The Science of Making
Sauces
A sauce
is a hot or cold flavoured liquid
seasoning that is served with food.
Sauces are pourable pleasures that
make the nutritious delicious.
The French say England has 3 sauces
and 360 religions while France has 3
religions and 360 sauces.
French Cuisine
The
eminence of French cuisine is due directly
to the influence of sauces after the French
revolution.
Sauces
enabled the unemployed cooks to offer
their poorer customers tasty dishes flavoured by
oil based sauces made from cheap materials.
Key words for a sauce
A sauce
must provide flavour
It
should have pleasing thickness/consistency to
allow flavour to linger on food & in mouth
Key
words are Flavour
or Consistency
& Thickness
Sauce Flavour = Stocks
A sauce
must have concentrated flavour
because it is consumed in small amounts
Flavour is best obtained from stocks.
Meat & vegetable stocks are the foundation
of many sauces; they are infused water which
can be adjusted to any strength.
Stock’s Three Components
1- Major flavour ingredients: Bones & meat
for meat stocks or vegetables for vegi stocks
2- Water or pre-prepared
3-
stock
Herbs, spices & mirepoix to add aromatic
flavour
Meat Stocks
Use small amount of meat to convey
umami taste and bones with plenty
of connective tissues to give stock
body by converting the inedible
collagen to gelatine.
Savoury/Umami Taste
Umami
taste is generated by proteins or amino acids
like glutamates found in beef, lamb, parmesan
cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms…etc.
Anchovies intensify umami/savoury flavour of
glutamate many times because they have Inosinate.
(Worcester sauce & Maggi liquid seasoning)
Collagen
Collagen
consists of three
protein chains twisted
around each other in the
form of a triple helix.
Collagen is slowly converted
to gelatine between 70oC
and 80oC , hence many
hours of simmering.
Cuts of Beef
Meat Stock
1-Blanch bones & meat. (cold water to remove scum?)
2-Brown meat, bones & mirepoix for about 30
minutes. (for brown stock only), then deglaze
3-Boil then simmer for ~ 3hours. (Pressure cooker: 1hr)
4-Add the mirepoix, herbs and spices during the last
hour? Finally strain (White Stock- Don’t brown)
Vegetable Stock
 Simmer the
vegetables in water for about an hour.
 Use sweet vegetables like celery, onions, leeks and carrots.
Leeks are good because they give the stock body.
 Mushrooms lend stocks a savoury/umami quality. Maggi?
 Sweating the finely chopped vegetables in oil first before
simmering brings out their flavour because the increased
surface area enhances the extraction of their aroma
chemicals which are soluble in oil.
Strain
Fats & Oils
Fat
& oil are important components of
many sauces
They lend viscosity and cause sauces to
linger on food and in mouth.
They make foods feel smooth and
creamy.
Atoms react with each other through their
electrons in such a way that each atom acquires
the same electronic configuration of its nearest
inert gas in the periodic table. Neon, with its 8
outer electrons, is the nearest inert gas to carbon.
Carbon atom has four electrons in its outer shell. It
needs four more to form stable molecules
Carbon bonds with four atoms by sharing
one electron with each to form saturated
bonds as in methane. Saturated bond is
represented by a dash (-)
Carbon can also form double, Unsaturated, bonds by
sharing 2 electrons with another carbon. Now, the carbon
atom is bonded to three atoms. The unsaturated bonds,
represented by =, are shorter than the saturated bonds.
Life is carbon based because of the carbon
atom’s ability to bond with itself and
many other atoms like oxygen, nitrogen,
phosphorus, sulphur, chlorine, fluorine,
bromine…etc.
Fats & Oils
+ Alcohol  Ester + Water
Fats/oils are tri-esters of glycerine, hence
triglycerides
Glycerine =
Organic Acid
Triglycerides
Glycerine + 3Acids  Triglyceride + 3Water
Glycerine + 3Acids Fat/oil + 3Water
Omega Acid & Trans Fat
Trans Fat
o Trans Fats pack as solids because of their
linear chains
o We have enzymes for Cis Fats only
o Trans Fats (synthetic/partially
hydrogenated) stay longer as solids in
blood Heart attack & Stroke??
Oil
Safflower
Polyunsaturated Monounsat
72%
19%
Saturated
9%
Sunflower
75%
13%
12%
Grape seed
71%
17%
12%
Corn/Soya
59%
24%
17%
Sesame
45%
42%
13%
Rape-Canola
39%
54%
7%
Olive
8%
75%
17%
Butter
4%
30%
55%
Coconut
3%
6%
91%
Palm
2%
13%
85%
Glucose
Corn Syrup has free Fructose-Glucose
 Muscle
cells store glucose as glycogen. (animal starch)
 Liver cells store some glucose as glycogen and convert
some to fat.
