Making Great Sauces at Home

Preparing Restaurant Quality Sauces

A great sauce can vary widely depending on personal taste preferences and cultural backgrounds, but there are some common characteristics that many people appreciate. It typically enhances the flavors of the dish it accompanies without overpowering them.

It should have a balanced combination of sweet, savory, tangy, or spicy, depending on the dish it's meant to complement. The texture is also important; a sauce should have a pleasing consistency that coats the food nicely without being too thick or too thin.

Additionally, it often adds depth and complexity to a dish, elevating it from good to outstanding. Great sauces include classic French hollandaise, Italian marinara, Thai peanut sauce, and many others worldwide. Ultimately, what makes a sauce great is its ability to harmonize with the dish it accompanies and leave a lasting impression on the diner.

Classic French Style Sauces

If you have spent time on my website, you know I am a huge fan of preparing sauces, pan sauces, classic French-style sauces, and everyday simple sauces. As Fernand Point, the man considered to be the father of modern French cuisine, said, "It is the sauce that distinguishes a good chef. The Saucier is a soloist in the orchestra of a great kitchen."

Now, that may be taking it a bit far, but I do believe if you know how to prepare sauces, you can turn an ordinary sautéed chicken breast into something special. The same goes for a pork chop and even a steak that can usually stand on its own. See my Steak with Wild Mushroom Sauce or Grilled Steak with Peppercorn Sauce.

The trick to making great sauces at home is having the right ingredients. Professional chefs can serve you an incredibly rich, velvety brown sauce in your favorite restaurant because they have spent hours, sometimes days, preparing stock reductions and demi-glaces.

Most home cooks don't have the time or desire to put the time and effort into making classic stock reductions for soups, stews, braises, and sauces. Sure, we have no trouble making a batch of chicken stock for homemade chicken soup, but how many of you want to spend two days making a demi-glace? Not me.

Good News For Home Cooks

The good news for us is that companies are now making very good commercial stock reduction products that we can use to make great sauces in our kitchens. Some are better than others and my goal this year is to try as many products as possible and give them a taste test.

In the meantime, check out my article, Secret to Great Sauces Is Demi Glace. You learn what demi-glace is, how it is used, where to find a great recipe for making it at home, and where to buy commercial versions of it so you can make sauces like the best gourmet restaurant chefs.  I can now make the same sauces I've enjoyed in many of the fine restaurants I've been fortunate to dine at.

Commercial Restaurant Quality Demi Glace Products Are Now Available to Home Cooks

Below, you will find a collection of commercial demi-glace products at Amazon.  There may be others; I know Williams Sonoma makes a version, but these are some of the bigger names in commercially sold demi-glace. Even a couple are packaged and marketed to restaurants, but I thought you might be interested in knowing about them.

The ingredients vary, as do the prices. I highly recommend you read through the different products and find one or two that meet your ingredient requirements and fit your budget. Try them and compare them with other products on the market to determine which is best for you.

Some of My Favorite Sauce Recipes