Cream and Butter Sauces

Cream and butter don’t need to be made into sauces—they themselves are sauces! In fact they’re prototypes for sauces in general, with their lingering, mouthfilling consistency and rich but delicate flavor. A ramekin of melted butter in which to dip a morsel of lobster or an artichoke leaf, a pour of cream over fresh berries or pastry— these are wonderful combinations. But cream and butter are versatile ingredients, and cooks have found other ways to exploit them in saucemaking.