Sauces

[FaustianBargain]

I am reading the Sauces chapter in my Professional Cooking book. I even had a sauce related dream last night(I kid you not. vrai.) I am *so* loving it.

How do you match the small sauces with various fish/fowl/meat dishes? is there a french standard for this too?

Have you created your own sauce? Did you name it?

p.s. let me share the joy. an excellent sauce matrix.

Edited September 8, 2004 by Lalitha (log)

[Carrot Top]

Hmmm. Lalitha...I am curious about two things.

First of all, the dream. The dream! How can you just say you had a dream and then not tell us about it!!!! Tell us the story of the dream, if you still remember it....

Second, I am also curious as to what it is that is leading you into such fascination with the subject of sauces. Is it the 'building process' which the article you shared described...or is it something else...

Your love for this shows and it is absolutely simply marvellous.

[TJHarris]

I believe that an understanding of the classic sauces of Escoffier and Carreme is essential to the development of the modern era culinairian but...

I think that contemporay cuisine has moved well beyond much of these classics. In the old school there were specific dishes that most of these classic sauces were associated with. Speaking for my self... I look to my sauce as a sort of culinary glue. With my sauces I try to tie the theme ingredients and flavors of the dish together. I use the sauce to offset a flavor charateristic or add balance between sweet and acidic or rich and lean or bitter and tart...

[chromedome]

Like a lot of cooks, I'm ambivalent about the huge repertoire of "classical" sauces. Certainly, it is a very good thing to know the main families of sauces and their derivatives. And, just as certainly, you will seldom be called upon in the real world to know the difference between two finely-distinguished sauces bearing the names of 19th-century celebrities.

Personally I think it's worth knowing a handful of the old warhorses. There's a reason that these sauces have lasted (in some cases) for centuries...they just taste good! Robert, for example, is recognizable in cookbooks going back half a millenium; it's easy to make and it still tastes damned good with pork. In fact, I put it on with a pork roast at my day job, and people loved it.

I've done Poivrade and Bercy and yer basic beurre blanc, among others; all of them solid hits with my clientele. Most of these people had no idea what the sauce was, before I told them; to them it was just a surprisingly tasty lunch option in a busy downtown outlet.

Now mind you, there are a world of other sauces out there to draw on. I've made a variation on avgolemono sauce to go with a leg of lamb; I've done pork adobo to the delight of my Filipino cashier; and a beautiful Romesco sauce to go with a salmon baked in parchment. Improvisations work well, too...I've turned an embarrassment of cherries into a spectacular brandied sauce to go with a pate-stuffed pork loin.

Learn the classics, by all means. Learn their characteristics, and their flavour profiles. Ask yourself why they work the way they do. Then, when you want to create a sauce for your new dish, you'll have a context to work from.

Cool sauce matrix, Lalitha! I'm training a couple of my staff to take over sauce-making duties from me; I'll be sure to e-mail them that bookmark.

[FaustianBargain]

CarrotTop, a freudian analysis of my sauce dream would be scandalous. scan-da-lous.

chromedome, do tell more about the brandied cherry sauce with pate filled pork loin?

Why this fascination? I dont know. At school, we are also taught how to make 'light jus' instead of starch thickened sauces. I have to say that thickened sauces appeal more to me. I took some time thinking about this so I can come up with a smart and meaningful reply, but I could only come up with this.

1.I like thick sauces than 'light jus' because I like the way a thick sauce coats a piece of meat. The 'thickener' acts as a 'glue', I suppose. I dont think they should be completely abandoned. They should make occasional appearances so people dont forget.

2.All of us love watery chicken soup, but we love thick soups more. I generalise, of course. Maybe thickened sauces, as soups, give us a feeling of wellbeing as they are mostly instant carbs. At the risk of sounding like one of George Carlin's most derided foodlines, it is 'hearty'. Anything that feels silky and smooth inside the mouth is desirable. It probably 'sticks' and lingers longer inside your mouth/tongue than light jus'.

3.Sauces grab me because we are kinda discouraged from making thick sauces. Light jus are more modern and healthy. It even looks good on the plate. There could be an aspect of venturing into the forbidden zone. Well, not forbidden..you know what I mean.

4.Blabbering aside, reading about sauces made me appreciate the fact that the juices of the meat that are essentially lost during the cooking process are basically saved by these sauces. The flavour juices would otherwise be lost entirely. Another random, useless, out-of-the-ass generalisation> I like to think that most of us relish the idea of being frugal. We dont even waste the liquid that seeps out of the meat! How wonderful is that! On top of it, we even improvise and creatively make something complementary to the dish! How clever is *that*?

