HISTORY OF SAUCES

Origin and history of sauces

200 A.D. In Roman Empire the sauces were used to mask the flavor of tainted food items, at that time the main courses are different both in the number and elaboration of dishes. Roast and boiled meat, poultry, game or other meat delicacies would be served.Dishes were completed with its highly flavored and seasoned sauces. At that time the sauces were used to hide the actual flavor of food.Sometimes so many ingredients were used in a sauce it was impossible to single out any one flavour. A chef apicius wrote at the end of one of his recipes for a particularly flavoursome sauce, 'No one at table will know what he is eating'. These sauces were usually thickened with wheat flour or crumbled pastry. Honey was often incorporated into a 'sweet-sour' dish or sauce.

Highly flavoured sauces often containing as many as a dozen ingredients were extensively used to mask the natural flavours of Roman food. The most commonly used seasoning was liquamen, the nearest equivalent today being a very strong fish stock, with anchovies as its main ingredient. This was so popular that it was factory-produced in many towns in the Roman Empire.

There are five foundation or mother sauces or basic sauces, called in French grandes sauces or sayces meres. Bechamelle and the mayonnaise have a very long history and have lasted so long, not only because they are very good but also because they are so adaptable and provide a fine basis for a considerable number of other derivative sauces.

Mother Sauces – mother sauces they are the five most basic sauces required to make infinite sauces based on it .Antonin Careme, also known as father of French cuisine after research found that a large number of sauces can be categorized under five sauces, as almost all the sauces can be made on a small group of sauces made with few basic ingredients and simple recipe, they were termed as mother sauces or basic sauces. If we know the recipe of these mother sauces we can make a large number of other sauces known as derivatives

The five Mother Sauces are:

• Bechamel Sauce/ white sauce
• Veloute Sauce /blonde sauce
• Espagnole Sauce/brown sauce
• Hollandaise Sauce (butter)
• Tomato Sauce (red)

BÉCHAMEL SAUCE

• According to Italians this sauce is created in the 14th century and was introduced by the Italian chefs of Catherine de Medici (1519-1589), the Italian-born Queen of France. In 1533, as part of an Italian-French dynastic alliance, Catherine was married to Henri, Duke of Orleans (the future King Henri II of France. It is because of the Italian cooks and pastry makers who followed her to France that the French came to know the taste of Italian cooking that they introduced to the French court. Antonin Carème(1784-1833), celebrated chef and author, wrote in 1822: "The cooks of the second half of the 1700’s came to know the taste of Italian cooking that Catherine de’Medici introduced to the French court."

• According to second version Béchamel Sauce was invented by Duke Philippe De Mornay (1549-1623), Governor of Saumur, and Lord of the Plessis Marly in the 1600s. Béchamel Sauce is a variation of the basic white sauce of Mornay.

Marquis Louis de Béchamel (1603–1703), a 17th century financier who held the honorary post of chief steward of King Louis XIV's (1643-1715) household, is also said to have invented Béchamel Sauce when trying to come up with a new way of serving and eating dried cod. There are no historical records to verify that he was a gourmet, a cook, or the inventor of Béchamel Sauce.

It is more likely that Chef Francois Pierre de la Varenne (1615-1678) created Béchamel Sauce. He was a court chef during King Louis XIV's (1643-1715) reign, during the same time that Béchamel was there. He is often cited as being the founder of haute cuisine (which would define classic French cuisine). La Varenne wrote Le Cuisinier Francois (The True French Cook), which included Béchamel Sauce. It is thought that he dedicated it to Béchamel as a compliment. La Varenne recipes used roux made from flour and butter (or other animal fat) instead of using bread as

Definition

Béchamel is a white sauce made by thickening milk with a white roux(roux blanc). When making a roux it is important to ensure that the flour is actually cooked to a small degree so that the raw flavour of flour is removed. Also, make sure you don't burn the roux. Any hint of burnt flavour can ruin the béchamel.

Milk flavored with onion and peppercorns is added in to white roux and then simmered to form the basic bechamel. to avoid any lump formation add either a cold liquid to a hot roux or a hot liquid to a cold roux.

