Sauces

Right from the beginning planning a dish, chefs recommend considering whether the consistency should be a vinaigrette, fish cream, soup, sauce or an "ægte sauce" like hollandaise, sauce blanquette, etc. eller en "skilt sauce" som fx. en skilt kærnemælks sauce med dild olie. Den omvendte rækkefølge hvori at udtænke en ret.

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For fancy fine dining chefs recommend using two large tbsp. of sauce for plating.

The backside of a tbsp. is commonly used amongst chefs for analyzing the consistency of a sauce.

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Danish Cuisine

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Brun Sovs/Sauce

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Skal det være en pande sovs som klassisk traditionel brun sovs (forbidden tech) der skiller, hvis ikke der noget i spil som tilberedt på en tør pande, jeg ikke lige helt fik forstået i opklaringstjenesten?

Forskellen mellem en sovs og en sauce er netop det, som forbidden tech drejer sig om.

Lykkedes den brune pande sovs ikke helt perfekt, så skal der blot regne ned med friskkværnet sorte peberkorn.

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En typisk begynderfejl er at tro, at en brun sovs er en opbagt hvid béchamel sovs tilsat brun sovs kulør, der blot består af ammoniseret brændt karamel, kun ment som brun, men smagløst farvestof opløst i vand.

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Jeg er ked af, at måtte sige det, men du kan ikke overgå Knorr's suveræne færdiglavede brune sovs i brev-kuverter, der en sauce med kun lidt palmefedt, ellers kun tilsat vand, hverken smør, fløde eller sødmælk.

Se ingredients listen på pakken.

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Parsley sauce

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Basically, a Béchamel sauce with parsley from Danish cuisine. Traditionally served with potatoes for dishes such as roast pork or fish.

Some add lemon juice to the parsley sauce to compensate the obesity with some acidity, but that's not authentic or traditional.

Personally, I find that a parsley sauce can be a bit tame in flavor, like tarragon in a bearnaise sauce, as these herbs lose their flavor instantly when exposed to heat. So, I prefer to sprinkle some extra on top of the sauce.

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If you cook roast pork in the oven, all the fat that drains off takes all the salt with it. Chefs therefore recommend letting it rain with salt before cooking.

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French Cuisine 

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In French cuisine, the mother sauces also known as grandes sauces, are a group of sauces upon which many other sauces – "daughter sauces" or petites sauces – are based. Different classifications of mother sauces have been proposed since at least the early 19th century.

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The most common list of mother sauces in French cuisine currently in use are

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Béchamel sauce

White sauce, based on milk thickened with a white roux.

Espagnole sauce

Brown sauce based on a brown stock reduction and thickened with a brown roux. Ingredients typically include roasted bones, bacon, and tomato (puréed or fresh).

Tomato sauce

In addition to tomatoes, ingredients typically include carrots, onion, garlic, butter, and flour, plus pork belly and veal broth.

Velouté sauce

Light colored sauce, made by reducing clear stock (made from un-roasted bones) and thickened with a white roux. Velouté is French for "velvety".

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Mayonnaise sauce 

Emulsion of egg yolk, oil, and lemon juice or vinegar.

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Sauce tartare

Originated in France. A cold sauce made from mayonnaise, egg yolk and chives. In modern cooking, however, parsley, white wine vinegar, capers, mustard or finely chopped pickles are usually added.

Tartar sauce is similar to remoulade. It is often used with breaded food (e.g. fish and chips) or chicken.

Hollandaise sauce

A warm emulsion of egg yolk and melted butter, and lemon juice or vinegar.

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Hollandaise sauce is traditionally served with salmon and asparagus.

It is also served together with Eggs Benedict.

​​​Hollandaise/Béarnaise sauce is emulsified with egg yolk, which must only be heated to 82-84°C/180-183°F, otherwise the egg yolk will turn into scrambled eggs. To prevent the sauce from separating, a little boiling water can be added to the mixture with the butter.

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​A stick blender is fool proof, but it won't make the sauce as fluffy as if whipped constantly and quickly with a balloon whisk. A 6 oz. soup spoon held upside down in a bowl as a lid over the stick blender tosses the egg/butter emulsification around for extra fluffiness.

