Making sauces is another of the most basic cooking techniques that will allow you to add a delicious variety to your cooking. Sauces can be used for making a wide variety of pasta dishes, making mac ‘n cheese, adding some additional flavor and liquid to almost any other dish from vegetables to fish and more!
In this chapter I will show you the basics of how to make a number of different types of sauces so you can create an unlimited number of flavor combinations in your own kitchen.
Sauces are often split into two categories; mother sauces and small sauces. Mother sauces are the base upon which the other sauces, the small sauces, are made. For example, Béchamel, a basic white sauce, is a mother sauce and a cheese sauce is a small sauce since a cheese sauce is simply a Béchamel sauce with cheese added to it along with a couple other flavors such as dry mustard.
If you read the course on sautéing then you’ll already have an understanding of how to make a variety of pan sauces so I’ll skip that, if you haven’t been through the sauté course I recommend you do that before this one.
And if you’re looking to make your own stock you can visit the chapter on Making Stocks.
Before learning about the different basic sauce types it’s very important that you learn how to start a sauce, being able to use the thickening agents properly will allow you to build any type of sauce you want.
How Thick Should the Sauce Be?
Making your sauce less of a liquid than water is usually a goal for most people. Although it varies from sauce to sauce and dish to dish, a standard consistency for many sauces is called ‘nappe’. Nappe occurs when the sauce coats the back of a spoon and when you run your finger through it the sauce doesn’t fill the void right away.
Choose the type of thickening or sauce you want to make from the menu on the right.