Transcript Sauces - U3A Site Builder Home Page
The Science of Making Sauces
A sauce is a hot or cold flavoured liquid seasoning that is served with food.
Sauces are pourable pleasures that make the nutritious delicious.
The French say England has 3 sauces and 360 religions while France has 3 religions and 360 sauces.
French Cuisine
The eminence of French cuisine is due directly to the influence of sauces after the French revolution.
Sauces enabled the unemployed cooks to offer their poorer customers tasty dishes flavoured by oil based sauces made from cheap materials.
Key words for a sauce
A sauce must provide flavour
It should have pleasing thickness/consistency to allow flavour to linger on food & in mouth
Key words are
Flavour & Thickness or Consistency
Sauce Flavour = Stocks
A sauce must have concentrated flavour because it is consumed in small amounts
Flavour is best obtained from stocks.
Meat & vegetable stocks are the foundation of many sauces; they are infused water which can be adjusted to any strength.
Stock’s Three Components
1- Major flavour ingredients: Bones & meat for meat stocks or vegetables for vegi stocks
2- Water or pre-prepared stock
3- Herbs, spices & mirepoix to add aromatic flavour
Meat Stocks
Use small amount of meat to convey
umami taste
and bones with plenty of connective tissues to give stock
body
by converting the inedible
collagen to gelatine
.
Savoury/Umami Taste
Umami taste is generated by proteins or amino acids like glutamates found in beef, lamb, parmesan cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms…etc.
Anchovies intensify umami/savoury flavour of glutamate many times because they have Inosinate . (Worcester sauce & Maggi liquid seasoning)
Collagen
Collagen consists of three protein chains twisted around each other in the form of a triple helix.
Collagen is slowly converted to gelatine between 70 o C and 80 o C , hence many hours of simmering.
Cuts of Beef
Meat Stock
1-Blanch bones & meat. (cold water to remove scum?) 2-Brown meat, bones & mirepoix for about 30 minutes. (for brown stock only), then deglaze 3-Boil then simmer for ~ 3hours. (Pressure cooker: 1hr) 4-Add the mirepoix, herbs and spices during the last hour? Finally strain (White Stock- Don’t brown)
Vegetable Stock
Simmer the vegetables in water for about an hour.
Use sweet vegetables like celery, onions, leeks and carrots. Leeks are good because they give the stock body.
Mushrooms lend stocks a savoury/umami quality. Maggi ?
Sweating the finely chopped vegetables in oil first before simmering brings out their flavour because the increased surface area enhances the extraction of their aroma chemicals which are soluble in oil.
Strain
Fats & Oils
Fat & oil are important components of many sauces
They lend viscosity and cause sauces to linger on food and in mouth.
They make foods feel smooth and creamy.
Atoms react with each other through their electrons in such a way that each atom acquires the same electronic configuration of its nearest inert gas in the periodic table. Neon, with its 8 outer electrons, is the nearest inert gas to carbon.
Carbon atom has four electrons in its outer shell. It needs four more to form stable molecules
Carbon bonds with four atoms by sharing one electron with each to form
saturated
bonds as in methane. Saturated bond is represented by a dash (-)
Carbon can also form double, Unsaturated , bonds by sharing 2 electrons with another carbon. Now, the carbon atom is bonded to three atoms. The unsaturated bonds, represented by =, are shorter than the saturated bonds.
Life is carbon based because of the carbon atom’s ability to bond with itself and many other atoms like oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur, chlorine, fluorine, bromine…etc.
Fats & Oils
Organic Acid + Alcohol
Ester + Water
Fats/oils are tri-esters of glycerine, hence triglycerides
Glycerine =
Triglycerides Glycerine + 3Acids
Triglyceride + 3Water
Glycerine + 3Acids
Fat/oil + 3Water
Omega Acid & Trans Fat
Trans Fat
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Trans Fats pack as solids because of their linear chains
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We have enzymes for Cis Fats only
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Trans Fats (synthetic/partially hydrogenated) stay longer as solids in blood
Heart attack & Stroke??