5.Escoffier style classical sauces, regardless of whether or not they have been deemed obsolote, I think they are absolutely wonderful because by the time you run through the entire list of the 'classical sauces', you pretty much master the technique. And as any good chef will tell you, technique is *everything*. Thats what I figured(and quite recently too) from the past two Cordon Bleu terms. It doesnt matter what you cook with what. It doesnt matter how 'creative' you manage to become. All that will come later. But you cant get *anywhere* without mastering technique. The only way to master it is to do it again and again. And again. I hope this new, although late, revelation will help me with the rest of my term.

[Shalmanese]

I think part of the reason I like thicker sauces more is just the damn logistics of it. Every time I've gone to a fancy restaurant and ordered some fancy slice of meat with a "light pan jus", the meat just doesn't soak up the sauce properly and the meat/sauce ratio is skewed. Whats more, because it's a jus, theres so little of it which means that some bites are sauce drenched while others are practically dry. And in the end, I'm left with a puddle of sauce on my plate that's too intense in flavour to enjoy on it's own yet too light to be sucked up by errant vegtables. Call me uncivilised(or rustic if your being polite ;)) but give me a nice bucket of globby gravy and a big hunk of meat and good bread and I'm as happy as a clam.

[Devilkitty]

I am reading the Sauces chapter in my Professional Cooking book. I even had a sauce related dream last night(I kid you not. vrai.) I am *so* loving it.

How do you match the small sauces with various fish/fowl/meat dishes? is there a french standard for this too?

Have you created your own sauce? Did you name it?

p.s. let me share the joy. an excellent sauce matrix.

←

That is a really slick page. Finally, a truly useful application of javascript...

I'd recommend picking up a copy of James Peterson's Sauces if you haven't got it already. As to new ideas for matching sauces to meat/fish/fowl/game, look through Dornenburg & Page, Culinary Artistry. Pick your main item, then treat everything else in the list as a potential sauce ingredient.

[andiesenji]

I agree wholeheartedly that the world of sauces can be extremely fascinating and very addictive.

When one begins to practice the art of saucery (sic) one finds excused to make things that require the sauces, or sometimes one just makes the sauce for practice and uses it as a bread dip.

I have made meals for myself of a sauce and some crusty bread when I did not feel the need to prepare an elaborate meal.

I am not a master of sauces. I took some classes (which intimidated me) and learned the bare basics but when my instructor informed us that there were forty two (42!!!) major sauces that we absolutely had to master, I was set back on my heels. Who knew?

Sauces evolve, constantly, one starts with a "classic" and because one lacks a particular ingredient or is unable to devote the time required by the original, one makes adjustments. Sometimes one creates something that is superior to the original for a particular application.

At one time most fish dishes were inundated with (in my opinion) far too much sauce, to the point that one had difficulty recognizing the type of fish under the sauce.

Then the pendulum swung the other way and the "minimalist" held sway where a piece of fish was served with a thin line of sauce more or less decorating the piece with a couple of artfully arranged blobs on the plate.

This was more of a fashion statement than an actual sauced dish. Of course I am not a fish eater so it did not bother me but what did bother me was ordering an entree that was supposed to come equipped with a sauce and having something arrive at table and needing a magnifying glass to find the sauce.......

On one occasion friends and I had dinner at a restaurant (no longer in business) that served a variety of wild game in addition to unusual meats and fowl.

I was elated to see that they had on the menu roast goose accompanied by Cumberland Sauce!

I ordered it and it duly arrived at the table with what I can only describe as an eyecup sitting on the plate next to the slices of goose which were very good. The eyecup contained the so-called Cumberland sauce, which is a cinch to make, keeps well and is a very inexpensive proposition.

I asked the server for more and was brought a second eyecup and charged 3.00 for it.

The generous serving of goose was excellent and the other diners in my party were happy with their entrees but all felt that the "extras" were not up to par or in sufficient quantity. The goose was accompanied by 3 tiny "broasted" potatoes, 2 baby carrots and two tiny broccoli florets.

This was in contrast with the salad which came in a glass bowl large enough to use as a vegetable serving dish.

I felt they could cut back on the salad and spring for more vegetables to accompany the entrees. And they certainly could have been more generous with the sauces.

