SAUCE

SAUCE

A hot or cold seasoned liquid either served with, or used in the cooking of, a dish. The word comes from Latin salsus (salted), since salt has always been the basic condiment. The function of a sauce is to add a flavour to a dish that is compatible with the ingredients. Talleyrand claimed that England had three SAUCES and 360 religions, while France had three religions and 360 SAUCES. In an editorial of Cuisine et Vins de France, Curnosky declared: SAUCES comprise the honour and glory of French cookery. They have contributed to its superiority, or pre-eminence, which is disputed by none. SAUCES are the orchestration and accompaniment of a fine meal, and enable a good chef or cook to demonstrate his talent.

Medieval SAUCES (CARMELINE, DODINE, POIVRADE, ROBERT, etc), which relied on such ancient condiments as GARUM and SPIKENARD, were either very hot or sweet-and-sour. They consisted mainly of spicy stocks based on wine, verjuice, and cooking juices, sometimes blended with toasted breadcrumbs. It was not until the 17^th and 18^th centuries that more refined and aromatic preparations appeared, such as BCHAMEL SAUCE, SOUBRISE, MIREPOIX, DUXELLES, and MAYONNAISE SAUCES.

IT was Carême who began to classify the sauces. The HOT SAUCES, which are by far the more numerous, are subdivided into BROW SAUCES and WHITE SAUCES. The great, or basic, BROWN SAUCES, from which many other are derived, are ESPAGNOLE, DEMIGLACE, and TOMATO SAUSES. The basic WHITE SAUCES are BCHAMEL and VELOUT, and they too have innumerable derivates. COLD SAUCES are usually based on MAYONNAISE or VINAIGRETTE, and they too have many variations. Sauces from other countries, often introduced by French chefs who had worked abroad, gradually increased the classical repertoire (Cumberland, Albert, reform, and Cambridge sauce, sauce à la russe, à litalienne, à la polonaise, etc.). The diversity of resources from the French countryside contributed to a variety of recipes based on a particular ingredient: fresh cream (NORMANDE SAUCE), garlic (AÏOLI), fresh butter (BEURRE BLANC), mustard (DIJONNAISE SAUCE), shallots (BORDELAISE SAUCE), red or white wine (BOURGUIGNONNE SAUCE), onion  (LYONNAISE SAUCE), etc. After the time of Escoffier, there was a tendency toward making lighter sauces. Nowadays, many chefs use mixtures based on CURD CHEESE, YOGHURT, etc.

A SAUCE may be thick or thin; it may be strained or it may contain visible ingredients. It can be used to season raw food (tomatoes with vinaigrette, celery with Rmoulade), it may form part of a cooked dish (gratin à la bchamel, voul-uu-vent financière, salmis of duck, carp Chambord), or it may be served with a cold dish (hake with mayonnaise) or a hot dish chateaubriand barnaise, venison Saint-Hubert, sole normande). Some sauces are part of the dish itself (ragouts, civets, coq au vin, chicken chasseur, etc.), rather than being made separately as an accompaniment. Such sauces may, however, be served separately in a sauceboat or used to coat some other preparation (hard-boiled (hard-cooked) eggs, chauds-froids, fish in scallops shell, etc.).

The choice of equipment is very important. Deep thick-bottomed saucepans should be used, to ensure the proper distribution of heat to prevent the sauce from burning or curdling. The bain-marie is an essential accessory, as well as a metal whisk and a spatula for scraping the residue from the base of the pan. A fine, perfectly smooth, and glossy sauce can be obtained by rubbing it through a sieve (known as tammying). The preparation of sauces requires a certain amount of skill and such as techniques as deglazing, reducing, thickening, preventing a skin forming, emulsifying, thinning with milk, stock, or alcohol, enriched with cream and/or egg yolks, and the judicious use of flavourings. This is why the sauce chef of the kitchen staff is considered to be such a great technician: according to Fernand Point, in the orchestra of a great kitchen, the sauce chef is a soloist.

There are four basic methods for making sauce:

● Mixing together cold ingredients. This is the simplest method, used, for example, for VINAIGRETTE and RAVIGOTE.

● Emulsification, i.e. dispersing an insoluble solid in a liquid so that the mixture will remain stable for a certain period of time. This is used for cold sauces (Mayonnaise and its derivates, AïOLI, GRIBICHE, ROUILLE, and TARTARE SAUCES) and hot ones (HOLLANDAISE, MOUSSELINE, BÈRNAISE, and BEURRE BLANC).

● Making a roux heating together butter and flour. This method is used for BCHAMEL sauce and its various derivates (MORNAY, SOUBIS, etc.). 

● Cooking a stock (veal, game, chicken, or fish) and adding a white or brown roux or some other mixture (a mirepoix, marinade, mushrooms, etc.). This produces VELOUT and ESPAGNOLE SAUCES and their derivatives: ALLEMANDE, IVOIRE, POULETTE, NORMANDE, CARDINAL, and NANTUA SAUCES (white) and BORDELAISE, PRIGUEUX, CHASSEUR, POIVRADE, VENISON SAUCES, etc. (BRWON) These sauces may be thickened with butter, cornflour (cornstach), blood, or egg yolk or flavoured with meat, chicken, or fish glaze.

Depending on the type of dish for which sauce is intended, the most varied ingredients, herbs, and spices can be used. Some dishes are classified accompanied by particular sauces: MUTTON or FISH with CURRY sauce, SALT COD with garlic sauce AïOLI, DUCK with BIGARADE (orange) sauce, GAME with CUMBERLAND sauce, BEEF with piquant sauce etc. Other ingredients include grated cheese, crushed tomatoes, anchovies, duxelles, chopped ham, foie gras, chopped truffles, shellfish, vinegar, fresh cream, red or white wine, alcohol, etc.

The name of the sauce often reveals its ingredients: Prigueux sauce (truffles), Hungarian sauce (Paprika), Nantua sauce (crayfish), etc., but sometimes the sauce is named after its creator: MORNAY, CHORON FOYOT, etc.

□ DESSERT SAUCES:

These may be hot or cold, either served separately or poured over the dessert. Many of these sauces are based on fruit (in the form of a pure, jelly, etc.) and may be flavoured with vanilla or alcohol. Custard cream (flavoured or not) is a popular dessert sauce, usually served with puddings, fruit pies, etc. Chocolate sauce and zabaglione are also used