Oil Safflower Sunflower Grape seed Corn/Soya Sesame Rape-Canola Olive Butter Coconut Palm Polyunsaturated Monounsat 72% 19% 75% 13% 71% 59% 45% 39% 8% 4% 3% 2% 17% 24% 42% 54% 75% 30% 6% 13% Saturated 9% 12% 12% 17% 13% 7% 17% 55% 91% 85%
Glucose
Corn Syrup has free Fructose-Glucose
Muscle cells store glucose as glycogen . (animal starch)
Liver cells store some glucose as glycogen some to fat. and convert
When you consume high-fructose corn syrup (~ 60% free fructose & 40% free glucose) , much of the glucose in it is burnt or converted to glycogen .
But the fructose is processed almost totally in the liver which converts it into fat .
The Five Mother Sauces
A sauce is a flavoured and thickened liquid
Sauces are classified according to the liquids and thickening agents used in their preparations.
Mother Sauce Espagnole Velouté Béchamel Liquid Meat stock Chicken/fish stock Thickener Brown roux Blond roux Milk (no stock) White roux Hollandaise/Mayo Lemon, vinegar, Butter/oil with egg yolk water Tomato Water, stock Flour, Tomato puree, reduction
Water Based Sauces
Water is the basic ingredient of nearly all foods, stocks and sauces.
Giving a sauce the right consistency means making it less watery by dispersing thickening agents.
Thickening agents are obstructing agents, they stop the water from flowing freely.
Three Basic Ways of Thickening Water 1- Adding solids, like flour, suspended in water (slurries) or fat (Roux and Beurre Manie) .
2- Forming stable oil in water emulsions . 3- Reduction – Used to make gravies. Became very popular in UK during 1980s.
Flour-Starch
Many sauces owe their consistency to flour which is a mixture of starch & protein (corn flour = starch)
Starch molecules are long chains of thousands of glucose molecules linked together in linear chains called
amylose
or branched compact chains called amylopectin .
The linear chains are better thickening agents because they sweep through a larger volume of liquid and are more likely to collide with others.
Starch Gelation
Starch molecules are packed inside starch granules.
In 50°C- 80°C range (Gelation Range) starch granules absorb lots of water, swell up many times their original size and begin to leak amylose.
Linear amylose molecules interact with each other to form a 3D fishnet that traps water.
Therefore, if we add dry flour to a hot liquid we may get lumps!
Four Ways for Incorporating Starch into Sauces
1- Slurries
2- Beurre Manie
3- Sautéing: Maillard reaction
4- Roux
Slurries – First Method
Disperse starch granules in cold water before they encounter high temperature.
The separated starch granules gelate and release linear amylose in the hot liquid.
It is better to thicken sauce with cold slurry before serving because thickening breaks down after extended cooking. (Corn Flour!)
Roux and Beurre Manie??
Water and oil are insoluble in each other.
10% of plain flour consists of proteins that combine with water to form sticky clumps of the oil repellent gluten.
If we add just flour to the oil-water mixture, we end up with sticky and soft lumps wallowing in a pool of liquid grease.
How They Work
Mixing the flour with the oil/fat first, covers each grain of flour with a water repellent coating.
Water can’t be absorbed by flour to form gluten or cause gelation and the flour grains become widely dispersed in water.
Thus, we persuaded to mix together homogenously by using the flour as the carrier of the oil.
the flavoured oil and the water
Beurre Manie – Second Method
It is a paste of equal weights of flour and butter.
Butter melts and releases the greased starch granules whose swelling and gelation is retarded by the water repelling grease.
It should be used as a last minute resort; good redeemer of thin sauces.
Sautéing - Third Method
Dust meat with flour before sautéing.
Large surface area coated with flour
Flour is coated with meat & sautéing fat
Sautéing causes the Maillard reaction
Roux- Fourth Method
Excellent thickening/flavouring agent for milk and vegetable or meat stocks.
Flour cooked in butter fat where the butter to flour ratio by weight is 1:1.
The thickening ratio is ~ 10-7 parts of liquid to one part of roux.
Avoid lumps : FOLLOW COLD TO HOT RULE???
Roux
There are three kinds of roux a- White b- Blond c- Brown-
Use vegetable oil or lard & plain flour
White Roux
Whisk flour into melted butter followed by gently heating the mixture for about 60-90 sec.
It is an excellent thickener of soups & milk
Béchamel sauce roux.
: Versatile sauce prepared by thickening flavoured milk with white
Béchamel Sauce
Simplest sauce because it doesn't require stock.
Can be infused with many flavours.
It is the base sauce for creamy soups, creamy pasta, potato salad, cheese sauce, mustard sauce, cauliflower cheese, macaroni cheese. Lasagne, moussaka, fish-pie…etc.
