Sauce

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This article is part
of the Cuisine series

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Techniques - Utensils
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Ingredients and types of food

Spices and Herbs
Sauces - Soups - Desserts
Cheese - Pasta - Bread
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Regional cuisines

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Other cuisines...

Sauces in French cuisine

Sauces in French cuisine date back to Medieval times. There were hundreds of sauces in the lore. In 'classic' French cooking (19th and 20th century until nouvelle cuisine), sauces were a major defining characteristic of French cuisine.

In the 19th century, the chef Antonin Carême classified sauces into four families, each of which was based on a mother sauce. Carême's four mother sauces were:

Allemande is based on stock with egg yolk & lemon juice
Béchamel is based on flour and milk
Espagnole is based on brown stock, beef etc.
Velouté is based on a light broth, fish, chicken or veal.

In the early 20th century, the chef Auguste Escoffier updated the classification, replacing sauce Allemande with egg-based emulsions (Hollandaise and mayonnaise), and adding tomate. Escoffier's schema is still taught to chefs today:

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Sauces in other cuisines

Sauces and condiments also play an important role in other cuisines:

British cooking: Gravy is a traditional sauce used on roast dinner, which (traditionally) comprises roast potatoes, roast meat, boiled vegetables and optional Yorkshire puddings. Apple sauce and mint sauce are also used on meat (pork and lamb respectively). Salad cream is sometimes used on salads. Ketchup and brown sauce are used on more fast-food type dishes. Strong English mustard (as well as French or American mustard) are also used on various foods, as is Worcestershire sauce. Custard is a popular dessert sauce. Some of these sauce traditions have been exported to ex-colonies such as the USA.
Japanese cuisine uses ponzu, yakitori, tonkatsu, and yakisoba sauces.
Chinese cuisine is known for prepared sauces based on fermented soy beans (soy sauce, black bean sauce, hoisin sauce) as well as many others such as chili sauces and oyster sauce.
Korean cuisine uses sauces such as doenjang, gochujang, ssamjang, and soy sauce.
Southeast Asian cuisines, such as Thai and Vietnamese cuisine, often use fish sauce, made from fermented fish.

Asian prepared sauces are not thick as they do not contain thickening agents such as flour. The thickening occurs in the last minutes of cooking when thickeners like corn starch or arrowroot are added.

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Sauce variations

There are also many sauces based on tomato (such as tomato ketchup and tomato sauce), other vegetables and various spices. Although the word 'ketchup' by itself usually refers to tomato ketchup, other vegetables or fruits may be used to prepare ketchups.

Sauces can also be sweet, and used either hot or cold to accompany and garnish a dessert.

Another kind of sauce is made from stewed fruit, usually strained to remove skin and fibers and often sweetened. Such sauces, including applesauce and cranberry sauce, are often eaten with specific other foods (apple sauce with pork or ham; cranberry sauce with poultry) or served as desserts.

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