BASIC SAUCE PREPARATION

FUNCTION OF SAUCE

Sauce: A flavorful liquid, usually thickened, used to season, flavor, and enhance other foods.

A sauce adds the following qualities to foods:• Moistness• Flavor• Richness• Appearance (color and shine)• Interest and appetite appeal

STRUCTURE OF SAUCE

The major sauces are made of three kinds of ingredients:

1.A liquid, the body of the sauce

2.A thickening agent3.Additional seasoning

and flavoring ingredients

Leading SaucesLiquid + thickening agent = leading sauceLeading sauce + additional flavorings = small

sauceStandards of Quality for Sauces:

1. Consistency and body2. Flavor3. Appearance

FinishingHeavy cream• Used to give flavor and richness to sauce.

Monter au beurre is to “finish with butter.”• Add a few pieces of softened butter to the hot sauce.• Swirl them in until melted. • The sauce should then be served immediately.

FIVE BASIC MOTHER SAUCE

1. Espagnole sauce (Brown sauce)2. Bechamel sauce ( White sauce)3. Veloute sauce4. Tomato sauce5. Hollandaise sauce

Espagnole Sauce (Brown Sauce)

Espagnole sauce is prepared by bolstering a brown veal stock with additional roasted mirepoix, tomato pincage and aromatics, and thickening it with roux.

A basic formula for 1 gal/3.84 L Brown Sauce

- 5.75 L Brown Stock- 1.81 additional roasted

bones and trim- 454 g large-cut mirepoix,

well browned- Oil for browning bones,

trim and mirepoix- 113 g tomato paste- 340 g roux- 1 sachet d’epices/bouquet

garni

1. Brown the trim/bones and mirepoix.

2. Cook the tomato paste untill rust color. Then add the brown stock.

3. Add the sachet or other aromatics as the flavor. Simmer the sauce until desired flavor.

4. Thicken the sauce with roux.

5. Strain the sauce using a fine-mesh sieve or a double thickness of cheesecloth.

Bechamel Sauce (white sauce)

Béchamel is made by thickening hot milk with a simple white roux. The sauce is then flavored with onion, cloves and nutmeg and simmered until it is creamy and velvety smooth.

Chicken Velouté

Velouté is another relatively simple mother sauce.

Velouté sauce is made by thickening white stock with roux and then simmering it for a while.

While the chicken velouté, made with chicken stock, is the most common type, there is also a veal velouté and fish velouté.

Chicken Velouté

• 4.25 L CHICKEN STOCK • 180 ml clarified butter or

vegetable oil• W H I T E M I R E P O I X-2 oz / 60 g small-dice onions-2 oz / 60 g small-dice leek-2 oz / 60 g small-dice celery-2 oz / 60 g small-dice parsnips• 8 oz / 225 g all-purpose flour• sachet d’epices, containing 2

to 3 parsley stems, 1⁄2 tsp/2 ml thyme, 1⁄2 tsp/2 ml

• cracked black peppercorns, 1 bay leaf, and 1 garlic clove salt, as needed ground white pepper, as needed

• White or blond roux

1. Sweat the aromatics in fat.2. Any meat trim included

should be gently cooked with them.

3. A prepared roux is whisked into the simmering liquid.

4. Add sachet or other aromatics and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring frequently and tasting throughout the cooking time.

5. Strain the sauce.

Tomato Sauce• Tomato sauce is a generic

term used to describe any sauce that is based mainly on tomatoes.

• Tomato sauces can be made several ways. They may be raw, or they may be cooked, anywhere from ten minutes to several hours.

• In some versions, olive oil is used as the only cooking fat.

•For others, rendered bacon is required. •Some recipes call for roasted veal bones; others are made strictly from tomatoes and the desired vegetables.• Some tomato sauces are puréed until smooth; others are left chunky. Escoffier’s tomato sauce relied on roux as a thickener.

A basic formula for 3.84 L tomato sauce

- 5.44 kg fresh tomato- 60 ml cooking oil- 340 g minced onion- 28 g garlic- Salt and pepper

• Cook the onion until tender and to the desired color before adding the tomatoes.

• Add the tomatoes and any remaining ingredients and simmer until the flavor is fully developed.

• Stir frequently, skimming and tasting throughout the cooking time.

• Puree the sauce (if desired) using a blender.

Hollandaise Sauce• Hollandaise sauce is

prepared by emulsifying melted or clarified butter and water (in the form of an acidic reduction and/or lemon juice) with partially cooked egg yolks.

• Since the largest part of a hollandaise is butter, the success or failure of the sauce depends not only on skillfully combining egg yolks, water, acid, and butter into a rich, smooth sauce, but also on the quality of the butter itself.

• A basic formula for 10 portion batch of Hollandaise Sauce

- 4 egg yolks- 360 ml melted butter or

clarified butter.- Reduction made from

white wine or cider vinegar, minced shallot and peppercorns.

- Lemon juice- Salt

• Make a reduction by cook the vinegar/white with the peppercorn.

• Then cool and strain the reduction in a stainless steel bowl.

• Add the egg yolk to the reduction and whisk over barely simmering water until thickened and warm.

• Add the butter slowly in a thin stream, whisking constantly is required.

• The sauce will begin to thicken as more butter is blended in.

Small Sauces

A sauce that is derived from a mother sauce and has flavorings and seasonings added to create a new sauce. Also referred to as a "secondary sauce."

Standard Quality for Sauces

1. Consistency and body- Smooth with no lumps, not too thick or pasty, but thick enough to coat the food lightly.

2. Flavor- Distinctive but well balanced flavor.

3. Appearance- Smooth with a good shine/good color for its type.

Finishing Technique

1. REDUCTIONi. Using reduction to concentrate basic flavors. (The sauce become more concentrated and more flavorful)ii. Using reduction to adjust textures. (Concentrating a sauce by reduction also thickens it because only the water evaporated, not other solids)iii. Using reduction to add new flavors. (ex: make a reduction of white wine with peppercorn)

Cont..

2. STRAINING- To remove any graininess in the sauce.

3. DEGLAZING- To deglaze means to swirl a liquid in a saute pan or other pan to dissolve cooked particles of food remaining on the bottom.

Cont..

4. ENRICHINGi. Liaison – be a thickening agent, a liaison of

egg yolks and cream is used to finish a sauce bygiving it extra richness and smoothness.ii. Heavy cream – used to give flavor and

richness to saucess.iii. Butter – a useful enriching techniques, give extra shine and smoothness. Finishing with butter (monter au beurre).

Cont..

5. Seasoningi. Saltii. Lemon juiceiii. Cayenne/pepperiv. Sherry/madeira.