 When you consume high-fructose corn syrup (~ 60%
free fructose & 40% free glucose), much of the glucose
in it is burnt or converted to glycogen.
 But the fructose is processed almost totally in the liver
which converts it into
fat.
The Five Mother Sauces
A sauce
Sauces
is a flavoured and thickened liquid
are classified according to the
liquids and thickening agents used in their
preparations.
Mother Sauce
Espagnole
Liquid
Meat stock
Thickener
Brown roux
Velouté
Chicken/fish stock Blond roux
Béchamel
Milk (no stock)
White roux
Hollandaise/Mayo Lemon, vinegar,
water
Butter/oil with egg yolk
Tomato
Flour, Tomato puree,
reduction
Water, stock
Water Based Sauces
Water is
the basic ingredient of nearly all
foods, stocks and sauces.
Giving a sauce the right consistency means
making it less watery by dispersing
thickening agents.
Thickening agents are obstructing agents,
they stop the water from flowing freely.
Three Basic Ways of Thickening Water
1- Adding solids, like flour, suspended in
water (slurries) or fat (Roux and Beurre
Manie).
2- Forming stable oil in water emulsions.
3- Reduction – Used to make gravies.
Became very popular in UK during 1980s.
Flour-Starch
Many
sauces owe their consistency to flour which is
a mixture of starch & protein (corn flour = starch)
Starch molecules are long chains of thousands of
glucose molecules linked together in linear chains
called amylose or branched compact chains
called amylopectin.
The linear chains are better thickening agents
because they sweep through a larger volume of
liquid and are more likely to collide with others.
Starch Gelation
Starch
molecules are packed inside starch granules.
In 50°C- 80°C range (Gelation Range) starch
granules absorb lots of water, swell up many times
their original size and begin to leak amylose.
Linear amylose molecules interact with each other
to form a 3D fishnet that traps water.
Therefore, if we add dry flour to a hot liquid we
may get lumps!
Four Ways for Incorporating Starch
into Sauces
1-
Slurries
2- Beurre Manie
3- Sautéing: Maillard reaction
4- Roux
Slurries – First Method
Disperse
starch granules in cold water
before they encounter high temperature.
The separated starch granules gelate and
release linear amylose in the hot liquid.
It is better to thicken sauce with cold slurry
before serving because thickening breaks
down after extended cooking. (Corn Flour!)
Roux and Beurre Manie??
Water and
oil are insoluble in each other.
10%
of plain flour consists of proteins that
combine with water to form sticky clumps of the oil
repellent gluten.
If
we add just flour to the oil-water mixture, we
end up with sticky and soft lumps wallowing in a
pool of liquid grease.
How They Work
 Mixing
the flour with the oil/fat first, covers each
grain of flour with a water repellent coating.
 Water can’t
be absorbed by flour to form gluten or
cause gelation and the flour grains become widely
dispersed in water.
 Thus,
we persuaded the flavoured oil and the water
to mix together homogenously by using the flour as
the carrier of the oil.
Beurre Manie – Second Method
It
is a paste of equal weights of flour and
butter.
Butter melts and releases the greased
starch granules whose swelling and gelation
is retarded by the water repelling grease.
It should be used as a last minute resort;
good redeemer of thin sauces.
Sautéing - Third Method
Dust
meat with flour before sautéing.
Large surface area coated with flour
Flour is coated with meat & sautéing
fat
Sautéing causes the Maillard
reaction
Roux- Fourth Method
Excellent
thickening/flavouring agent for milk and
vegetable or meat stocks.
Flour cooked in butter fat where the butter to flour
ratio by weight is 1:1.
The thickening ratio is ~ 10-7 parts of liquid to one
part of roux.
Avoid
lumps: FOLLOW COLD TO HOT RULE???
Roux
There are three kinds of roux
a- White
b- Blond
c- Brown- Use vegetable oil or lard
& plain flour
White Roux
Whisk
flour into melted butter followed by
gently heating the mixture for about 60-90
sec.
It is an excellent thickener of soups & milk
Béchamel sauce: Versatile sauce prepared
by thickening flavoured milk with white
roux.
Béchamel Sauce
Simplest
sauce because it doesn't require stock.
Can be infused with many flavours.
It is the base sauce for creamy soups, creamy
pasta, potato salad, cheese sauce, mustard
sauce, cauliflower cheese, macaroni cheese.