VELOUTÉ

Velouté (vuh loo teh) is pale ivory color mother sauces, veloute in englihs is velvet, it is made by thickening white stock with blonde roux. This sauce is similar to béchamel sauce except for two things:

• 1. Stock is added to the roux, instead of milk; and
• 2. During cooking, the sauce must be skimmed.

Definition

Velouté is usually made with veal, chicken or fish stock and is made with a white or blonde roux . Velouté only differs from brown sauce by being made with white stock and a blonde or white roux. Simply you make the white/ blonde roux and add the stock. The mixtures is then simmered for long time to obtain a transparent sauce.if made well this sauce will have shining and velvety texture.

The base stock gives the main flavor to the sauce and also the name to it. E.g chicken veloute, veal veloute. Etc.

HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

Hollandaise Sauce (HOL-uhn-dayz) - Hollandaise mean Holland-style or from Holland.an emulsion sauce made by making emulsion of melted butter and lemon juice , The lecithin in egg yolks is a natural emulsifier and binds the butter and lemon juice to form cream or lemon in colour with a luster and buttery smooth texture . A rich sauce which is served hot. to form a light pale yellow coloured

Definition

Hollandaise is an emulsified sauce made by combining egg yolks with butter and lemon juice in a double boiler., some what frothy mixture that is light, creamy and buttery smooth. Hollandaise can be used on fish and vegetables and in egg dishes (eggs benedict). Mayonnaise is also an emulsified mixture but tends to get classified as a dressing rather than a sauce.

The making of Hollandaise requires careful control of temprature therefore the use of a double boiler is required. The important requirement is to not cook the eggs at too high a temprature and instead of a sauce get scrambled eggs. The egg yolk ( 2 or more depending on quantity desired) and a few drops of water are added to the steel bowl. Move the bowl over the simmering water and whisk. The eggs should begin to foam and become slightly firmer. Begin adding small pieces of butter. This can also be made with clarified butter. You might have to move the mixture on and off the heat several times throughout the process. Keep adding butter and perhaps add a tablespoon of water. The sauce should become fairly thick but also lighten and frothy. You will need 2- 4 oz of clarified butter or half-a-lb of fresh butter. Add salt, pepper and some lemon juice to taste.

Making this sauce successfully can require some practice and maybe another pair of helping hands initially until you get the temprature, timing, quantities and coordination required. One of my favourite variants is bernaise sauce made by reducing vinegar, wine, tarragon and shallots and adding this liquid to the egg yolks and whisking in butter as you would for hollandaise.

MAYONNAISE

Mayonnaise (MAY-uh-nayz)

is an emulsion consisting of oil, egg, vinegar, condiments, and spices.

History: When first invented, it was called Mahonnaise. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the sauce got its present name of mayonnaise purely by accident through a printing error in an early 1841 cookbook. There are many conflicting stories on the origin of mayonnaise:

• Most authorities believe the first batch of this mixture of egg yolks, oil and seasonings was whipped up to celebrate the 1756 French capture of Mahon, a city on the Spanish Isle of Minorca, by forces under Louis-Francois-Armad de Vignerot du Plessis, duc de Richelieu (1696-1788). The Duke, or more likely, his personal chef, is credited with inventing mayonnaise, as his chef created a victory feast that was to include a sauce made of cream and eggs. Realizing that there was no cream in the kitchen, the chef substituted olive oil for the cream and a new culinary creation was born. Supposedly the chef named the new sauce "Mahonnaise" in honor of the Duc's victory. Besides enjoying a reputation as a skillful military leader, the Duke was also widely known as a bon vivant with the odd habit of inviting his guests to dine in the nude.

Early French immigrant cooks that originally lived in Fort Mahon brought the original recipe to Minnesota. An old superstition is that a woman should not attempt to make mayonnaise during menstruation time, as the mayonnaise will simply not blend together as well.

• Some historians state that Marie Antoine Careme (1784-1833), celebrated French chef and author, proclaimed that mayonnaise was derived from the word magnonaise (magner means “made by hand” or “stir”). Due to the time period of when Careme was a chef, this theory doesn't make sense, as he would surely have know the history of the name, had mayonnaise been created as recently as 1756.

• The French cities Bayonne and Les Mayons also claim to be the place of birth of mayonnaise.
  
