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New To Sauces
Contents |
The building blocks for a good sauce is a roux. A roux is made by cooking flour with an equal weight of fat. It is a thickener for three ‘mother’ sauces from classic french cooking, béchamel, velouté, and espagnole sauce. Traditionally, butter is used but in some cuisines, oil can be used, or even lard.
Melt your fat in a sauce pan, and then sprinkle in the flour, whisking together for a few minutes until the flour is cooked.
Roux Ready Reckoner
As roux can be used as the thickening base of so many things, but sometimes getting the quantities for your basic roux / liquid ratio can be tricky. In light of this, I have constructed a ready reckoner so that you get the right quantity of flour and butter for your roux, based on the amount of liquid you will be adding.
So, for instance, if you were using 400ml of milk for a béchamel, then you need 35g of butter with 35g of flour for your roux. This is just a rough guide, so if you want a thinner sauce, you can add more milk or use slightly less butter/flour. The same goes for the velouté.
Butter / Flour | g | 25 | 30 | 35 | 40 | 45 | 50 | 55 | 60 | 65 | 70 | 75 | 80 | 85 | 90 | 95 |
Liquid |
ml | 300 | 350 | 400 | 450 | 500 | 550 | 600 | 650 | 700 | 750 | 800 | 850 | 900 | 950 | 1000 |
Béchamel Sauce
In French cuisine, a béchamel sauce (white sauce) is the basis for many other sauces and is made by adding milk to a roux base. Once you have mastered this, a whole new world of possibilities open up. For instance, you can make a cheese sauce for mac and cheese, or make your own lasagne without having to buy one of those awful jars of white sauce.
Velouté Sauce
A velouté is essentially the same as a béchamel except that instead of milk, you add stock to your roux base, usually a chicken or fish stock. This is perfect for chowders, soups, and stews.
Basic Sauce Recipes
- Béchamel Sauce
- Mornay sauce – brilliant served with fish
- Cheese sauce – pour over vegetables, or as a base for macaroni cheese
- Cream sauce – great with pasta or chicken
- Mustard sauce – serve with vegetables, eggs or chicken
- Velouté Sauce
Basic Kit
- Always ensure that the lumps of roux have been stirred out before adding additional liquid, and the result should be a smooth a creamy sauce
- If you do end up with a slightly lumpy sauce, you can pop the mixture in a blender for a minute or two, or pass through a Chinois
- Avoid making gravy in an aluminium (anodized is okay) pan as it can turn the gravy grey.
- Whisking in a tablespoon of butter just before serving will give gravy a rich, satiny texture
- All béchamel and velouté sauces can be frozen
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