Sauce is a French word taken from the Latin salsa, meaning salted. A sauce is essentially flavoured liquid plus thickening agent. By varying the combination of liquid, flavouring and thickening agent, the possibilities are endless. Sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to another dish. As Julia Child, the late American chef and cookery teacher, eloquently summed it up: “Sauces are the glory and splendour of French cooking”. Scroll down to see Julia’s tips for making perfect sauces.
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Classic French cuisine features five mother sauces that can be enhanced with spices, herbs, meat, vegetables, and more to be made into innumerable other sauces. The five sauces are: Béchamel, Espagnole, Velouté, Hollandaise and Tomato and they differ based on their main ingredient and thickening agent. These fundamentals either begin with a roux, a stock, or a combination of the two. Roux (“roo”) is used in 3 of the 5 mother sauces: Béchamel, Espagnole and Velouté. Heating equal parts in weight of flour and fat (usually butter) will produce white roux (5 minutes), blond roux (20 minutes) or brown roux (35 minutes). The darker the Roux, the nuttier the flavour.
The five “mother” sauces are:
Béchamel (“bay-sha-mel”)
The smooth, classic white sauce is made from cooking butter and flour together, then whisking in some milk. Its thickness depends on how much milk is added: the more milk, the thinner the sauce. Béchamel forms the basis of a wide variety of other sauces. It is usually served with white meats, eggs, fish, pastas (cream sauces) and vegetables. Pasta such as Lasagne and Cannelloni, mushrooms, vegetables, steamed or poached poultry.
Hollandaise (“ol-uhn-dehz”)
Hollandaise is an emulsification that uses butter and egg yolks as binding. It’s that lusty, pale lemon-colored sauce. A derivative of hollandaise is béarnaise sauce, which is most often served with steak. It is usually served with eggs (Eggs Benedict), steamed asparagus, grilled salmon, and lightly poached poultry.
Velouté (“veh-loo-tay”)
Veloute is a stock-based white sauce that can be made from chicken (most common), fish or veal stock thickened with white roux. It’s made similar to a béchamel, except in this case, stock replaces the milk. It is usually served with hearty chicken dishes, vegetables, pastas and veal dishes.
Tomato (“to-ma-te”)
Raw tomatoes, tomato paste, stewed tomatoes and tomato puree are all common in making a traditional tomato sauce. A roux is traditionally used in making a tomato sauce, but many chefs skip it because the tomatoes themselves can be thick enough to hold up the sauce. It is usually served wtih pasta dishes, fish, veal, chicken dishes, vegetables and polenta.
Espagnole (“es-puhn-yohl”)
Espagnole is the common brown sauce made with a roux and brown stock, and is the basis of Bordelaise sauce (the one made with red wine, shallot, bay leaf and thyme). It is usually served with roasted meats like beef, duck, lamb and veal.
Source: www.thesavory.com
Julia Child’s tips for making perfect sauces:
- Reduce sauces to increase flavor. To reduce a sauce, simply cook it over a low heat in order to evaporate water from the pan. As the sauce simmers, the volume decreases but its intense meaty flavor will remain, certain to complement your dish.
- Deglaze your pan to capture the richest flavors. After sautéing aromatic vegetables or searing meats, begin the sauce by adding wine, juice, or stock to the sauté pan. This releases the sweet browned bits of food from the pan and into the sauce.
- Spike up the flavor. Acid ingredients such as wine, vinegar, and citrus juices are used to bring out full flavors that may be otherwise hidden in a heavy sauce. A touch should bring a flat sauce to life, but the heavy-handed will suffer from too much tang.
- Adjust salt just before serving. Masked by water, fiber, and other naturally occurring flavors, salt tends to hide within many basic ingredients. As a sauce reduces and its flavor becomes more intense, so does its salt content. Rather than adding salt while starting a sauce, sprinkle it in at the end to make sure you don’t end up with an unpalatable disaster.
- Use fresh ingredients. From meat to stock, from vegetables to wine, use only products that look, smell, and taste good on their own. While fine wines may be overkill in a sauce, make sure your cheaper alternative is drinkable before committing it to the pot.
- Thicken sauces as naturally as possible. If there’s enough protein in your stock, reduction alone may give your sauce the body it needs, but at times you’ll need to look elsewhere. Avoid using cornstarch where possible, as it creates an undesirable sheen and feel. Try vegetable purees instead. Flour slurries or roux are the next best option.
- Allow your sauce time to grow. Make your sauce in advance and hold for a few hours under refrigeration prior to serving, allowing flavors to meld together and bloom. Sharp acids often calm down and aromatics and spices intensify, leaving you with a complex, flavorful sauce just like you’ve tasted in restaurants.
- Finish sauces with delicate flavors just before serving. Toss in a little pat of butter, a hint of truffle oil, or a handful of fresh herbs just before your reheated sauce is ready to plate, giving it one last kiss of personality as it heads to the dining room.
Source: www.pbs.org