Learning Outcome 3 Prepare Sauces Required for Menu Item
Sauces
One of the important components of a dish is the sauce. Sauces serve a
particular function in the composition of a dish. These enhance the taste of the food
to be served as well as add moisture or succulence to food that are cooked dry.
Sauces also enhance the appearance of a dish by adding luster and sheen. A sauce
that includes a flavor complementary to a food brings out the flavor of that food. It
defines and enriches the overall taste and its texture. Sauce is a fluid dressing for
poultry, meat, fish, dessert and other culinary products.
Sauce is a flavorful liquid, usually thickened that is used to season, flavor and
enhance other foods. It adds:
1. Moistness 4. Appearance (color and shine)
2. Flavor 5. Appeal
3. Richness
Basic Sauces for Meat, Vegetables, and Fish
1. White sauce - Its basic ingredient is milk which is thickened with flour enriched
with butter.
2. Veloute sauce- Its chief ingredients are veal, chicken and fish broth, thickened
with blonde roux.
3. Hollandaise – It is a rich emulsified sauce made from butter, egg yolks, lemon
juice and cayenne.
Emulsion – (as fat in milk) consists of liquid dispersed with or without an
emulsifier in another liquid that usually would not mix together.
4. Brown sauce / Espagnole – It is a brown roux-based sauce made with margarine
or butter, flavor and brown stock.
5. Tomato – It is made from stock (ham/pork) and tomato products seasoned with
spices and herbs.
A. Variation of Sauces
1. Hot Sauces – made just before they are to be used.
2. Cold sauces – cooked ahead of time, then cooled, covered, and placed
in the refrigerator to chill.
B. Thickening Agents
Thickening agent – thickens sauce to the right consistency. The sauce
must be thick enough to cling lightly to the food.
Starches are the most commonly used thickeners for sauce making.
Flour is the principal starch used. Other products include cornstarch, arrowroot,
waxy maize, pre-gelatinized starch, bread crumbs, and other vegetables and
grain products like potato starch and rice flour.
Starches thicken by gelatinization, which is the process by which starch
granules absorb water and swell many times their original sizes.
Starch granules must be separated before heating in liquid to avoid
lumping. Lumping occurs because the starch on the outside of the lump quickly
gelatinizes into a coating that prevents the liquid from reaching the starch inside.
Starch granules are separated in two ways:
• Mixing the starch with fat. Example: roux
• Mixing the starch with a cold liquid. Example: slurry
Roux – is a cooked mixture of equal parts by weight of fat and flour. 1. Fat
A. Clarified butter. Using clarified butter results to finest sauces
because of its flavor.
B. Margarine. Used as a substitute for butter because of its lower
cost.
C. Animal fat. Chicken fat, beef drippings and lard.
D. Vegetable oil and shortening. Can be used for roux, but it
adds no flavor.
2. Flour
The thickening power of flour depends on
its starch content. Bread flour is
commonly used in commercial cooking. It
is sometimes browned for use in brown
roux. Heavily browned flour has only 1/3
the thickening power of not brown flour.
A roux must be cooked so that the sauce does not have a raw,
starchy taste of flour. The kinds of roux differ on how much they are
cooked.
• White roux – cooked just enough to cook the raw taste of
flour; used for béchamel and other white sauces based on
milk.
• Blond roux – cooked little longer to a slightly darker color;
used for veloutes´.
• Brown roux – cooked to a light brown color and a nutty
aroma. Flour may be browned before adding to the fat. It
contributes flavor and color to brown sauces.
C. Common Problems in Sauce
1. Discarding 3. poor texture 5. oil streaking
2. oiling-off 4. synersis (weeping)
METHODS OF PREPARING SAUCES
Sauces Blanches
(White Sauce)
Purpose Butter Flour Liquid: Milk or Stock or Cream
Light Sauce 1 tbsp. 1 tbsp. 1 cup
General Sauce 1½ tbsps. 1 ½ tbsp. 1 cup
Thick Sauce 5 tsps. 2 tbsps. 1 cup
Soufflé Sauce 2 tbsps. 2 tbsps. 1 cup
Hygienic Principles and Practices in Sauce Making
1. Make sure all equipment is perfectly clean.
2. Hold sauce no longer than 1 ½ hours. Make only enough to serve in this time,
and discard any that is left over.
3. Never mix an old batch of sauce with a new batch.
4. Never hold hollandaise or béarnaise or any other acid product in aluminum.
Use stainless-steel containers.
Making Roux
Procedure
1. Melt fat.
2. Add correct amount of flour, and stir until fat and flour is
thoroughly mixed.
3. Cook to the desired degree of white, blond or brown roux.
Basic Finishing Techniques in Sauce Making
1. Reduction
• Using reduction to concentrate basic flavors.
The water evaporates when simmered. The sauce becomes more
concentrated and more flavorful.
• Using reduction to adjust textures
The sauce may be simmered until it reaches the desired thickness. Stock
or other liquid may be added to thickened sauce to thin it out, then simmer to
reduce to the right consistency.
• Using reduction to add new flavors.
Glazes or reduced stocks are added to sauces to give flavor.
2. Straining
This is very important in order to produce a smooth, lump free sauce.
Straining through a china cap lined with several layers of cheesecloth is effective.
3. Deglazing
To deglaze means to swirl a liquid in a sauté pan to cooked particles of food
remaining on the bottom.
Liquid such as wine or stock is used to deglaze then reduced by one-half or
three-fourths. This reduction, with the added flavor of the pan drippings, is then
added to the sauce.
4. Enriching with butter and cream
• Liaison mixture of egg yolks and cream added to sauce to give extra richness
and smoothness.
• Heavy cream- added to give flavor and richness to sauce
• Butter - Add softened butter to hot sauce and swirl until it melts. Serve
immediately to prevent separation of butter.
Butter gives extra shine and smoothness to the sauce.
5. Seasoning – adds and develop flavor
Ex: salt
lemon juice
cayenne
white pepper
sherry and Madeira
