Sauces may be prepared. Sauces, such as soy sauce, which are usually bought, not made, by the cook; or cooked sauces, such as Béchamel sauce, which are generally made just before serving. Sauces for salads are called salad dressing. Another variation is the pan sauce; this is made by adding an aromatic (such as chopped shallot) to a pan that has previously cooked meat, which has left hardened juices (called the fond) in the pan. A person who specializes in making sauces is often referred to as a "saucier", a French term borrowed for its situational usefulness. Sauces are an essential element in cuisines all over the world. Some famous sauciers include Julia Child, Benjamin Christie, Bobby Flay, Yutake Ishinabe, and François Pierre La Varenne.
SAUCES Sauce is a thickened liquid that is flavored or seasoned to enhance the flavour of the food that it is to accompany. The sauce can be sweet, sour, spicy, or savory and may be added to the food to become part of a main dish or used as an accompaniment to the food being prepared. Sauces add a variety of features to foods, such as complimenting or enhancing flavors, succulence, attractive appearance, and additional texture.
. Importance of Sauces
(i) A sauce enhances flavour.
(ii) Sauce like white sauce adds creaminess to firm and dry food thus giving moistness the food.
(iii) Sauces like mint sauce, apple sauce with roast pork help in digestion.
(iv) Sauce add colour to the food.
(v) Sauce served as an accompaniment, sometimes gives a contrast taste to another food.
(vi) Sauce enhances the nutitional value of the dish.
(vii) Sauce gives tartness and contrasts or balances a bland food. Example: Devil sauce served with eggs gives appealing tartness.
(viii) Sauce makes food more palatable.
THICKENING AGENTS USED IN SAUCES
Sauces, unless they're just type sauces, shouldn't be thin and watery. There are many ways to thicken a sauce. The following are the few sauce-thickening agents:
Cornstarch - Cornstarch is actually flour. It is the endosperm of corn kernels that has been dried and ground, much the same way that wheat flour is made (in England cornstarch is actually called cornflour). Like other flours, cornstarch makes a good thickening agent. It is frequently used in Asian cooking and a clear sheen is typical of sauces thickened with cornstarch.
Flour and making a roux - Used as a thickening agent for sauces, the traditional roux is equal amounts of flour and a fat (usually butter) cooked together. The length of time that the flour is cooked depends on the color of the sauce being made. Cooked for a short time, the roux has little color and is used for white sauces. As cooked longer, the flour browns and results in a darker sauce.
Eggs yolks and cream – Yolks or cream are added as a finishing agent at the end of cooking. The product is never boiled, when liaison is added, or it would curdle. The liason is added to thicken delicate cream or velout sauces or cream soups.
MOTHER SAUCES
Mother sauces are also called Grand Sauces. These are the five most basic sauces that every cook should master.
The five Mother Sauces are:
1 Béchamel - sauces that are made with milk and pale roux. Common sauces in this group include Crème, Mornay and Soubise.
2Velouté - sauces that are made with white stock and roux. Common sauces in this group include allemande, ravigote, suprème, and white bordelaise.
3 Brown (demi-glace) or Espagnole - sauces that are brown stock-based, such as brown sauces. Common sauces in this group include bordelaise, chasseur, chateaubriand, diable, diane, estragon, lyonnaise, madère, madeira, and zingara.
4 Red or Tomato Sauces - tomato based sauces. Common sauces in this category include spaghetti sauce, marinara and a wide variety of tomato sauces.
5 Emulsions - sauces that are emulsified such as Hollandaise and Mayonnaise.
BÉCHAMEL SAUCE
Béchamel sauce (pronounced (bay-shah-mel) also known as white sauce This sauce, is widely used with vegetables, eggs, fish, poultry, hot hors d'oeuvres and dishes that are finished under the grill. Béchamel sauce is the base for a number of other classic sauces including: Mornay sauce (cheese).