Lasagne, moussaka, fish-pie…etc.
Blond Roux Prep
o Melt the butter over medium to low heat.
o Then whisk in the flour and cook the resulting mixture
for about 4-5 minutes until the flour turns into a pale
straw colour.
oLard produces a roux with a nicer flavour?
oBlond roux is generally used in the preparation of
velouté sauces.
oVelouté is a velvety sauce which is basically a thickened
poultry, veal or fish stock.
o There are two types of velouté
o A-Classic Type:- Prepared by stirring hot stock into
cold blond roux. Derived Sauces:
Curry (curry powder, coconut milk, cream), Supreme
(double cream), Allemande (egg yolk & cream), Fish sauce
(white wine & double cream)…etc.
o B -Modern Type:- Reduce a mixture of wine, sautéed
aromatic vegetables, stock and double cream and
simmer until reduced by < 1/3.
Brown Roux
Use
oil or clarified butter & plain flour.
Gently heat flour – oil mixture for 20 – 30
minutes until mixture is brown (dextrin).
Adds flavour to gravies, meat dishes, Cajun
dishes.
Not a good thickener.
Tea Break
Thickening with Fat/Oil Emulsions
Emulsion
can only be made from two liquids
that don’t dissolve in each other with the help
of emulsifiers.
Oil-in-water emulsion is a dispersion of oil in
water.
Dispersed, but stabilized, oil droplets act as the
thickeners of the continuous water phase.
How do you prepare a stable emulsion?
 Add
ingredients in the right order.
 Begin with the continuous phase mixed with an
emulsifier, then SLOWLY whisk in the dispersed phase
in order to emulsify the formed fine droplets.
The three basic emulsion sauces are

Mayonnaise: Oil-in-Water

Hollandaise: Oil-in-Water
 Vinaigrette : Water-in-Oil
Mayonnaise: Oil-in-Water
Mayonnaise
is a sauce in which a large
number of oil droplets are separated by sheets
of water.
It is prepared by whisking an egg yolk with a
teaspoon of water while slowly adding about
cupful of vegetable oil, preferably olive oil.
Egg yolk contains an emulsifier called lecithin.
How It Works?
Whisking
generates millions of oil droplets.
Egg yolk contains an emulsifier called lecithin.
Lecithin is a molecule with a head that has an
affinity to water (hydrophilic- water loving but
oil hating) and a tail which has an affinity to oil
(hydrophobic- water hating but oil loving).
How It Works
Lecithin
molecules coat each oil droplet by burying
their oil loving tails in it while their water loving
heads repel other oil droplets from coalescing with
the one attached to their oil loving tails.
Thus, the oil droplets are persuaded to stay
dispersed in the water phase.
Emulsifiers/Stabilizers
Large
proteins obstruct oil droplets
and act as stabilizers- Casein in milk,
proteins in tomato puree.
Pulverised plant tissue and gum as in
mustard and tomato puree.
Large molecules like starch act as
stabilizers of emulsions.
If there is too much oil and not enough water,
the emulsion will break and the oil droplets
will merge with each.
Oil : Water ~ 3 : 1
A broken mayo can be reconstituted by
whisking egg yolk or water into it.
Hollandaise: Oil-in-Water
Hollandaise
is a sauces like mayo except that
hot butter is used instead of oil; it is emulsified
butter sauces. (Hot Mayo?)
It is made by slowly whisking clarified butter
into warm egg yolk, usually flavoured with
lemon juice or vinegar/wine, salt and pepper
Hollandaise
o You flavour the vinegar/lemon/wine by reducing it
with a mixture consisting of flavours that pair well
with butter such as the following ingredientspeppercorn, mace, bay leaf, chopped spring onions,
tarragon, mint and other herbs; add the salt during
the reduction to make sure it dissolves.
o Since it is a warm sauce it should be served with hot food,
unlike mayonnaise which is normally served with cold
dishes.
Important Factor

Heat egg yolk to below 70°C (~ 170°F)
Egg
yolk is 16% protein, 26% fat and 9% lecithin
Heating
yolk with acid minimizes its curdling;
yolk can be heated to ~ 90°C (~195°F)??????
Finished
sauce should be kept at ~ 60°C
Can be turned into many sauces by changing
an ingredient
Classic Hollandaise sauce pairs well with white
fish, boiled eggs, boiled asparagus and broccoli.
Béarnaise sauce goes very well with fillet steaks or
chicken. If mint is used instead of tarragon the
resulting sauce, called Paloise, pairs well with
lamb.
