Day 16: Who's Your Mama

Monday we made what are called the 'mother sauces'. These grand sauces are the 5 classic sauces. They can be served as is or can be used as a base for other sauces. Using the techniques we learned on Friday we were told to make all 5 sauces. Although we were all excited to get into the groove of cooking, Monday was HECTIC. Between the rain, it being a Monday and it being the first day we were on our own to cook it was a bit overwhelming. Although this was the case we all successfully made each sauce.   We made the following:

Sauce Espagnole/Spaniard Sauce- This is a dark brown, rich sauce made with a brown veal stock base. It simmers for over 2 hours so it reduces and has a thicker consistency.

Sauce Veloute- The base of this is a chicken stock and blond roux (clarified butter and flour cooked together). Therefore it was a lot lighter in color and flavor. I found it rather bland but the simple base definitely allows for creative sauces to be made from it.

Sauce Bechamel-The base of this sauce is milk and white roux. It is also lighter in color and flavor. An ingredient called onion pique is added, giving it a bolder flavor than one would expect. Onion pique is an onion with a bay leaf attached to it by the use of 3-4 cloves which act like push pins. This gave it an aromatic quality.

Glace de Viande-This is simply brown veal stock reduced until it is half its size. This happens by simmering the stock and allowing the water to evaporate out of it, leaving it thicker and more potent. A sauce like this relies heavily on the preparation of the stock, which is probably why we spent a full week working on stocks.

The front put is Sauce Bechamel (check the onion), the back pot is Sauce Bechamel

Each sauce was stored for the next day. Following that we stayed 45 minutes late to clean at least 25 pots. Keep in mind we are only 5 people in our class. I am still baffled thinking about how classes with 15 students clean up at the end of the day...