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Mousseline sauce

Mousseline Sauce is a luxuriously rich derivative of Hollandaise sauce. Whipped cream is folded in at the end to create an extremely "light", fluffy and elegant sauce. If you started with a hollandaise sauce and added too much lemon juice, it's hard to do something about it, but adding whipped cream to it to turn it into a mousseline sauce compensates for it.

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Béarnaise sauce

A classic French sauce, a "child" of Hollandaise sauce, made with clarified butter, egg yolks, and white wine vinegar, and flavored with shallots, tarragon, and chervil. It's known for its creamy texture and rich, slightly acidic taste, and is traditionally served with grilled meats, particularly steak.​

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A bearnaise can be made thick without heating the egg yolks enough, but it cannot be made fluffy without heating the egg yolks enough.

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A bearnaise can be whipped up in a water bath (Bain-marie) to add some indirect heat.

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Sauce blanquette / Beurre blanc
A classic French sauce that goes perfectly with fish and white meat, made with eggs, butter and broth.

A sauce blanquette makes gourmet chefs get critical, so you're better off calling it a Beurre Blanc sauce that originated in the Nantes region of France.

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Matelote sauce

A matelote is the name given in French cooking to a fish stew made with white or red wine. It is normally made with freshwater fish, and may contain a mixture of different fish or a single species. It is traditionally garnished with small onions and mushrooms that have been cooked with the fish.

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Nantua sauce

A classical French sauce consisting of a béchamel sauce base, cream, and crayfish butter, along with crayfish tails.

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Sauce Nage

A classic French sauce that is especially good to serve with fish.​

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Gastrique sauce

Caramelized sugar, deglazed with vinegar or other sour liquids, used as a sweet and sour flavoring for sauces.

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The gastrique is generally added to a fond, reduced stock or brown sauce. It is also used to flavor sauces such as tomato sauce, savory fruit sauces, and others, such as the orange sauce for duck à l'orange.

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The term is often broadened to mean any sweet and sour sauce, e.g., citrus gastrique or mango gastrique. An agrodolce is a similar sauce found in Italian cuisine.

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It is different from the Belgian sauce base of the same name, which consists of vinegar, white wine, shallots, tarragon stems, bouquet garni, and peppercorns.

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Sauce Américaine

A recipe from classic French cookery containing chopped onions, tomatoes, white wine, brandy, salt, cayenne pepper, butter and fish stock. This is the ultimate lobster sauce, which never fails to lift the simplest grilled or poached fish to ethereal heights.

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Noilly Prat sauce

Noilly Prat is a French dry vermouth created by Joseph Noilly in 1813 in the south of France. The vermouth itself is known for its herbal, complex flavor and is commonly used to make sauces, especially for fish dishes.

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Roquefort sauce

Roquefort is a French soft blue cheese made from sheep's milk. As far as I remember it goes well with game meat.

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Mornay sauce

One of the prominent basic sauces in French cuisine. It is made by adding grated Gruyère cheese to a béchamel sauce.

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Sauce gribiche

A cold egg sauce in French cuisine, made by emulsifying hard-boiled egg yolks and mustard with a neutral oil such as rapeseed or grapeseed. The sauce is finished with chopped pickles, capers, parsley, chervil, and tarragon. It also includes hard-boiled egg whites cut into a julienne.​​​

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Vinaigrette

A French marinade or dressing of oil and vinegar. The vinaigrette is often seasoned with spices and possibly mustard. A variant is a vinaigrette salad of Russian origin.

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Green Peppercorn Sauce

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The history of Green Peppercorn Sauce can be traced back to French cuisine, specifically the classic sauce known as "sauce au poivre".

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Peppercorn sauce is a culinary cream sauce prepared with peppercorn, which is prepared as a reduction of the cream in the cooking process. Various types of peppercorns can be used in its preparation, such as black, green and pink, among others. Peppercorn sauce may be served with beef steak such as a filet mignon and other beef tenderloin cuts, lamb, rack of lamb, chicken and fish dishes, such as those prepared with tuna and salmon.
 

