Primary Derivatives of Sauce Velouté

Appears in

Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making

Published 1991

About

Sous Vide Cookery

Its Uses in Sauce Making

Much has been made about cooking in sealed plastic bags under water at precise temperatures (see Sous Vide Tank and Related Equipment). Sous vide cookery allows for such precise temperature control that it’s now possible to cook and stabilize liquid egg yolks. Sous vide cooking is also used to pregelatinize starch, which can be used as a thickener or emulsion stabilizer. The method is also handy for infusing herbs in vinegar or water and hence can save considerable time.

In any case, having an immersion bath set to an exact temperature can be a boon in a kitchen where careful control of bain-marie temperatures is imperative. You can hold a sauce at 140°F/60°C until needed. For a finished sauce with a frothy consistency, you can keep the sauce in a whipping siphon pressurized with nitrous oxide in the bain-marie or sous vide immersion tank.