Kitchen Basics: Intro to Mother Sauces & Béchamel

"A well made sauce will make even an elephant or a grandfather palatable." -Grimod de la Reynière

I'm not so sure about that, but leave it to a Frenchman to come up with a great quote about sauce. The French worship sauce. And boy, can they make some good ones. There are five basic sauces in classical French cuisine, often called the Mother sauces due to being the most common and simple bases to most French sauces. The first 3 of the 5 sauces share a common makeup: your roux, and a liquid. The first four sauces listed were identified by Antoine Carême, and good ol' number five was later added by Escoffier.

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Here are your 5 "grandes sauces" as they call them in French:

1. Béchamel or White Sauce: So called because it consists of milk thickened with a white roux (one that has just had the raw flour flavor cooked out, but hasn't gotten any color). This forms the base of Mornay - i.e. cheese - sauce (hm, wonder where I'm going with this one), 

2. Velouté or Blonde Sauce: So called because it consists of a "white" stock - poultry, etc - thickened with a blonde roux (one that's gotten a hint of color, blonde, easy enough to figure out). Ever had Chicken Supreme? Or gravy on your Thanksgiving turkey? That was a Velouté based sauce my friend.

3. Espagnole or Brown Sauce: So called because it consists of a "brown" stock - think red meat, beef, veal, etc. - thickened with a brown roux (one that's been cooked to a nice deep brown color - really, the naming isn't rocket science). Demi-glace and Madeira Sauce are common derivatives. 

Also included are:

4. Hollandaise or Emulsion Sauces: also includes Mayonnaise. These are sauces that involve (you guessed it) an emulsion, usually involving fat and egg yolks. 

5. Tomate or Tomato Sauce: Although not necessarily French at first glance, it's still a good, basic sauce. You can thank Escoffier for tomato sauce's addition to the list.

Although these are all very important sauces in their own right, today we are going to focus on the first 3, with notes specifically for Béchamel Sauce, as Part II of my Stovetop Macaroni & Cheese series. (The process is basically identical for the Velouté and Espagnole Sauces, so there you go).

The Problem with Hollandaise (and a great hack)

Breaking Benjamin... I mean Hollandaise

Hollandaise is notoriously tricky - ask anyone. The preparation is classic, and there are a lot of rules to making it. Professional chefs around the world tout the classic method of making this sauce: the double boiler method. This is how I was taught to make Hollandaise in college (big shout out to my instructor, Linda Kinney, but by no means is this a direct quote):

"Reduce vinegar (or lemon juice) with a few peppercorns in a double boiler over low simmering water. Remove the peppercorns and add in your egg yolks. Whisk like mad until they double in volume, but be careful not to over heat and scramble your yolks. Then remove your bowl, put it on a towel wrapped in a circle to insulate the bowl and keep it steady while you whisk like mad again as you pour hot melted butter into your yolks. Make sure there are no open windows or drafts, because this will break your sauce."

And break it did. My cooking partner and I totally forgot to close the window (mostly because I thought that the warning was crap), and our sauce... well, it went to that great Sauce Pot in the sky. Alas. The fun part was, since we had time left in class, we got to start all over again, only this time, we had to get it right.

Recipe: German Spargel Dinner

So, yesterday I posted a picture of my (likely) last taste of German white asparagus. Forget the green stuff; in Deutschland, white is the king of vegetables. Unfortunately, the season is relatively short. Here in Mainz, it officially ends with the coming of Johannesfest. I'm not exaggerating; after this weekend, there will be no more available asparagus until next spring. The fields are abandoned and remaining crops will be allowed free reign to grow into whatever asparagus grows into when we stop picking it.

I'm excited about the upcoming festival (one of the big 3 they have out here) but I'm sad to think that the coming of the Festival marks the end of Spargel season.

There are virtually innumerable ways to prepare this veggie, but I chose to stick with a classic, traditional dish that graces menus across the country between May and June. Although many restaurants will attempt new, bold ways of preparing Weißspargel, you can always find the classic preparation as well, namely steamed or boiled asparagus with a side of Salzkartoffeln, basically boiled potatoes. It's usually served with lemon, melted butter, or the incredibly decadent Hollandaise sauce. Most restaurants also offer the option of adding a side of protein in some form (the sign from this restaurant offers ham, salmon filet, or a veal steak). This preparation is really all about the Spargel.