BASIC SAUCE

PREPARATION

FUNCTION OF SAUCE
Sauce: A flavorful liquid, usually thickened, used to

season, flavor, and enhance other foods.

A sauce adds the following qualities to foods:

Moistness

Flavor

Richness

Appearance (color and shine)

Interest and appetite appeal

STRUCTURE OF SAUCE

The major sauces

are made of three
kinds of
ingredients:
1. A liquid, the body of the

sauce
2. A thickening agent
3. Additional seasoning and
flavoring ingredients

Leading Sauces
Liquid + thickening agent = leading sauce
Leading sauce + additional flavorings = small sauce

Standards of Quality for Sauces:

1.

Consistency and body

2.

Flavor

3.

Appearance

Finishing
Heavy cream

Used to give flavor and richness to sauce.

Monter au beurre

is to finish with butter.

Add a few pieces of softened butter to the hot sauce.

Swirl them in until melted.

The sauce should then be served immediately.

FIVE BASIC MOTHER SAUCE

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Espagnole sauce (Brown sauce)

Bechamel sauce ( White sauce)
Veloute sauce
Tomato sauce
Hollandaise sauce

Espagnole Sauce (Brown Sauce)

Espagnole sauce is

prepared by bolstering a
brown veal stock with
additional roasted
mirepoix, tomato pincage
and aromatics, and
thickening it with roux.

A basic formula for 1 gal/3.84 L Brown Sauce

- 5.75 L Brown Stock
- 1.81 additional roasted bones
-

and trim
454 g large-cut mirepoix, well
browned
Oil for browning bones, trim
and mirepoix
113 g tomato paste
340 g roux
1 sachet depices/bouquet
garni

1.
2.

3.

4.

5.

Brown the trim/bones and

mirepoix.
Cook the tomato paste untill
rust color. Then add the
brown stock.
Add the sachet or other
aromatics as the flavor.
Simmer the sauce until
desired flavor.
Thicken the sauce with
roux.
Strain the sauce using a
fine-mesh sieve or a double
thickness of cheesecloth.

Bechamel Sauce (white sauce)

Bchamel is made by

thickening hot milk with

a simple white roux. The
sauce is then flavored
with onion, cloves and
nutmeg and simmered
until it is creamy and
velvety smooth.

Chicken Velout
Velout is another relatively simple mother sauce.
Velout sauce is made by thickening white stock with

roux and then simmering it for a while.

While the chicken velout, made with chicken stock,
is the most common type, there is also a veal velout
and fish velout.

Chicken Velout
4.25 L CHICKEN STOCK
180 ml clarified butter or
vegetable oil
WHITE MIREPOIX
-2 oz / 60 g small-dice onions
-2 oz / 60 g small-dice leek
-2 oz / 60 g small-dice celery
-2 oz / 60 g small-dice parsnips
8 oz / 225 g all-purpose flour
sachet depices, containing 2 to 3
parsley stems, 12 tsp/2 ml thyme,
12 tsp/2 ml
cracked black peppercorns, 1 bay
leaf, and 1 garlic clove salt, as
needed ground white pepper, as
needed
White or blond roux

1.
2.
3.
4.

5.

Sweat the aromatics in fat.

Any meat trim included should
be gently cooked with them.
A prepared roux is whisked into
the simmering liquid.
Add sachet or other aromatics
and simmer for 30 minutes,
stirring frequently and tasting
throughout the cooking time.
Strain the sauce.

Tomato Sauce
Tomato sauce is a generic

term used to describe any

sauce that is based mainly on
tomatoes.
Tomato sauces can be made
several ways. They may be
raw, or they may be cooked,
anywhere from ten minutes to
several hours.
In some versions, olive oil is
used as the only cooking fat.

For others, rendered bacon is

required.
Some recipes call for roasted
veal bones; others are made
strictly from tomatoes and the
desired vegetables.
Some tomato sauces are pured
until smooth; others are left
chunky. Escoffiers tomato sauce
relied on roux as a thickener.

A basic formula for 3.84 L

tomato sauce
- 5.44 kg fresh tomato
- 60 ml cooking oil
- 340 g minced onion
- 28 g garlic
- Salt and pepper

Cook the onion until tender

and to the desired color

before adding the
tomatoes.
Add the tomatoes and any
remaining ingredients and
simmer until the flavor is
fully developed.
Stir frequently, skimming
and tasting throughout the
cooking time.
Puree the sauce (if desired)
using a blender.

Hollandaise Sauce
Hollandaise sauce is

prepared by emulsifying
melted or clarified butter
and water (in the form of an
acidic reduction and/or
lemon juice) with partially
cooked egg yolks.
Since the largest part of a
hollandaise is butter, the
success or failure of the
sauce depends not only on
skillfully combining egg
yolks, water, acid, and
butter into a rich, smooth
sauce, but also on the
quality of the butter itself.

 A basic formula for 10 portion

Make a reduction by cook the

batch of Hollandaise Sauce

4 egg yolks
360 ml melted butter or
clarified butter.
Reduction made from white
wine or cider vinegar, minced
shallot and peppercorns.
Lemon juice
Salt

vinegar/white with the

peppercorn.
Then cool and strain the
reduction in a stainless steel
bowl.
Add the egg yolk to the
reduction and whisk over
barely simmering water until
thickened and warm.
Add the butter slowly in a thin
stream, whisking constantly is
required.
The sauce will begin to
thicken as more butter is
blended in.

Small Sauces
A sauce that is derived from a mother sauce and has
flavorings and seasonings added to create a new
sauce. Also referred to as a "secondary sauce."

Standard Quality for Sauces

Consistency and body
- Smooth with no lumps, not too thick or pasty, but
thick enough to coat the food lightly.
2. Flavor
- Distinctive but well balanced flavor.
3. Appearance
- Smooth with a good shine/good color for its type.
1.

Finishing Technique
1. REDUCTION

i. Using reduction to concentrate basic

flavors. (The sauce become more concentrated
and more flavorful)
ii. Using reduction to adjust textures.
(Concentrating a sauce by reduction also thickens
it because only the water evaporated, not other
solids)
iii. Using reduction to add new flavors. (ex: make
a reduction of white wine with peppercorn)

Cont..
2. STRAINING
- To remove any graininess in the sauce.
3. DEGLAZING
- To deglaze means to swirl a liquid in a saute pan or
other pan to dissolve cooked particles of food
remaining on the bottom.

Cont..
4. ENRICHING
i. Liaison be a thickening agent, a liaison of
egg yolks and cream is used to finish
a
sauce bygiving it extra richness and
smoothness.
ii. Heavy cream used to give flavor and
richness to saucess.
iii. Butter a useful enriching techniques, give extra
shine and smoothness. Finishing with butter
(monter au beurre).

Cont..
5. Seasoning
i. Salt
ii. Lemon juice
iii. Cayenne/pepper
iv. Sherry/madeira.