Béchamel Sauce
| Ingredients | Method |
| Clarified butter Flour Milk, brought to a boil before using Onion, chopped Thyme Bay leaf Nutmeg Salt and White pepper to taste Nut meg a pinch | 1. In a small skillet melt 1 Tbsp. of the butter. 2. In a saucepan melt the remaining butter and to this add the flour and cook together over a low flame, stirring constantly With a wooden spoon for 5 minutes. 1. To this mixture (which is known as a "roux"), add the boiling milk, mix well. 2. simmer very gently for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Strain through a muslin cloth. 5 . If not using the sauce immediately, float a thin film of milk or melted butter on the top of the sauce and set aside uncovered or keep it hot by placing it in the top pot of a double boiler over hot but not boiling water. |
BROWN (DEMI-GLACE) OR ESPAGNOLE SAUCE
The basic method of making espagnole is to prepare a very dark brown roux, to which are added several gallons of veal stock or water, along with 20–30 lb (9–14 kg) of browned bones, pieces of
Beef, many pounds of vegetables, and various seasonings. This blend is allowed to slowly reduce while being frequently skimmed. The classical recipe calls for additional veal stock to be added as the liquid gradually reduces but today water is generally used instead. Tomato sauce is added towards the end of the process, and the sauce is further reduced. Espagnole has a strong taste and is rarely used directly on food. As a mother sauce, however, it then serves as the starting
point for many derivative sauces. A typical espagnole recipe takes many hours or even several days to make, and produces four to five quarts of sauce. In most derivative recipes, however, one cup of
Espagnole is more than enough, so that the basic recipe will yield enough sauce for 16 to 20 meals. Frozen in small quantities, espagnole will keep practically indefinitely.
Preparation of Espagnole Sauce
| Ingredients | Method |
| Fat Flour Tomato puree Brown stock Mirepoix Fresh pork rind finely chopped Parsley, Celery and Bay Leaf | 1Prepare the brown stock, and add brown roux. Mix it and simmered it for long time. 2 tempered with garlic and tomato puree. Strain it and store in a cool place. |
VELOUTÉ SAUCE
Velouté or blond sauce is basically a bechamel sauce made with stock instead of milk. In preparing a velouté sauce, a light stock (one in which the bones used have not been roasted), such as chicken, veal or fish stock, is thickened with a blond roux. Thus the ingredients of a velouté are butter and flour to form the roux, a light chicken, veal, or fish stock, salt and pepper for seasoning. Commonly the sauce produced will be referred to by the type of stock used e.g. chicken velouté. Sauce’s derivatives are including allemande sauce (by adding lemon juice, egg yolks, and cream), suprême sauce (by adding mushrooms and cream to a chicken velouté) and bercy sauce (by adding shallots and white wine to a fish velouté).
Preparation of Velouté Sauce
| Ingredients | Method |
| Yield: 1 ¾ cup White stock (veal, chicken, or fish) Unsalted butter Flour Salt & Pepper, to taste 1½ cup 2 tbsp 3 tbsp | 1. In a medium sized saucepan melt the butter. 2. Remove the pan from the stove and quickly stir in the flour. 3. Return the pan to the heat and cook the paste mixture, stirring frequently until it turns pale and straw-like in colour. This should take several minutes. 4. Take the pan off the heat again and whisk or stir in half of the stock. Make sure that the paste has dissolved and a liquid has formed without any lumps. 5. Return the pan to the heat and stir in the remaining stock. Bring the liquid to a gentle simmer. 6. Reduce the heat but continue to simmer the sauce for about 25 minutes, stirring from time to time and skimming off any skin that forms on the top. 7. Once the sauce has reached the desired consistency, season With salt and pepper and strain the sauce through a sieve. |
TOMATO SAUCE
A tomato sauce is any of a very large number of sauces made primarily out of tomatoes, usually to be served as part of a dish (rather than as a condiment). Tomato sauces are common for Meat and vegetables, but they are perhaps best known as sauces for pasta dishes. Tomatoes have a rich flavor, a low liquid content, very soft flesh which breaks down easily, and the right composition to thicken up into a sauce when they are cooked (without the need of thickeners like roux). All of these make them ideal for simple and appealing sauces. The simplest tomato sauces consist just of chopped tomato flesh (with the skins and seeds optionally removed), cooked in a little olive oil and simmered until it loses its raw flavour, and seasoned with salt. Water (or another, more flavorful liquid such as stock or wine) is often added to keep it from drying out too much. Onion and garlic are almost always sweated or sauteed at the beginning before the tomato is added. Other seasonings typically include basil, oregano, parsley, and possibly some spicy red pepper or black pepper. Ground or chopped meat is also common. Sauces derived from tomato sauce are: Bretonne; Tomated Chaudfroid; Portugaise; Italienne; Barbecue; Green tomato sauce; Salsa; Puttanesca; Tomato gravy.