A beef steak served with peppercorn sauce prepared with five types of peppers:
Some versions use several types of peppercorns in the sauce's preparation, and some may use ingredients that are similar in flavor to but not classified as peppercorns, such as sansho. Peppercorn sauce may be used on dishes served at French bistros and restaurants. Some versions of steak au poivre use a peppercorn sauce in their preparation.

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Madagascar vs. Malabar green peppercorns.  

Some chefs prefer them crunched a bit and not served as whole corns.

Red rose peppercorns are soft and unsuitable for grinding or it gets mushy.

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Red Wine Sauce

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First things first. The time ro reduce a wine sauce is between 3-30 min.

Chefs say that 45 min. to complete a whole dish with a reduced red wine sauce is daring.

You might also look into the trend of blending both port wine and red wine for a sauce.

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A new trend is red wine glaze; a standard red wine sauce, a favorite amongst chefs, but the classical technique for preparing it is both lengthy and labor-intensive. Some use a pressure cooker, to get great results much faster.

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​Possibly with veal stock. Both the red wine and the stock must be reduced so that the red wine sauce has a strong flavor.

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Whiskey Sauce

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Without bragging, I'm worldclass champions league when it comes to whiskey sauce, come back later.

 

Chefs are more into using cognac rather than whisky in all kinds of dishes.

Here are some useful terms to know: VS (Very Special): Cognac that has been aged for at least two years. VSOP (Very Superior Old Pale): Aged for at least four years. XO (Extra Old): Must be aged for at least six years, but often much longer.

Instead of cognac you could opt for a cheaper brandy.

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Korean Sauce

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Tteokbokki sauce

Made with gochujang (Korean chili paste), raw sugar, corn syrup, minced garlic, soy sauce/fish sauce etc.

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Chinese Sauce

 

Soy sauce or in British English: Soya​

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Soy sauce originated in ancient China as a meat-based, fermented condiment called "jiang" used for preservation, hence the salt.

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Low-sodium soy

Gluten-free soy sauce

(Online shopping only)

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I don't add salt to the rice, if I plan to add soy ⚠️

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 The worst I have yet seen is Santa Maria Thai Soya

containing insane 22.6g of salt per 100g. ⚠️

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Fish sauce replaces salt in Thai cuisine and gives the right Thai taste and is also called "the salt of Asia". Fish sauce is made from fermented, salted anchovies. Ingredients: anchovy extract, salt, sugar, acidity regulator (citric acid).

 

Alternative, there's also oyster sauce. Fish sauce is a clear condiment that has a deep, red-brown color tint to it, whereas oyster sauce is a dark, opaque brown sauce more similar to a syrup. Consistency: Oyster sauce contains sugar and cornstarch, giving it a thicker consistency than fish sauce, which is a bit thinner and more liquidly.

Oyster sauce contains soy sauce.

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Fish sauce vs. Oyster sauce vs. Soy sauce

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I don't know who I am anymore. Time transforms and my metabolism is no longer asking for heavy western food. These days I am much more interested in Asian slow-cooked food.

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Do not reduce on a soy sauce, it will remove the water and make it taste even more too salty.

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Buddy System

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Starch on starch they say in Asia.

Tuna and rice are just delightful.

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For China rolls and spring rolls

see the deep-frying section.

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Hoisin Sauce.

Most prominent in Cantonese cuisine.

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Majiang Sauce.

​Made from heavily roasted and ground sesame seeds, giving it a more intense, toasty flavor than tahini (which is often made from untoasted seeds).

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Sesame paste/Soybean paste.

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Japanese Sauce

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While so-su sauce (コース) is a general term for Japanese sauces, of which tonkatsu sauce is a specific type.

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Ponzu sauce.

Made from a mixture of soy sauce, citrus juice, mirin, rice wine vinegar and kombu (seaweed).

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Okonomiyaki sauce.

A barbecue sauce for okonomiyaki pancake/omelet with cabbage.

If the eggs are beaten too much, they lose that fluffy soufflé.

Salt and pepper make cabbage come alive.

