Learn How to Make Sauce
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In 19th Century France,where all written cooking began,
all sauces were classified
into five families
based on a
mother sauce. The basic understanding in French culinary was that all sauces could be traced to only 5 basic methods of sauce making. Once a cook masters these methods, they are able to create any and all sauces, easily, using ingredients on hand.
Today we still recognize the five major
sauce derivations:
- Bechamel - the base for most white sauces,including vodka sauce, shrimp sauce and cheese sauces.
- Brown Sauce
- Veloute - the foundation of garlic sauce and mole sauce.
- Tomato Sauce - starts Marina Sauce, Red Pasta Sauces,
Spaghetti Sauce, Pizza Sauce and even homemade BBQ Sauce. - Hollandaise Sauce
It has been said that a good sauce can make a dish. One of the tricks the pros know is that you can make ALL sauces (and even create some new ones of your own) when you learn how to make sauce by mastering these methods. Soon, you will quickly be able to welcome the addition of a virtually unlimited array of sauce recipes into your cooking.
Structure of a Sauce
When my students are first learning how to make sauce, I always stress to them that it is imperative to first understand the structure of every sauce.All Sauces are made of three kinds of ingredients:
Liquid
Provides the body of the sauce. There are five liquids or bases on which sauces are built, resulting in the five "mother sauces" (leading sauces). Most frequently used sauces are based on stocks
Thickening Agents
Sauce must cling to food, needs a thickening agent, must not leave a puddle on the plate and must not be too thick and pasty. Starches are the most commonly used thickeners.
Flavoring Agents
Sauce is built in stages and flavors are added at the end if appropriate.
Roux
Understanding how to use roux is an important first step in learning how to make sauce. Roux is flour and fat and is the beginning of white sauces and other thickened sauces.General Principles:
Liquid may be added to roux, or roux added to liquid. It must ALWAYS be hot roux to cold liquid or cold roux to hot liquid.
Procedures:
Method 1 – adding liquid to roux:
Add fat to sauce pan, heat through.
Add starch to fat, stir to make a paste.
Cook until white and bubbly, with a nutty smell.
Pour cold liquid to roux in three stages, beating to prevent lumps.
Bring liquid to boil, reduce to simmer, continue to beat well.
Liquid won’t thicken fully until it reaches boil.
Simmer, stirring occasionally, to desired thickness.
Cover and keep warm, or cool for future use.
Cover with melted butter to prevent skin.
Method 2 – adding roux to liquid
Bring liquid to simmer in a heavy pot.
Add small amount of previously made, cold roux and incorporate.
Continue to beat in roux.
Continue to simmer until roux is cooked out.
Sauce will thicken as it reduces.
This video shows one example of how to make sauce, by revealing the method for pan roux:
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