SAUCES

Aioli: A strongly flavored garlic mayonnaise from the Provence region of Southern France.

Beurre Blanc Meaning white butter, this classic French sauce is composed of a white wine, vinegar and shallot reduction into which chunks of cold butter are whisked until the sauce is thick and smooth.  It’s excellent with poultry, seafood, vegetables and eggs.

Brown Sauce (Espangnole Sauce) Brown sauce is used as a base for dozens of sauces.  It’s traditionally made of meat stock, a mirepoix (usually carrots, onions & celery) of brown vegetables, a brown roux, herbs and sometimes tomato paste.

Emulsion: A mixture of one liquid with another with which it cannot normally combine smoothly (oil and water being the classic example).  Emulsifying is done slowly (sometimes drop-by-drop) adding one ingredient to another while at the same time mixing rapidly.  This disperses and suspends minute droplets of one liquid throughout the other.  Emulsified mixtures are usually thick and satiny in texture.  Mayonnaise (an uncooked combination of oil, egg yolks and vinegar or lemon juice) and Hollandaise Sauce (a cooked mixture of butter, egg yolks and vinegar or lemon juice) are two of the best known emulsions.

Hollandaise Sauce: This smooth, rich, creamy sauce is generally used to embellish vegetables, fish and egg dishes such as the classic, eggs benedict.  It’s made with butter, egg yolks, and lemon juice, usually in a double boiler to prevent overheating, and served warm.

Mayonnaise: A thick, creamy dressing that’s an emulsion of vegetable oil, egg yolks, lemon juice or vinegar and seasonings. 

Mirepoix: A mixture of diced carrots, onion, celery and sometimes leeks and herbs. It is the base of soups, stocks and sauces.

Red Sauce (Marinara): A simple tomato sauce flavored with garlic.

Reduce: Culinarily, to boil a liquid (usually stock, wine or a sauce mixture) rapidly until the volume is reduced by evaporation, thereby thickening the consistency and intensifying the flavor.  Such a mixture is sometimes referred to as a reduction.

Vinaigrette: A combination of oil and vinegar, generally used to dress salad greens and other cold vegetable, meat or fish dishes.  In its simplest form, a vinaigrette consists of oil, vinegar (usually three parts oil to 1 part vinegar), salt and pepper.  More elaborate versions contain herbs, spices, onions, mustard, etc.

White Sauce (Béchamel Sauce): This basic French white sauce is made by stirring milk into a butter-flour roux.  The thickness of the sauce depends on the proportions of flour and butter to milk.