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Thai Sauce

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Sriracha Sauce.

Sriracha is a hot, fermented chili sauce made from chilies, vinegar, garlic, sugar, and salt. It is named after the coastal town of Si Racha in Thailand.

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Teriyaki Sauce.

Basically, a soy sauce with a sweet, salty and umami-rich taste often used in wok meals like

Teriyaki chicken. Don't be ashamed of drowning your dish in Teriyaki, it's pretty common and very addictive.

Since Teriyaki is a sweet sauce best served at room temperature, it gets caramelized and too sweet if heated.

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Tonkatsu Sauce / Chicken Katsu

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Indonesian/Pakistan Cuisine​

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Tandoori

Relating to a style of Indian cooking based on the use of a tandoor, meaning an oven made of clay.

A spice mixture often used to marinate meat, especially chicken.

Masala: A spice mixture to make a chicken

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Tikka Masala

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Another spice mixture often used to marinate meat, especially chicken.

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Butter Chicken

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Not made with butter milk, but with yogurt.

Another spice mixture often used to marinate meat, especially chicken.

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Korma

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Another one not made with butter milk, but with yogurt.

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Ajam Pangang

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An Indonesian sweet and sour sauce filled with carrots, bamboo shoots and ginger, etc.

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Tamarind Sauce

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Indigenous to tropical Africa but has been cultivated for so long on the Indian subcontinent that it is sometimes reported to be indigenous there. It grows wild in Africa. In Arabia, it is found growing wild in Oman, especially Dhofar, where it grows on the sea-facing slopes of mountains.

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Another thing I find profoundly to African cuisine is the use of apricots in the salty cuisine, and not the sweet one.

These days associated with Moroccan cuisine (Northwest Africa).

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​Middle Eastern Sauce​​

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Tahini sauce​.

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Curry Sauce

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Indian cuisine.

E.g. Indian rice dish with raisins, which can be made as a one pot dish, or meatballs in curry, which is a very popular and traditional dish in Danish cuisine.
Curry is burnt off in butter so that dried spices can release their aromas. If the white sauce is baked first, then you can add tons of extra curry for flavor, just like with a mustard sauce, without it leading to anything. Curry is a mixed spice consisting of about. 30% turmeric, which gives the yellow color, but which is relatively neutral in taste. In addition, about. 30% coriander and a little cumin and fennel. In addition, a little black pepper and cayenne pepper are added, which make your eyebrows sweat.

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Satay Sauce

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An Indonesian peanut sauce made with roasted or fried peanuts. Can be used as a salad dressing

or as a dipping sauce.

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Royal Sauce

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Ingredients: ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, and some spices with a backdrop of tangy onion and garlic.

Together with this, the sauce layers sweet tomato and tart vinegar.​

 

It is what you want it to be.

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Italian Sauce

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Alfredo sauce.

A classic Italian creamy pasta sauce folded into cooked pasta, typically Fettuccine Alfredo.

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Spanish Sauce

 

​Romesco sauce.

There are hundreds of ways to interpret a Romesco sauce within Spain.

A sauce to be eaten with fish. Some would give it a shot with poultry like a chicken ballotine.

Made from any mixture of roasted tomatoes and garlic, toasted almonds, pine nuts, and/or hazelnuts, olive or sunflower oil, and nyora peppers (a sun-dried, small, round variety of red bell pepper).

 

Ballotine vs. Roulade.

Ballotine og roulade er ikke det samme, selvom de begge involverer fyldt og rullet kød. En ballotine er typisk et helt stykke kød, som for eksempel en hel kylling, hvor benene er fjernet, men skindet er bevaret. Kødet fyldes og formes som en cylinder. En roulade er mere generel og kan laves af et hvilket som helst kød, der er skåret tyndt, fyldt og derefter rullet sammen før tilberedning, som for eksempel en skive kalvekød eller fisk.

 

 

Buttermilk sauce

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Buttermilk sauce does not have a single origin.

Buttermilk Ranch Dressing.

Buttermilk Pasta Sauce.

Buttermilk sauce with dill oil. Typically served with scallops.​​