  Les Mayons, capital of Minorque in the Balearic Islands, occupied by English and conquered by the French admiral Louis-François-Louis-François-Armand of Plessis de Richelieu. He brought back a local sauce based on lemon juice key and egg yolk, olive oil, raised of a little black pepper and marine salt, garlic or fresh grass.
  
  Bayonne, a resort town on the Aquitaine/Basque coast in southwest France. It is thought that mayonnaise could be an alteration and corruption of bayonnaise sauce. Nowdays, bayonnaise refers to a mayonnaise flavored with the Espelette chiles.
  
• The sauce may have remained unnamed until after the Battle of Arques in 1589. It may then have been christened "Mayennaise" in 'honor' of Charles de Lorraine, duc de Mayenne (1554-1611), supposedly because he took the time to finish his meal of chicken with cold sauce before being defeated in battle by Henri IV (1553-1610).

• Other historians claim it received its name from the Old French words "moyeunaise" or "moyeu," meaning, "egg yok."

In 1910, Nina Hellman, a German immigrant from New York City, made a dressing that her husband, Richard Hellman, used on the sandwiches and salads he served in his New York delicatessen. He started selling the spread in "wooden boats" that were used for weighing butter. Initially he sold two versions of the recipe, and to differentiate between the two, he put a blue ribbon around one. In 1912, there was such a great demand for the "ribbon" version, that Hellmann designed a "Blue Ribbon" label, which he placed on larger glass jars. He did so well that he started a distribution business, purchased a fleet of trucks, and in 1912 built a manufacturing plant. Also Best Foods, Inc. in California did the same. Hellman and Best Foods later merged and account for about 45% of all bottled mayonnaise sole in the United States

Espagnole

Espagnole is basically a brown roux. Roux (the combination of fat and flour to create a thickening agent) is ancient. It is interesting to note that La Varenne's Le Cuisnier Francois [1651] does not contain a recipe for sauce Espagnole. It does, however, offer brief instructions regarding sauce Robert, a well documented variation. Culinary evidence confirms during the 18th and 19th centuries several recipes for Espagnole were published. They ranged from original & complicated to convenient & simple. At some point, tomatoes were introduced. The difficulty with tracing the history of Espagnole has nothing do with the lack of documentation. It's a fascinating sleuthing job sorting out the plethora of names by which this sauce assumes alias. To complicate matters? Lenten Espagnole does not (of course!) employ meat base.

"Espagnole. The name given in classical French cuisine to the mother sauce' from which are derived many of the sauces described under brown sauces. The name has nothing to do with Spain, any more than the counterpart allemande...has anything to do with Germany. It is generally believed that the terms were chosen because in French eyes Germans are blond and Spaniards are brown. Some authorities prefer to regard demiglace...as the parent of the group of brown sauces, and would say that espagnole is the penultimate stage in producing demi-glace. However, what is certain is that for people outside France as well as inside the term expagnole is widely understood to mean the basic brown sauce, and indeed one which can be used on its own although it normally has added flavourings and a new name. The arduous procedure for making an espagnole on traditionally approved lines is now rarely followed."
---

Definition

Sauce Espagnole is a brown stock bound with a brown roux. Brown stock is made from veal (shin), bacon rind, carrots, onion, garlic and bouquet garni however other meat bones can be added. Reduction of a brown stock produces a meat jelly called glace de viande which sets at room temprature. The same can be done with white stock (above). Glace de viande is often used to finish off sauces giving them a strong flavor and a translucent and highly glossy appearance.

After adding brown stock to the brown roux, carrots, onions and herbs are once again put in the mixture. This is left to simmer and is cleared (as above) for a good 3 hours In order to keep the stock clear it must not be boiled. The addition of meat jelly to the sauce espagnole makes a demi-glace which is a common addition to finishing off a whole range of sauces.

In modern cooking the addition of a roux to thicken a sauce is becoming less fashionable. A preferred method is to reduce the sauce and let it thicken naturally. This can mean perhaps deglazing the pan of the cooking juices with wine or water, adding some demi-glace or glace de viande (perhaps even cream), herbs and spices and reducing the sauce until the desired thickness is achieved.