Sauce for the goose .. AND the gander:

[Gifted Gourmet]

This thread is a spinoff of a previous thread "What your condiment says about you" ... which got so long and missed out on so many possible choices that it became evident to Tommy and me that the situation needed to be expanded and explored in further depth.

The word "sauce" is a French word that means a relish to make our food more appetizing....  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.

but nowadays, we use sauces to enhance and enrich our meals ... not to disguise poor ones .. exception? my home ...

Hence, sauces ... what is your favorite sauce?

Do you order it in restaurants because it is easier or make it at home?

Why did you select this particular choice?

[tommy]

*now* we're talking sauces.

i know it's pedestrian at this point, but i go through an awful lot of srirachi. usually on sausage and french fries.

Edited August 5, 2004 by tommy (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

i go through an awful lot of srirachi.

and that would be this , perhaps:

Sriracha: made from sun ripened chilies which are ground into a smooth paste along with garlic..... excellent in soups, sauces, pastas, pizzas, hot dogs, or on anything else, to give a deliciously spicy taste??

[GG Mora]

Mmmmm. Sriracha. It keeps me sane in a land of spice-pussies: make it tame for the masses – I can load mine up with Sriracha.

Edited to add: I like my goose with a nice, tart apricot sauce.

Edited August 5, 2004 by GG Mora (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

and just who among us can resist the tart, crisply flavored, ruby-red shimmer of a freshly-made raspberry coulis under a creamy slice of cheesecake??

[tryska]

gravy.

[eunny jang]

are we talking condiments, or SAUCE?

I would drink a proper red wine pan sauce from the cooking of a really delicious piece of meat, sweet with shallots and mounted with not-too-much butter.

[Gifted Gourmet]

gravy.

although I have no beef with your response, tryska, I am also not chicken to ask: what kind of gravy are we talking about here?? your answers are usually brief and succinct but inquiring minds do want to know!!

or let's just play "Name that Gravy"!

[Pan]

I like Sambal Oelek (the variety without shrimp paste in it) and use it as my standby hot sauce.

If that counts as a condiment rather than sauce, I can't pick a favorite sauce as such.

[tryska]

any gravy works for me gg - brown, turkey (no giblets please), mushroom, red eye, milk, sausage.......

one of my best meals ever was toast and kipper snacks with mushroom gravy.

Edited August 5, 2004 by tryska (log)

[evilhomer]

we go through many jars of this thai-ish condiment which is thick and syrupy with lots of chilies and sugar. Also a big fan of hp sauce, thank god it's now available outside the house of parliament.

[hannnah]

and just who among us can resist the tart, crisply flavored, ruby-red shimmer of a freshly-made raspberry coulis under a creamy slice of cheesecake??

Me. Raspberry coulis is an abomination on the face of decent desserts.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Me. Raspberry coulis is an abomination on the face of decent desserts.

Not so much "on the face of" as much as "under the tuchas of"...

[hannnah]

Me.  Raspberry coulis is an abomination on the face of decent desserts.

Not so much "on the face of" as much as "under the tuchas of"...

Depending on how crazy they got with the squeeze bottle.

[andiesenji]

Duxelles, which may not be a sauce in the true meaning of the word but I use it as such, is my runaway favorite.

Green peppercorn sauce and Hunter sauce are my next favorites in the classic lines.

and of course the Thai sweet chile sauce of which I have waxed rhapsodic on other threads.

Edited August 5, 2004 by andiesenji (log)

[bleachboy]

Remoulade!

[andiesenji]

And for that pesky goose - Cumberland sauce.....

[johnnyd]

The Thai Sweet Chili sauce I use is MAE PLOY. We go through a bottle a month!

Tommy:

I should send YOU a 10spot for not realizing you make your own sriracha, dee-yam!

[Jinmyo]

and just who among us can resist the tart, crisply flavored, ruby-red shimmer of a freshly-made raspberry coulis under a creamy slice of cheesecake??

Me. Raspberry coulis is an abomination on the face of decent desserts.

