Essential Techniques for Preparing Restaurant Quality Sauces

How you can prepare great sauces at home.

Now that we have looked at some of the important ingredients used for restaurant-quality sauces let's look at a few vital cooking techniques associated with sauce making.

This is not a complete list. Some great saucing cookbooks go into much more detail, but these are the techniques you'll need for making the sauces on my site.

How to Emulsify

To emulsify is to force two ingredients into a solution that doesn't naturally combine, primarily fat and water. Emulsions can be made by hand with a whisk or in a mixer, food processor, or blender.

An emulsifier, usually lecithin in egg yolks, is added to assist in forcing the emulsion. Mayonnaise, aioli, vinaigrette, Hollandaise sauce and sabayon are all emulsions.

The secret to making a stable emulsion is slowly adding fat to the water ingredients while whisking quickly and constantly. Emulsions cannot be rushed. If you get impatient and add the fat (oil, butter) too quickly, the emulsion will break, leaving you with a watery, oily mess.