The Art of the Perfect Sauce 75 Recipes to Take Your Dishes from Ordinary to Extraordinary

246 Pages·2018·80.3 MB·English

by  Lorilynn Bauer

The ART OF THE
PERFECT SAUCE
75
RECIPES TO TAKE
YOUR DISHES FROM
ORDINARY TO
EXTRAORDINARY
LORILYNN BAUER & RAMIN
GANESHRAM
Begin Reading
Table of Contents
About the Authors
Copyright Page

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TO BRITTANY, ADDISON, SOPHIA, BLYTHE AND
MADELINE WHO INSPIRE US TO MAKE EVERY MEAL A
DELICIOUS ADVENTURE.

INTRODUCTION
One of the first things you learn in culinary school after how to make a
proper stock is how to make sauces. This was true for us both, even
though we went to different schools—Lorilynn to Culinary Institute of
America and Ramin to Institute of Culinary Education. We have pursued
different culinary paths as cooks—Lorilynn as a restaurant and private
chef with a six-season stint on Iron Chef America as Cat Cora’s sous-chef,
and Ramin as a food journalist and cookbook writer.
Despite this, we’ve always managed to come together to make some epic
meals. In those marathon cooking sessions, time and again we always
went back to the importance of a great sauce. Considered a foundation
of fine cuisine, sauces can elevate even the most well prepared dish to
new heights. In fact, in traditional French kitchens, the position of
saucier or sauce-making chef was a profession unto itself and one of
honor and distinction.
For many of us, the sauces we learned in culinary school seemed already
past their prime by the time we came along. These were the five
traditional Mother Sauces of French cuisine: Béchamel, a milk sauce
thickened with white roux; Sauce Tomat, or tomato sauce; Veloute, a
white stock thickened with white roux; Sauce Esapagnole or Brown
Sauce—what most people would call gravy; and Hollandaise Sauce, an
emulsion of clarified butter and egg yolks.
Heavy, creamy and thick, these sauces seem, at first blush, to have no
place in modern cooking with its emphasis on fresh, whole ingredients
prepared with a light hand to allow their inherent flavors to shine
through.
The fact is, though, nothing could be further from the truth. Even if
rarely used on their own—particularly in a home kitchen—when
amended or adapted, the French Mother Sauces are the basis for other
sauces we all know and love. Mayonnaise and its garlicky counterpart
aioli is an emulsification based upon the same principles as a good
Hollandaise. If you love true Mac ‘n’ cheese, thank Sauce Mornay—
essentially Béchamel fortified with cheese. Many savory glazes are built
out of Sauce Espagnole.
More than the sauces themselves, it is their technique that has the most
value—and allows us to experiment with a wide variety of ingredients to
design the fresh new sauces that you will find in this book.
You’ll find that, for the most part, the sauces we’ve created here are
extremely simple to make and span a variety of techniques that, once
mastered, will empower you to invent unique sauces of your own. A
handy Sauce Table indicates where sauces can serve double or even
triple duty across a variety of proteins and vegetables. An additional
section for dessert sauces is sure to appeal to your sweet tooth as well.
One final note: Each recipe contains prep times and cooking times. Of
course, these may vary slightly based on your own skill level and kitchen
equipment—modern appliances can have quite a range of power. As
such, we suggest using the visual and doneness cues as your primary
guideline for the completed sauce.
—LORILYNN & RAMIN