Edited September 9, 2004 by andiesenji (log)

[get in my belly]

when i sit down to wright a special i look through james pertersons sauces first then the meal materializes . i love that book its next on my list of books to own the latest was the chocolate deserts by pierre herme damn good book . and my german master exec chef in school would alway come up behind me and say you call that saucing your plate give them more no more give me da plate this is ssssheeet . like theeeees . and he put alot of sauce on his plates . almost like a soup hahahaha that crazy old man . i love you chef

[FaustianBargain]

I am not a master of sauces.  I took some classes (which intimidated me) and learned the bare basics but when my instructor informed us that there were forty two (42!!!) major sauces that we absolutely had to master, I was set back on my heels.  Who knew? 

[...]

I felt they could cut back on the salad and spring for more vegetables to accompany the entrees.  And they certainly could have been more generous with the sauces.

1.First we have the 5 'Mother Sauces' aka leading sauces. Leading sauces are Liquid + thickening agent. At LCB, they stress upon the three important Mothers; Bechamel, Veloute and Espagnole. The fourth significant sauce is Hollandaise, the butter sauce and finally, the stepchild among the leading sauces, Sauce Tomate. From these Mother Sauces you derive 'small sauces'. Small sauces are leading sauces + flavourings. Secondard leading sauces are derived from the Mother Sauces and these inturn are used to create small sauces. Totally there are 6 secondary leading sauces and 36 small sauces. So from 5, we get 42!! How can one not love sauces?!

2.Greens are cheaper than fresh vegetables. Also, salads dont even require cooking! I suppose it just boils down to costs. Although, I do feel that it is not right to present a HUGE bowl of salad and keeping the meat portions small. Consistency is class.

[chromedome]

At one time most fish dishes were inundated with (in my opinion) far too much sauce, to the point that one had difficulty recognizing the type of fish under the sauce. 

Then the pendulum swung the other way and the "minimalist" held sway where a piece of fish was served with a thin line of sauce more or less decorating the piece with a couple of artfully arranged blobs on the plate. 

This was more of a fashion statement than an actual sauced dish. 

←

During my first year at cooking school, in Halifax, I participated in a couple of competitions. My biggest interest (aside from seeing how I stacked up against students from other schools) was to eavesdrop on all the post-competition critiques from the judges.

One of the judges I was particularly interested in hearing was Christophe Luzeux, executive chef at the World Trade & Convention Centre in Halifax. Not only is he an exceptional chef, he competes at the highest level as a member of Culinary Team Canada.

He got onto the subject of sauces with one of my rivals, from the cross-town Akerley campus. He pointed at the plate, which was decorated with two-tone drops (I forget what they were...perhaps drops of reduced balsamic centred in drops larger drops of an infused oil. Something like that, anyway.). He asked the student, "You like the little drops, eh? Tell me...is that your sauce? Or does it just decorate the plate?" The student, seeing the trap in this question, stammered that it was his sauce, he guessed. Luzeux gave him a look, and said, "Is this enough sauce for the food that is on the plate? No, it isn't! If this is your sauce, you need enough for the diner to taste it on his food...every bite. If this is decoration, then the food needs a sauce besides this! It's okay for the drops to be a little bit of extra flavour, it's okay for them to be just a decoration, but there has to be enough sauce for what's on the plate."

Lalitha, as for the pork loin thingie...

We had some pates that hadn't sold, and were nearing their pull date. Not expired yet, you understand, but getting close; and we'd already gotten in a new batch. So we decided to make the next day's carved special a bit...well, special. We butterflied a couple of long pork loins (the store I work for is the offspring of a family hog farm, and produces some of the finest pork in the country) and stuffed them with the pate. Then we tied them up nice and tight to keep the pate from leaking out, and breaded them with a bit of parsley (just for the looks).

Cherry season had just hit, and we'd been overshipped on fresh cherries (the sweet, not the tart). So I pitted a bunch of cherries, and had been planning to take them to the bakery. When we hit on the pate-stuffed loin, though, I thought about putting the cherries with the pork. After all, traditional sauces for pate are frequently fruit-based, like Cumberland.

So I cooked up a big pot of cherries, and then drained the juice off. I made a fairly dark caramel in a big saute pan, and deglazed it (off the flame, natch) with a couple cups of brandy. I stirred that well and let the brandy cook off, then diluted it further with the reduced cherry juice and let it simmer. When I was satisfied that I had the proportions about right, I added some cranberry juice for the acidity (orange would have been good too, but I was looking for colour and clarity). Then I thickened it slightly with a cornstarch slurry, and added some of the cherries back in.

Oh, and since the pate had game and juniper berries in it I wanted something of a pine-y note in there, just under the radar; so I had some cardamom in the cherry juice as it was reducing.

That's about it! We served the pork loin with the cherry sauce and glazed baby carrots and asparagus and (IIRC) orzo pasta. Not a bad lunch for $9.95 CDN, eh? (That's about $6 US)