Blond Roux Prep
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Melt the butter over medium to low heat. Then whisk in the flour and cook the resulting mixture for about 4-5 minutes until the flour turns into a pale straw colour.
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Lard produces a roux with a nicer flavour?
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Blond roux is generally used in the preparation of velouté sauces.
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Velouté is a velvety sauce which is basically a thickened
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poultry, veal or fish stock.
There are two types of velouté
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A-Classic Type:- Prepared by stirring hot stock into cold blond roux. Derived Sauces: Curry (curry powder, coconut milk, cream), Supreme (double cream), Allemande (egg yolk & cream), Fish sauce (white wine & double cream)…etc.
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B -Modern Type:- Reduce a mixture of wine, sautéed aromatic vegetables, stock and double cream and simmer until reduced by < 1/3.
Brown Roux
Use oil or clarified butter & plain flour.
Gently heat flour – oil mixture for 20 – 30 minutes until mixture is brown (dextrin).
Adds flavour to gravies, meat dishes, Cajun dishes.
Not a good thickener.
Tea Break
Thickening with Fat/Oil Emulsions
Emulsion can only be made from two liquids that don’t dissolve in each other with the help of emulsifiers.
Oil-in-water emulsion is a dispersion of oil in water.
Dispersed, but stabilized , oil droplets act as the thickeners of the continuous water phase.
How do you prepare a stable emulsion?
Add ingredients in the right order.
Begin with the continuous phase mixed with an emulsifier, then SLOWLY whisk in the dispersed phase in order to emulsify the formed fine droplets.
The three basic emulsion sauces are
Mayonnaise: Oil-in-Water
Hollandaise: Oil-in-Water
Vinaigrette : Water-in-Oil
Mayonnaise: Oil-in-Water
Mayonnaise is a sauce in which a large number of oil droplets are separated by sheets of water.
It is prepared by whisking an egg yolk with a teaspoon of water while slowly adding about cupful of vegetable oil, preferably olive oil.
Egg yolk contains an emulsifier called lecithin.
How It Works?
Whisking generates millions of oil droplets.
Egg yolk contains an emulsifier called lecithin.
Lecithin is a molecule with a head that has an affinity to water (hydrophilic- water loving but oil hating) and a tail which has an affinity to oil (hydrophobic- water hating but oil loving) .
How It Works
Lecithin molecules coat each oil droplet by burying their oil loving tails in it while their water loving heads repel other oil droplets from coalescing with the one attached to their oil loving tails.
Thus, the oil droplets are persuaded to stay dispersed in the water phase.
Emulsifiers/Stabilizers
Large proteins obstruct oil droplets and act as stabilizers- Casein in milk, proteins in tomato puree.
Pulverised plant tissue and gum as in mustard and tomato puree.
Large molecules like starch act as stabilizers of emulsions.
If there is too much oil and not enough water, the emulsion will break and the oil droplets will merge with each.
Oil : Water ~ 3 : 1 A broken mayo can be reconstituted by whisking egg yolk or water into it.
Hollandaise: Oil-in-Water
Hollandaise is a sauces like mayo except that hot butter is used instead of oil; it is emulsified butter sauces. (Hot Mayo?)
It is made by slowly whisking clarified butter into warm egg yolk, usually flavoured with lemon juice or vinegar/wine, salt and pepper
Hollandaise
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You flavour the vinegar/lemon/wine by reducing it with a mixture consisting of flavours that pair well with butter such as the following ingredients peppercorn, mace, bay leaf, chopped spring onions, tarragon, mint and other herbs; add the salt during the reduction to make sure it dissolves.
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Since it is a warm sauce it should be served with hot food, unlike mayonnaise which is normally served with cold dishes.
Important Factor
Heat egg yolk to below 70°C (~ 170°F)
Egg yolk is 16% protein, 26% fat and 9% lecithin
Heating yolk with acid minimizes its curdling; yolk can be heated to ~ 90°C (~195°F) ??????
Finished sauce should be kept at ~ 60°C
Can be turned into many sauces by changing an ingredient
Classic Hollandaise sauce pairs well with white fish, boiled eggs, boiled asparagus and broccoli. Béarnaise sauce goes very well with fillet steaks or chicken. If mint is used instead of tarragon the resulting sauce, called Paloise, pairs well with lamb. Rescue curdled sauce by whisking into gently heated egg yolk.
