Sauces

Saucemaking is one of the most important and most rewarding branches of cookery. In general, always check and re-check seasoning or flavour in a sauce before serving. Consistency is important: a coating sauce should just coat the back of a wooden spoon but level out as it runs back into the saucepan. A pouring sauce should be thinner and flow easily from a sauce-boat; simply increase the liquid in the recipe by half again. A binding sauce is a thick sauce, used in many made-up dishes to bind food, or as the base of a hot savoury soufflé – in this case only half the normal amount of liquid should be used.