Day Four: Sauces

What we did: Made Sauces (French Classic).

Is it possible to over-stress the importance of sauces to good cuisine? Especially to French cuisine? Probably not. There are whole books that do nothing but discuss the history and importance of the classic French sauces. As Jacques Pépin himself states in his biography, to be considered a great saucier is the highest accolade a chef can receive. Today we made sauces.

In classic French cuisine there are five Grand (or mother) sauces:

1. Demi-glace (a stock that has been thickened through reduction)
2. Velouté (a stock that has been thickened with an agent, usually with a roux)
3. Tomato
   
4. Béchamel (cream based)
5. Hollandaise (butter emulsification)

From these grand sauces, hundreds of other sauces can be made. For example, add tomato paste (and a little butter) to a velouté and you have sauce aurore.

In the contemporary culinary world, you can add the following to the list:

1. Purées or coulis (usually fruit)
   
2. Compound butter (chilled butter to which herbs and other flavorings have been added)
3. Pan sauces

In this day and age, the classic sauces are made less-and-less, with more sauces made from a simple pan reduction. For example, sauté a piece of meat in a pan, remove the meat, add a liquid (wine, stock, etc.) to deglaze the pan (get all of the yummy brown bits from the bottom of the pan). Then add flavorings (salt, herbs, lemon juice, mustard, etc.) and finish it off with a little butter. Unlike the classics, these sauces are made to order.

The importance of a sauce goes beyond adding flavor (or hiding flavor in some cases), it can also serve to add moisture and visual and olfactory appeal to a dish.

Today we made three sauces: A demi-glace (or brown sauce), a Hollandaise sauce, and a Beurre Blanc (a butter emulsification made in the pan).

Single Coolest Thing I Learned: Sauce makes the Chef.