TOMATO SAUCE
| Ingredients | Method |
| Fresh tomatoes Olive oil Onion peeled and chopped Garlic cloves peeled and crushed Brown sugar Salt and freshly milled black pepper 1 kg 1 tbsp | 1. Put the tomatoes in a big bowl. Pour boiling water over the tomatoes until everyone are submerged. After a few minutes Drain the tomatoes and hold them under running cold water. Slip their skins off. 2. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan, then add the onion and Garlic and let them gently cook for 5-6 minutes, until they are softened and golden. Now add the tomatoes. Simmer the Tomatoes on a very low heat, without a lid for 1½ hours or until all the liquid had evaporated and the tomatoes are reduced to a thick, jam-like consistency, stirring now and then. 3. Add salt and pepper to taste. 4. If the sauce is extremely acidic add brown sugar in teaspoon increments. |
EMULSIONS
Emulsion is a mixture of two liquids that normally can't be combined. Combining oil and water is the classic example. Emulsifying is done by slowly adding one ingredient to another while
Simultaneously mixing rapidly. This disperses and suspends tiny droplets of one liquid through another. However, the two liquids would quickly separate again if an emulsifier were not added. Emulsifiers are liaisons between the two liquids and serve to stabilize the mixture. Eggs and gelatin are among the foods that contain emulsifiers. In mayonnaise, the emulsifier is egg yolk, which contains lecithin, a fat emulsifier. Emulsion sauces are hollandaise and mayonnaise.
Hollandaise Sauce
Hollandaise Sauce (pronounced HOL-uhn-dayz). This is an emulsion of butter and lemon juice using egg yolks as the emulsifying agent, usually seasoned with salt and a little black pepper or cayenne pepper. It is served hot with vegetables, fish, and eggs (like egg Benedict). It will be a pale lemon color, opaque, but with a luster not appearing oily. care must also be taken to store it properly after preparation. Properly made, the sauce should be smooth and creamy. The flavor should be rich and buttery, with a mild tang added by the lemon juice created by adding ingredients to Hollandaise Sauce (as a 'mother sauce'): Sauce Mousseline; Sauce Béarnaise; Sauce Maltaise;
Sauce Divine; Sauce Noisette; Sauce Bavaroise; Sauce Colbert.
Preperation of Hollandaise Sauce
| Ingredients | Method |
| White vinegar Crushed pepper corn Cold water Salt White pepper to taste Egg yolks Unsalted butter, Softened fresh lemon juice | 1. Boil vinegar, 2 tablespoons water, crushed pepper corn in a 1½-quart heavy saucepan until reduced to about 2 tablespoons. Remove from heat and stir in remaining tablespoon water. 2. Whisk in yolks, then cook over very low heat, whisking constantly, until thickened (be careful not to scramble yolks), about 1 minute. Whisk in butter 1 piece at a time, lifting pan occasionally to cool sauce and adding each piece before previous one is completely melted. 3. Remove from heat and whisk in lemon juice, and salt to taste. |
Mayonnaise
Mayonnaise (often abbreviated mayo) is a thick condiment, whitish-yellow in color. Mayonnaise is a basic cold sauce. It is used as a salad dressing and as an accompainiment. Mayonnaise is made by combining lemon juice or vinegar with egg yolks. Mayonnaise is most commonly served in a sandwich, or with salad such as potato salad or canned tuna ("tuna mayo" or tuna salad). Numerous other sauces can be created from it by adding additional seasonings. Mayonnaise is the base for many other chilled sauces and salad dressings. For example:
1. Aïoli is olive-oil mayonnaise combined with garlic. Rouille is aïoli with added red pepper or paprika.
2. Tartar sauce is mayonnaise spiced with pickled cucumbers and onion. Capers, olives, and crushed hardboiled eggs are sometimes included. A simpler recipe calls for sweet pickle relish and more lemon juice.
3. Fry sauce is a mixture of mayonnaise, ketchup or another
4. Lime-flavored mayonnaise, usually found in Mexican or Spanish grocers in North America.
5. Ranch dressing is made of buttermilk or sour cream,
6. mayonnaise, and minced green onion, along with other
7. Seasonings.
8. Honey Mustard is made primaril y o f mayonnaise and includes lemon juice, mustard, and brown sugar.
Preparation of Mayonnaise
| Ingredients | Method |
| Egg yolks 1 pcs Vegetable or olive oil 1.25 ml Lemon juice or white wine vinegar Dijon mustard Sugar Salt and pepper to taste | 1. In a large mixing bowl whisk together the egg yolks with a pinch of salt. 2. Add one drop of oil to the egg yolks and whisk together with an electric whisk. 3. Continue to add one drop of oil at a time, whisking continuously until the mixture begins to blend together and thicken. The process is to add one drop of oil and then blend it in before adding the next drop. This will take several minutes. 4. After a quarter of the oil has been blended, add the lemon juice or vinegar and beat into the mixture. 5. Continue to whisk in the remaining oil, which you should be able to add a lot quicker by now, in a thin stream. 6. Once all the oil has been beaten in, add the mustard to give extra taste and season with salt and pepper. 7. If the mayonnaise is too thick, you can whisk in a few teaspoons of boiling water. 8. Chill the mayonnaise in the refrigerator before serving. |
Comments