Vinaigrette: Water-in-Oil
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The basic vinaigrette is prepared by mixing about ¼ cup of say red wine vinegar with salt & pepper then whisking the mixture into about 3/4 cup of olive oil containing mustard powder/Dijon.
Mustard helps to form a water-in-oil emulsion as well as add flavour.
Lettuce should be dry!!
You can also flavour the basic mixture with honey/sugar, herbs, garlic, lemons…etc
Thickening by Reduction: Gravies?
A range of flavoursome sauces/gravies that don’t include the use of starch or egg yolks can be prepared by deglazing followed by reduction.
Deglazing: Meat is first sautéed/roasted in a pan.
Meat is removed and wine/stock is added to pan to sop up and dissolve the crusty and caramelized bits.
The mixture is then simmered until it reduces to the desired consistency.
Finally, it is flavoured and enriched
Enriching Sauces
Thickeners tend to reduce flavour intensity
Enhance sauces by adding splash of port or Madeira or a teaspoon of mustard or red-current jelly.
Sauces are generally enriched, off the heat , by adding a knob of butter??
Sharp flavours can be improved by the addition of cream. Double cream should be used??
Enriching with Butter
Butter is a convertible emulsion which makes it so useful for enriching sauces.
To convert butter to cream we must melt butter in small amount of water; water must be the continuous phase.
The fat molecules will be surrounded by the emulsifiers in the butter’s water which will merge with the cooking water.
Because there aren’t many emulsifiers the fat droplet coating is fragile and will leak oil about 60 o C (140 o F). Don’t reheat
Incorporate one volume of butter to 3 volume of liquid off the heat.
Beurre Blanc This sauce, which is traditionally served with fish, was discovered in the 19 th century by accident, when a French chef forgot to include egg yolk while preparing béarnaise sauce.
It is a hot sauce based on wine and vinegar reduced with shallots and finished by whisking
cold butter
into it.
Beurre blanc will separate at about 58 o C.
Milk
Milk is a liquid that contains fat globules (~4%), protein bundles and sugar (lactose)
Milk has two basic groups of proteins, caseins and whey (4:1), which are resistant to heat but are distinguished by their sensitivities to acids
Caseins coagulate into solid mass in acidic solutions while the whey proteins stay suspended in solution
The fat globules are kept apart by phospholipid membranes (emulsifiers) and proteins (stabilizers)
Why Double Cream?
Casein proteins & cream are stable to boiling temperatures.
However, casein is sensitive to acidity.
Many pan sauces contain acidic wines used for deglazing.
Use double creams since they contain little casein because of their high fat content.
Asian Sauces/Casseroles
Full bodied stew is produced by long simmering of chunks of browned meat, on marrow bones, in a base sauce.
Vegetables are added when meat is nearly ready and then cooked until both are tender.
Base sauce:
Fry chopped onions, garlic, (ginger for Indian) together with spices (cumin and coriander with others).
Water and chopped tomatoes are then added and mixture simmered for 20 minutes.
Finally mixture may be blitzed.
Sauce Thickeners
Mid-East: Tomato puree, lentils, flour
Indian: Coconut cream, chickpeas flour and yogurt, chickpea flour or flour, lentils
Reduction: Remove meat and reduce stew, add meat and serve.
Taste of many casseroles improve overnight as flavours mature & permeate ingredients
The End
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Béchamel Based Sauces
Mornay Sauce: Whip three egg yolks in 50ml double cream and mix with about 120g of Béchamel sauce. Allow the mixture to bubble for about one minute and shower with 100g of grated cheddar. Pair with poached egg or vegetables.
Soubise Sauce: Fry chopped onions in 30g melted butter for about 5 minutes. Blitz the cooked onions with a blender. Add the Béchamel sauce and bring the mixture to boil over low heat. Pass the sauce through a fine-meshed sieve into a saucepan and mix with 150ml double cream and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Lovely with roast chicken.
Velouté Based Sauces Allemande sauce: Thicken a veal velouté with a liaison of egg yolk and double cream; the sauce should be served immediately to stop the yolk from coagulating. Best with poached eggs or chicken as well as fish when fish stock is used in preparing the velouté.
Supreme Sauce: The sauce is made from a velouté made with chicken stock reduced with cream. Some use white wine and others use a liaison of egg yolk and double cream. Best with roast pork/chicken