Your opinion on saucing

[chefette]

I like attractive saucing, don't get me wrong. There is nothing like the tiny jewels or lines, or pools of color from beautiful sauces, but are they there to support the food or dessert, or are they just there for good looks?

Lots of times it seems to me that chefs (and pastry chefs too) use sauces purely for decorative ends even to the detriment of the food on the plate. For example, I sometimes go to meetings at a hotel where they sauce the plate with some really bad strawberry sauce regardless of what is on the plate. Annoying

Other times there is a really great sauce that is mentioned on the menu but when the food arrives, the sauce is just a few tiny drops off to the side, hardly supporting the flavor direction of the food. In this application it is hard to get any on the food, and there is rarely enough for saucing more than a single bite. Annoying

Is this just a reaction to the pools of anglaise or other sauce that chefs used to fill plates with in restaurants? Are these sauces so difficult to make and so precious that they can only be spartanly applied?

So, do you feel that sauce should be an integral part of the dish it is gracing so that you can enjoy it with each mouthful, or do you think that it is like a sprig of parsley or mint - pretty, but best left to adorn the plate?

[fifi]

I am firmly in the camp that the sauce needs to mean something to the dish. And there should be the right amount to enjoy with the main feature. I really get annoyed with the gratuitous "garnishes". There is an old joke or something about "don't eat the parsley" (my memory fails me but I remember the message) that seems to sum it up. I don't care how artfully you drizzle it, it should taste good, compliment the main event, and be an integral part of the experience.

[elyse]

Sauce is my favorite food. But if it's poor, it belongs nowhere on my plate. If it isn't integral, or complicates the dessert, get it away. It it's dotted on the plate, what's the point but irritation?

There's too much coulis in NY.

[Bux]

I like attractive saucing, don't get me wrong.  There is nothing like the tiny jewels or lines, or pools of color from beautiful sauces, but are they there to support the food or dessert,

I resent the implication that dessert is not "the food."

I think a lot of decoration is being used, but as long as it's not to the detriment of the dish, I don't mind. Much of it is really not meant to change the taste of the food any more than the design of the plate itself. Where it's not enough of a flavor that would add to the dish or where it's an off taste or a product that's inferior to the main components, I think the chef is doing himself a disservice. Where it's harnless decoration that has no overall effect on the taste buds, I accept it as decor, just as the flowers on the table add to the mood and see no harm.

[Jinmyo]

Sauces, any kind of garnish, must be not only edible but directly relevant to the dish.

[Suzanne F]

Sauces, any kind of garnish, must be not only edible but directly relevant to the dish.

Hear, hear.

No parsley. No mint. No 6-inch sprig of rosemary. Not unless it complements the other food on the plate.

[jackal10]

Ideally and properly the sauce should be an integral part of the dish, and part of the food balance.

Unfortunately many customers in a restaurant (present company excepted) don't have the palate but want to be amazed, chiefly with something they can't do at home. Its all too easy to for a professional kitchen to squiggle two different sauces on a plate, and stick in a potato galette, the sprig of rosemary or a caramel hat (or all three), and send it out to the gullible.

What did we do before squeeze bottles?

edit: added the sprig of rosemary

Edited April 27, 2003 by jackal10 (log)

[Jon Tseng]

I was wondering about this today actually - what does a sauce bring to a dish? Either i) moistening it/changing the tecture ii) as a vehicle for another flavour.

Although most dishes (certainly mains) seem to be sauced, brothed, coulised, jused or nage'd nowadays, I'm not convinced - based on the above criteria - its really necessary all of the time. If you have a perfectly done piece of meat which is moist enough in itself, and you don't necessary want to chuck in another flavour (or you do it via a garnish rather than a sauce) why not serve it unsauced?

J

PS on the tiddly dots question I find them irritating because often the sauce/reduction used isn't sufficiently intense, so you can't really taste it. I suppose it makes the dish look purty though...

[Jinmyo]

Sauces, any kind of garnish, must be not only edible but directly relevant to the dish.

Hear, hear.

No parsley. No mint. No 6-inch sprig of rosemary. Not unless it complements the other food on the plate.

And not unless it is intended to be consumed by the diner. If I put it on the plate, it is food, it is the dish. If you don't eat the garnish, you didn't understand the dish.

[Basildog]

I'm guilty as charged with mint and parsley.I like the smell of mint with fruit desserts.How about dustings of icing sugar? and cocoa?

Worse case i have seen, was a Lamb dish i had at a local hotel some years back, which was garnished with a little bundle of rosemary, thyme and parsley.Very pretty, but if the chef had actually used them for cooking, the lamb may well have tasted OK

[Bux]

Thank you Jinmyo. I like parsley. I like the taste of parsley. In 1959, I knew immediately that France was different and better when I sat down to my first salade de tomates and I could taste the minced parsley on the tomatoes. The parsley may add a decorative element, but it's got to be there for the flavor and not as an ornamental spring. If I see mint on my dessert, I assume I am supposed to eat it.

