"In the orchestra of a great kitchen, the sauce chef is a soloist." - Fernand Point

What is that sauce for anyway…

Sauce is used to:  add moisture  add texture  add flavor  add richness to a dish  enhance the appearance  stimulate the appetite

Sauce Quality Factors • • • • • • Color Opacity Luster Taste Texture Consistency 4

5 Mother or Grand Sauces

Sauce

Béchamel Tomato Espagnole

Liquid

Milk Stock Brown Stock

Thickener

White Roux Roux/Reduction/Puree Brown Roux Hollandaise Velouté Butter White Stock Egg Yolk Blond Roux

Compound Sauces • Compound sauces are leading sauces with other ingredients & flavors added to it 6

Compound Sauces • • • • • Bechamel Espagnole Tomato Meat Sauce Hollandaise Bearnaise Veloute Cheddar cheese Mushroom Cream

Hollandaise • • • • • •

Hollandaise will separate:

Butter is added too fast Butter is too hot Egg yolk to butter ratio is incorrect

(

5 egg yolks to 1 lb. of clarified butter) Sauce gets too cold Sauce gets too hot Served on top of very hot product 8

How can you thicken a sauce?

1) Time - Reduction 2) Thickener - Flour, Cornstarch, Arrowroot, Roux 3) Puree of starchy vegetable

Thickening Agents Roux  Equal parts by weight of fat and flour cooked together used to thicken liquids  Butter  Bread or AP flour  Sift flour 10

Thickening Agents Roux  White  Blond  Brown

What’s so important about Roux?

Be sure that the roux and liquid temperatures are different, hot liquid and cold (room temperature) roux or cold liquid and hot roux to help prevent lumping.

Add one to the other gradually and whip constantly to work out the lumps. The preferred method is to add room temperature roux to boiling liquid.

Roux types • White Roux - Least amount of cooking time (3 –5 minutes) Example: Béchamel Sauce • Blond Roux - Takes on a light golden color (5 –6 minutes) Example: Veloute Sauce • Brown Roux - Nutty Aroma / dark brown color (15 - 20 minutes) Example: Espagnole Sauce 13

Thickening Agents Cornstarch: • Equal parts cold liquid to cornstarch • • • Blended mixture is called a slurry Add slurry to hot liquid Thickens immediately

Why no flour and water?