Special Sauces for Food

Sauces can spice up a meal and enhance the flavor of a piece of meat, vegetables or dessert. There are many types of sauces to make each dish special.

Hollandaise Sauce:

This sauce is commonly made for Eggs Benedict. It is a rich sauce with egg yolks and butter, which is warm when it is poured over the Eggs Benedict. The Eggs Benedict are made with Canadian bacon, English muffin, eggs and seasoning.

Easy Recipe for Hollandaise Sauce

Ingredients:

• 4 egg yolks
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) melted butter
• 2-3 tsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice
• Salt
• Pepper

Instructions:

1. Melt butter and make sure it is just warm, not hot.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks with lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste, stir until smooth.
3. Put the bowl with the egg yolks on top of a small pan of boiling water (not touching the bowl to the water) or use a double boiler.
4. Immediately whisk the egg yolks constantly, slowly adding the melted butter.
5. Once well mixed, continue to whisk for 2-3 minutes (approximately) until it starts to thicken.
6. Use immediately, or remove from heat and cover until serving.
7. If it thickens or starts to separate, mix in a 1/2 tsp or so of warm water before serving.

It is made to use on fish. It is usually a light sauce with lemon juice and lemon zest, butter, shallots and some herbs. It is placed over the fish before it is cooked in the oven or by steaming

This is a cold sauce which was invented in France, which has and various condiments. It can be spicy depending on which recipe you use. It was designed to use over beef, but it has become very popular with seafood dishes. It should be kept in a container with a tight lid in the refrigerator

This is another French sauce made with clarified butter, egg yolks, shallots, chervil, peppercorn and tarragon. It is difficult to make and chefs say it takes years of practice to be perfect. This is made for beef, particularly Chateaubriand

Many common Italian sauces are made with tomato paste. A homemade tomato sauce takes about two hours to cook to achieve the correct thickness. While fresh basil leaves, and garlic are typically found in these sauces, you can use oregano and other spices to taste.

A serving is typically about 158 calories. You can cook the sauce on top the stove or in a crock pot. You can also make a large batch of tomato sauce and freeze the rest.

This is used as a sauce for fish or filling for chicken or you can toss it in with pasta. In addition to the spinach and pecans, there is basil, extra virgin olive oil, shredded parmesan cheese, garlic and salt. Refrigerate this pesto if you don’t use it right away in a sealed container.

This sauce is made with onions, vegetable broth, cream, butter, flour, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Then, it is cooked in a saucepan in the stove. It is served with lamb or duck.

This sauce can be made using cheddar cheese and evaporated. It is delicious poured over vegetables such as cauliflower or broccoli. The vegetables can be steamed, boiled or baked.

This sauce is for brushing over meat cooking on the grill. Combine beer (stout), chili sauce, vegetable oil, soy sauce, Dijon mustard, onion and garlic. You continue basting the meat until it is done to your satisfaction.

Fruit Dessert Sauces:

• Fruits, whether strawberry, lemon or another choice are very popular for desserts. As you would expect, there is lemon juice and zest, sugar with a few other ingredients. Strawberries have the bright color and sweet flavor. They are cooked on the stove to thicken for a short period of time, and then, poured over many different desserts, such as bread pudding, fruit cake, angel food cake and other types of cake, puddings and so forth.
• There are many different types of fruits to make a wonder dessert sauce. For example, oranges are frequently used. Most of the time there are no leftovers, but the sauce could be kept covered in the refrigerator for a few days if necessary.

Basic sugar sauce:

These sauces are made from sugar, evaporated milk, butter and vanilla and can be used over many desserts, usually a dessert with some type of fruit such as cranberry squares. You can use this basic sweet sauce and add a variety of fruits for different flavor experiences.

There are numerous chocolate recipes that can be poured over ice cream or any just eaten. They can be kept in the refrigerator with a tight lid for several days.

I can think of dozens of sauces that are not listed above. Sauces enhance the flavor of food, but sometimes they may change the taste all together. It usually makes food look a little more appealing or fancy.

Cooking sauces for the most part is not that difficult. I have tried a few sauces for meats, vegetables and desserts. I hope you've enjoyed the article.

The copyright, renewed in 2018, for this article is owned by Pamela Oglesby. Permission to republish this article in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.