Restaurant Quality Sauces At Home

We've all been served great sauces in our favoritequality commercial brand.
restaurants and would love to recreate them in ourAs for tools, all you need is a heavy bottomed
own kitchens but we are not sauciers. (French termsaucepan and a whisk. Professional chefs will typically
for sauce chef)strain their veloute and sauces through a fine strainer
Professional chefs go to culinary school for years tocalled a chinois but it'snot absolutely necessary. A
learn the secrets of making classic French sauces andcommon household strainer with small holes will work
the more modern sauces derived from them. Sotoo.
what are we supposed to do?When we start talking about brown sauces, here's
Yes, there are some sauces that require strongwhen many new cooks start to get nervous. Just
cooking skills. Making a Hollandaise sauce with butterthinking about making "the gravy" at Thanksgiving
and egg yolks is difficult because so many things cangives some cooks the yips so how are they suppose
go wrong but with a little practice and a lot of focus,to make a classic brown sauce like bordelaise or
anyone can make a decent Hollandaise.chasseur?
Mayonnaise is another emulsion sauce that manyThese sauces are all derived from the same base
cooks imagine is too hard or two much work tocalled demi-glace or some form of meat stock
prepare but nothing could be further from the truth.reduction. If you can get your hands on some
Mayonnaise is oil, egg, vinegar, condiments and spices.demi-glace by either making it yourself (very time
Again, all it takes is some skill with a whisk, the rightconsuming) or purchasing a good quality product on
ingredients and some patience.the market, making any of these classic sauces is not
Then there are the butter sauces that scare a lot ofdifficult at all.
new cooks. When we hear "beurre blanc" sauce weFor example, the classic bordelaise sauce is basically
automatically think, "This is going to be hard" butshallots, wine, fresh thyme, butter, parsley and
truth is they are easy if you start with well chilleddemi-glace. Chasseur sauce, also called hunters sauce
butter, keep the heat low, add butter a little at abecause it goes well with wild game, is a combination
time, stay focused and serve immediately.shallots, mushrooms, butter, white wine, sometimes
White sauces including Allemande (German sauce),tomatoes and demi-glace.
Supreme, and Normande are a little tricky becauseIf you go any high-end restaurant's kitchen, you will
they all start with a chicken or fish base calledmost likely find some form of demi-glace or other
veloute and then other ingredients are added to givemeat stock reduction cooking on the stove. Culinary
the sauce its flavor. Veloute is simple a white stockstudents are taught first thing about making stocks
that has been thicken with a white roux.and their reductions. They spend hours making them
Let's back up for a second. A stock is a flavoredday after day because they are the basis for all
broth that has been extracted from meats, fish, orclassic French sauces.
vegetables by cooking them in water slowly for aThis doesn't mean you can't prepare these same
period of time. A white stock is made with meats,sauces at home to serve with your chicken, veal,
chicken, fish or vegetables that have not beenbeef or fish. All it means is you have to find a quality
browned and are pale in color.commercial product, know someone in the restaurant
For example, simmering the carcass of a chickenbusiness or spend the time to make a batch yourself.
along with some aromatic vegetables can make aA weekend spent preparing a good demi-glace will
white chicken stock but to make a brown chickengive you enough to last quite a while. Because these
stock, you first roast or brown the carcass.sauce bases freeze so well, you can have rich sauces
A roux is a mixture of flour and fat that is cookedyear round or you can find a classic recipe at to try
together and used to thicken soups and sauces.at home.
Depending on how long you cook the roux willIf you not excited about making it from scratch,
determine if it called a white roux (the lightest), athere are sources listed at the same site for
blond roux or a brown roux.manufacturers who are making restaurant quality
So the veloute, a combination of the white stock,demi-glace for both home users andcommercial
butter and flour, is the base or start to most of theestablishments.
classic white sauces. For sauce allemande you addEither way, making restaurant quality sauces at home
egg yolks and mushroom cooking liquid. For sauceis not as difficult as you might have thought. The
supreme, heavy cream, mushroom cooking liquid andmyth that only professional chefs with years of
some more butter.experience can prepare classic sauces is not true.
Are they difficult to make at home? Absolutely not!With a little practice and the right ingredients, you can
They just take time, patience and focus. Thebe wowing your family and friends at your next
ingredients are readily available whether you makedinner party.
your own homemade stock or purchase a goodCopyright © 2006 Bill Long, GatewayGourmet.