Rescue curdled sauce by whisking into gently
heated egg yolk.
Vinaigrette: Water-in-Oil
o The basic vinaigrette is prepared by mixing about ¼
cup of say red wine vinegar with salt & pepper then
whisking the mixture into about 3/4 cup of olive oil
containing mustard powder/Dijon.
o Mustard helps to form a water-in-oil emulsion as well
as add flavour. Lettuce should be dry!!
o You can also flavour the basic mixture with
honey/sugar, herbs, garlic, lemons…etc
Thickening by Reduction: Gravies?
of flavoursome sauces/gravies that don’t
include the use of starch or egg yolks can be
prepared by deglazing followed by reduction.
Deglazing: Meat is first sautéed/roasted in a pan.
Meat is removed and wine/stock is added to pan to
sop up and dissolve the crusty and caramelized bits.
The mixture is then simmered until it reduces to the
desired consistency.
Finally, it is flavoured and enriched
A range
Enriching Sauces
Thickeners
tend to reduce flavour intensity
Enhance sauces by adding splash of port or Madeira
or a teaspoon of mustard or red-current jelly.
Sauces are generally enriched, off the heat, by adding
a knob of butter??
Sharp flavours can be improved by the addition of
cream. Double cream should be used??
Enriching with Butter
 Butter is
a convertible emulsion which makes it so useful for
enriching sauces.
 To
convert butter to cream we must melt butter in small amount
of water; water must be the continuous phase.
 The
fat molecules will be surrounded by the emulsifiers in the
butter’s water which will merge with the cooking water.
 Because
there aren’t many emulsifiers the fat droplet coating is
fragile and will leak oil about 60oC (140oF). Don’t reheat
 Incorporate one
heat.
volume of butter to 3 volume of liquid off
the
Beurre Blanc
This sauce, which is traditionally served with fish,
was discovered in the 19th century by accident,
when a French chef forgot to include egg yolk
while preparing béarnaise sauce.
It is a hot sauce based on wine and vinegar
reduced with shallots and finished by whisking
cold butter into it.
Beurre blanc will separate at about 58oC.
Milk
 Milk
is a liquid that contains fat globules (~4%), protein
bundles and sugar (lactose)
 Milk
has two basic groups of proteins, caseins and whey (4:1),
which are resistant to heat but are distinguished by their
sensitivities to acids
Caseins
coagulate into solid mass in acidic solutions while the
whey proteins stay suspended in solution
 The
fat globules are kept apart by phospholipid membranes
(emulsifiers) and proteins (stabilizers)
Why Double Cream?
Casein
proteins & cream are stable to boiling
temperatures.
However, casein is sensitive to acidity.
Many pan sauces contain acidic wines used for
deglazing.
Use
double creams since they contain little
casein because of their high fat content.
 Full
Asian Sauces/Casseroles
bodied stew is produced by long simmering of
chunks of browned meat, on marrow bones, in a base
sauce.
 Vegetables are added when meat is nearly ready and then
cooked until both are tender.
 Base sauce:
Fry chopped onions, garlic, (ginger for Indian) together
with spices (cumin and coriander with others).
Water and chopped tomatoes are then added and
mixture simmered for 20 minutes.
Finally mixture may be blitzed.
Sauce Thickeners
Mid-East: Tomato
puree, lentils, flour
Indian: Coconut cream, chickpeas flour and
yogurt, chickpea flour or flour, lentils
Reduction: Remove meat and reduce stew, add
meat and serve.
Taste of many casseroles improve overnight as
flavours mature & permeate ingredients
The End
Béchamel Based Sauces
o Mornay Sauce: Whip three egg yolks in 50ml double cream and
mix with about 120g of Béchamel sauce. Allow the mixture to bubble for
about one minute and shower with 100g of grated cheddar. Pair with
poached egg or vegetables.
o Soubise Sauce:
Fry chopped onions in 30g melted butter for about
5 minutes. Blitz the cooked onions with a blender. Add the Béchamel
sauce and bring the mixture to boil over low heat. Pass the sauce through
a fine-meshed sieve into a saucepan and mix with 150ml double cream
and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Lovely with roast chicken.
Velouté Based Sauces
Allemande sauce: Thicken a veal velouté with a
liaison of egg yolk and double cream; the sauce
should be served immediately to stop the yolk from
coagulating. Best with poached eggs or chicken as
well as fish when fish stock is used in preparing the
velouté.
Supreme Sauce: The sauce is made from a velouté
made with chicken stock reduced with cream. Some use
white wine and others use a liaison of egg yolk and double
cream. Best with roast pork/chicken