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| PREPARING
SAUCES |
FOOD
TIPS BY TALLYRAND |
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 Thickening
sauces can be a lengthy and troublesome process if you
allow it to be. The tips I give here are aimed more
at the home cook than the professional chef; who will
know these already.
There
are many thickening agents for sauces, but lets just
look at the more common ones you might come across:
- Flour
This can be used in three ways: as a roux, beurre
manié or mixed with water.
- A
roux : made by melting butter or oil, mixing
in flour and cooking it over a medium heat for
5 minutes. Most classic recipes call for equal
quantities of fat to flour, I much prefer more
fat than flour. Why? Well for one thing it allows
for a much richer flavour, but also allows the
roux to combine into the liquid easier. On average
use 75 gm butter to 60 gm of flour per litre of
liquid….most recipes state 100 gm, 100gm and 1
litre; this will cause a thick, stodgy, 19th century
style sauce more akin to porridge and not the
lighter ones we prefer today.
- Beurre
manié : basically as above but used to add
to sauces, should they need extra thickening once
made. A French term : Beurre = butter, manié =
handled, so named as it is normally made by kneading
the4 flour and cold butter together to form a
paste.
- With
water : flour and water combined to form a
slurry. Mainly used to thicken gravies for roast
meats.
- Cornflour
Mixed with water or other liquid to a slurry, this
may be used for thickening most sauces, but normally
reserved for reduction sauces: sauces where the liquid
(stock, wine etc) is simmered until reduced to taste.
Once the liquid is ready and has boiled, removed from
heat and add the slurry in slowly, while whisking
quickly; it will thicken almost instantly so take
care not to add to much. The downside of cornflour
is that it will dilute the sauce's colour
- Arrowroot
Used as for cornflour with the advantage of the fact
that it will not dilute the sauce's colour, but will
give it a nice sheen (more expensive to purchase though).
It is really difficult, if not impossible to thin
sauces down after they have been over thickened with
arrowroot or cornflour, so please take care!
Finally if you want to make seafood or fish sauces but
cannot buy the stock, do what a lot of professional
chefs do, use a light chicken stock. Many chefs do not
use fish stocks as they will sour quickly and for food
hygiene reasons are very unstable. However, please,
please use a good quality stock whether it is fresh,
powdered or cubed . . . a dish is only as good as its
sauce which is only as good as its stock.
RELATED RECIPE
Food
and Cooking Tips
from professional
Chef Tallyrand
Born
and raised in Plymouth, Tallyrand started his initial
training as a chef at Plymouth College of Further Education.
It was here that he was to learn his love, his passion
for food and the culinary arts. From here he headed
to Germany to complete his apprenticeship as Commis
de Gardemanger.
Germany
gave him his first taste of cooking for the rich and
famous, as half way through his first year, along with
the Sous Chef and a Chef de Partie, he was whisked off
to Cologne to help prepare meals for a political conference,
where amongst other dignitaries they cooked for Mr Brehznev,
the then powerful Russian leader. This was to prove
to be just one of the many celebrities he was to cook
for or get to know over the years . . .
If
you would like to find out more why not visit Tallyrand's
own web site www.tallyrand.info (link in main menu)
Email Hub-UK : info@hub-uk.com
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