Me.

A "decent dessert" would be cheese.

[mrbigjas]

and just who among us can resist the tart, crisply flavored, ruby-red shimmer of a freshly-made raspberry coulis under a creamy slice of cheesecake??

Me. Raspberry coulis is an abomination on the face of decent desserts.

Me.

A "decent dessert" would be cheese.

me four. a 'decent dessert' can be cheese, or liquor. or both.

[andiesenji]

The Thai Sweet Chili sauce I use is MAE PLOY. We go through a bottle a month!

My favorite brand also. I buy it by the case from my local Phillipine market,(picked up a case this morning). I use a fair amount in the mustard I make and in the various ketchups, chutneys and other home made condiments. Jonny's regular price for the 25 fl. oz (32 oz by weight) bottle is $1.99 but when I buy a case I get it for $1.29 which is cheaper than it would cost me to make from scratch. Of course I buy a lot of other stuff too, I am a good customer. This time it was a new bottle of fish sauce, (Patis brand), sweet soy sauce, mushroom flavored soy sauce, a jug of rice vinegar, hot and spicy banana ketchup, a can of jack fruit, four bags of frozen coconut juice/pulp, a stack of banana leaves and a bag each of sweet red rice and sweet white rice.

Then went next door to the Phillipine bakery and bought a couple of pork buns. (Guess what they will be dipped in?) and 4 empanadas (chicken) for my lunch.

I also bought a jar of a new item Jonny showed me, a Korean BBQ sauce - Bulgogi Marinade, Korean Pear, 15.8%. Product of So. Korea. Anyone tried this one yet?

[phaelon56]

and just who among us can resist the tart, crisply flavored, ruby-red shimmer of a freshly-made raspberry coulis under a creamy slice of cheesecake??

Me. Raspberry coulis is an abomination on the face of decent desserts.

Me.

A "decent dessert" would be cheese.

"decent" as in not scandalous or "decent" as in not so bad? Surely there must be some decent desserts other than cheese. I love cheese but can think of hundreds of non-cheese desserts that really do it for me. Very few include sauce.

[Jinmyo]

and just who among us can resist the tart, crisply flavored, ruby-red shimmer of a freshly-made raspberry coulis under a creamy slice of cheesecake??

Me. Raspberry coulis is an abomination on the face of decent desserts.

Me.

A "decent dessert" would be cheese.

"decent" as in not scandalous or "decent" as in not so bad? Surely there must be some decent desserts other than cheese. I love cheese but can think of hundreds of non-cheese desserts that really do it for me. Very few include sauce.

"Decent" as in not an insult to everything that one has eaten and the numberless efforts that has gone into it on the part of, to mention just a few, the cook or chef, the staff if there is one, the shopkeepers who chose it, the farmers that grew it, the seeds that exerted themselves to grow as bones and flesh or roots and leaves, the gravitational mass of the earth in its relationship to other bodies relative to the sun that makes life possible. Desserts are casual nihilism.

(Don't mind me, I'm an extremist when it comes to desserts and their place in dining. I don't believe they have one and do believe that they are the anti-Cuisine and their number is sweet-sweet-sweet.)

Concentrated or large quantities of sugar close and numb the palate (which is why a bit of sugar can be used to adjust the acidity of a tomato sauce or to round the edges of chiles). The usual dessert pushes away the flavours of the meal like someone pushing away from the table to just go on to the next thing, which will be ignored as much as possible as well.

(See? Extreme. Again. My apologies; unless you found that as funny as I did.)

By "decent", I mean a finishing a meal leisurely with a cheese course such as a 10 year cheddar, some chevre, camembert, Epoisses, perhaps Stilton, or slices of grana with balsmico.

Ahem.

Back to sauces.

Any sauce that one enjoys can be enjoyed more completely and deeply by learning how to make it.

(Was that too extreme?)

[tommy]

i go through an awful lot of srirachi.

and that would be this , perhaps:

Sriracha:

i go through a lot of that, too.

[JAZ]

Hollandaise.