[ballast_regime]

One reason I've always admired Colicchio's food is how minimally sauced it is, if at all. Very refreshing. I hate seeing a plate being returned to the kitchen that has gobs of sauce but no food.

IML

ballast/regime

[Jinmyo]

Bux, I love parsley.

A parsley garnish can act as a nice palate cleanser.

[Ruth]

[/quoteOther times there is a really great sauce that is mentioned on the menu but when the food arrives, the sauce is just a few tiny drops off to the side, hardly supporting the flavor direction of the food. QUOTE]]

I agree that it is infuriating to find just a few drops of sauce on the plate when it is delicioous and has major billing on the menu. It is true that some of these reduction sauces aare very expensive and labor intensive and a puddle of sauce can spoil the look of the plate. Why not a small side bowl with extra sauce? The saucier puts a lot of effort into its making and should give the customer a chance to appreciate it.

Ruth Friedman

Edited April 29, 2003 by Ruth (log)

[Carlovski]

For 'Homestyle' cooking, I think the sauce should be generous in quantity, and have a 'connection' to the dish. This is partially aesthetic and partly practical, a homemade sauce is unlikely to have the intensity of a restaurant sauce, and also it is more likely to have been a consequence of making the dish, rather than a separate endeavour.

I quite often do not set out to make a 'Protein, sauce and two vegetables' dinner, but when I do, it is normally follows the pattern

I cook some pork steaks/chops (For example).

The residue on the pan looks tasty and too good to waste.

In goes the vermouth/wine/cider/whatever is too hand.

Some herbs, juniper berries, capers or whatever I feel like go in.

A knob of butter is usually needed at this point.

Now if I stop there, my finished supper will have a fairly concentrated sauce, but it still doesn't feel like the sort of thing to be artfully drizzled , no it gets plopped right over those steaks.

If some cream goes in the sauce (Which happens quite a lot) then suddenly there is a lot of very tasty sauce. And I want all of it!. Not the prettiest of suppers any more, but very satisfying with enough crusty bread.

For more refined cooking, the degree of saucing becomes more important, not just for how it looks on the plate, but also to preserve the tastes (And textures) of each component of the meal, especially if there is more than one sauce being used. (Interestingly, in indian cooking this mixing of sauces is quite often desired, especially in 'Tiffin' style dishes like bhel puris etc)

All this goes out of the window if we are talking casseroles/stews/daubes etc. Then give me a deep bowl, a spoon and plenty of napkins!

Carl

[pastramionrye]

For more refined cooking, the degree of saucing becomes more important, not just for how it looks on the plate, but also to preserve the tastes (And textures) of each component of the meal

i am in the camp where everything on the plate should be edible and be a part of the dish...i hate sprigs of herbs on my plate or when my chef forces me to put them on...and i am growing weary of micro greens just for the sake of micro greens (they do have nice flavors, but should be used more cerebrally)...

as for saucing...a dish well prepared and well flavored should not need an abundance of sauce (for the most part), they should be used to highlight, contrast, or meld flavors together....while sauces are delicious...pools of sauce on a plate take away from the entre being served.

if the food being served is bland or overcooked...or underseasoned....sauce it up...but otherwise; it should be used in moderation, just like everything else.

[silentbob]

What did we do before squeeze bottles?

Does anyone have recommendations on where to get these squeeze bottles, mail-order or otherwise? I've done a Google search but can't discern the quality of these bottles.

[Suzanne F]

Just about any restaurant supply house or cookware store will have them. So do craft stores. The main thing to check is that they're made of food-grade plastic -- that won't leach some poisonous polymer onto your plate.

[Huevos del Toro]

What did we do before squeeze bottles?

Does anyone have recommendations on where to get these squeeze bottles, mail-order or otherwise? I've done a Google search but can't discern the quality of these bottles.

I get mine at The Container Store but I opt for the clear one's so I can see what's inside.

[Squeat Mungry]

You might want to check your local hardware store. That's where I get mine.

Cheers,

Squeat

[jsolomon]

What did we do before squeeze bottles?

Does anyone have recommendations on where to get these squeeze bottles, mail-order or otherwise? I've done a Google search but can't discern the quality of these bottles.

Plochman's mustard in your grocery store

[NeroW]

The sauce is there to support the food. The sauce goes on the plate.

Unless it is gravy, in which case it goes on the potatoes.

[jsolomon]

and the turkey and the dressing....

[SiseFromm]

No parsley. No mint. No 6-inch sprig of rosemary. Not unless it complements the other food on the plate.

Don't tell that to Emeril. I've seen that man put entire bunches of mint along side a pie. Piling whole chives all over the place is another trick of his.