| We've all been served great sauces in our favorite | | | | added to give the sauce its flavor. Veloute is simple a |
| restaurants and would love to recreate them in our | | | | white stock that has been thicken with a white |
| own kitchens but we are not sauciers. (French term | | | | roux.Let's back up for a second. A stock is a flavored |
| for sauce chef) Professional chefs go to culinary | | | | broth that has been extracted from meats, fish, or |
| school for years to learn the secrets of making | | | | vegetables by cooking them in water slowly for a |
| classic French sauces and the more modern sauces | | | | period of time. A white stock is made with meats, |
| derived from them. So what are we supposed to | | | | chicken, fish or vegetables that have not been |
| do?Yes, there are some sauces that require strong | | | | browned and are pale in color.For example, simmering |
| cooking skills. Making a Hollandaise sauce with butter | | | | the carcass of a chicken along with some aromatic |
| and egg yolks is difficult because so many things can | | | | vegetables can make a white chicken stock but to |
| go wrong but with a little practice and a lot of focus, | | | | make a brown chicken stock, you first roast or |
| anyone can make a decent Hollandaise.Mayonnaise is | | | | brown the carcass.A roux is a mixture of flour and |
| another emulsion sauce that many cooks imagine is | | | | fat that is cooked together and used to thicken |
| too hard or two much work to prepare but nothing | | | | soups and sauces. Depending on how long you cook |
| could be further from the truth. Mayonnaise is oil, | | | | the roux will determine if it called a white roux (the |
| egg, vinegar, condiments and spices. Again, all it takes | | | | lightest), a blond roux or a brown roux.So the |
| is some skill with a whisk, the right ingredients and | | | | veloute, a combination of the white stock, butter and |
| some patience.Then there are the butter sauces that | | | | flour, is the base or start to most of the classic |
| scare a lot of new cooks. When we hear "beurre | | | | white sauces. For sauce allemande you add egg yolks |
| blanc" sauce we automatically think, "This is going to | | | | and mushroom cooking liquid. For sauce supreme, |
| be hard" but truth is they are easy if you start with | | | | heavy cream, mushroom cooking liquid and some |
| well chilled butter, keep the heat low, add butter a | | | | more butter.Are they difficult to make at home? |
| little at a time, stay focused and serve | | | | Absolutely not! They just take time, patience and |
| immediately.White sauces including Allemande | | | | focus. The ingredients are readily available whether |
| (German sauce), Supreme, and Normande are a little | | | | you make your own homemade stock or purchase a |
| tricky because they all start with a chicken or fish | | | | good quality commercial brand.As for tools, all you |
| base called veloute and then other ingredients are | | | | need is a heavy bottomed saucepan and a whisk. |