Feeling Saucy...

After our butchering lessons, we moved on to sauces. But before sauce, we had a random class in which we learned how to clarify butter, roast peppers, make croutons, and prepare tomatoes. It was a very random mish-mash. My favorite part was roasting the peppers!

Hot Pepper!

In our first sauce class (of 4), we made three of the classic French "mother" sauces. They're called mother sauces because they're used to make a multitude of other derivative sauces. We made bechamel, veloute, and sauce espangole. To make each of these sauces we had to make rouxs by cooking equal parts flour and butter. The rouxs are used to bind and thicken each of the sauces and are added in the beginning of the sauce making process. There are three types of roux, each of which is described by the color: white, blond, and brown. The brown one was my favorite by a long shot because it has a nutty, bready smell and flavor. The longer a roux cooks, the less binding power it has (so much for my lovely brown roux!). The type of roux used depends on the color and depth of your sauce. So, for the bechamel we used a white roux, for the veloute we used a blond, and for the sauce espangole we used a brown.

For the bechamel we scalded some milk with nutmeg, cayenne, salt & white pepper and an onion. Then we strained the milk into the white roux pot and cooked it until thickened. Bechamel is the base for all sorts of great sauces including the base for mac & cheese! The Sauce Espagnole is a rich sauce with caramelized vegetables, tomato paste, veal stock and brown roux. Veloute is rather plain sounding but somehow delicious with chicken stock, blond roux, and salt & pepper.


We saved all the sauces from this class to make derivative sauces in the next class. It was really interesting to see how each of these sauces were used to make other, more flavorful sauces.

The mothers of all sauces (front = Bechamel, back right = veloute, back left = espagnole)

In sauces part 2, we made another mother sauce, tomato and then a bunch of derivative sauces. From the veloute mother sauce, we made a sauce supreme, which is with cream and butter, and allemande sauce, which was my favorite of the night with shallots, mushrooms, and cream. From the espagnole, we made . And from the bechamel we made a mornay, which is with cheese and is used as the base of mac n' cheese, and a tomato soubise sauce. In addition, we made a few sauces from a veal stock reduction.

Our third sauce night was emulsion sauces. This night we made hollandaise, Mayonnaise, beurre blanc, and vinaigrette. Mayo and vinaigrette are simple emulsions, so we began with them. Emulsions are a mixture of 2 or more liquids, one of which is a fat, suspended. The suspension can be temporary, semi-permanent or permanent. In many emulsions, different stabilizers are used to hold the suspension. In the case of mayo, these are the dijon and egg yolk. Mayo is actually really easy to make at home and well worth it because home-made mayo is delicious. All you need is an egg yolk, some dijon, a little lemon juice, and salt, and then slowly whisk in canola oil. Viola...better than Hellmans.

For our vinaigrette, we used canola oil and whisked this slowly into shallots, vinegar, and dijon. Again, this salad dressing is one of those things that people should make at home instead of buying in the grocery store (not that I don't love a good bottle of Newman's own dressing).

The next sauce was heavenly, but very much so in a fallen angel gluttonous side of heaven's gates. Beurre blanc begins with a shallot, white wine, wine vinegar, bay leaf and peppercorn reduction. Then, cubes and cubes of cold butter are whisked in. This is a wonderful sauce for lobster. If you know how I feel about lobster rolls, then you know I was thinking of nixing the mayo lobster roll and going with a warm lobster roll with this sauce!

The remaining emulsions were a bit more challenging - For Hollandaise and Bearnaise, you have to heat egg yolks over a hot water bath constantly whisking to thicken. In the case of bearnaise, thee egg is combined with a shallot, tarragon, vinegar, black peppercorn reduction and tarragon leaves and butter are added...Delicious! For Hollandaise, lemon juice, clarified butter, and seasonings are added.

Our final night of sauces was contemporary sauces. We made coulis, salsa, relish, infused oils, jus de veau lie, and citrus juice sauce. I wasn't a huge fan of this night. It was a very random mix of sauces that I didn't really like. Maybe I'm just more into the classics!

I ended this week of classes with a serious liquid belly having only consumed sauces for three straight nights!