If you have ever seared meat or sautéed vegetables and noticed the golden-brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pan, you have already met the foundation of great flavour. Those caramelised fragments may...

What Is a Liaison? In classical French cooking, a liaison refers to a mixture of egg yolks and cream used to enrich and slightly thicken soups and sauces. Unlike roux or beurre manié, which...

Beurre manié, which translates from French as “kneaded butter,” is one of the simplest yet most effective thickening techniques in French cooking. Unlike roux, which cooks flour in butter before adding liquid, beurre manié...

Chefs create beurre monté by whisking cold butter into a small amount of warm water. The result is a glossy, velvety liquid that behaves almost like a sauce. Beurre monte coats food beautifully and...

What Is Brown Butter (Beurre Noisette)? Brown butter, known in French as beurre noisette, is one of the simplest yet most transformative techniques in French cooking. The name noisette means “hazelnut,” which perfectly describes...

Beurre blanc, which translates to “white butter,” is one of the most elegant butter sauces in French cooking. Unlike heavy cream-based sauces or roux-thickened preparations, beurre blanc relies on a delicate emulsion of butter...

What Is Sauce Hollandaise? Sauce Hollandaise is one of the five classical mother sauces of French cooking. Rich, buttery, and delicately tangy, it stands apart from the others because it does not rely on...

What Is Sauce Tomate? Sauce tomate is one of the five classical mother sauces of French cooking. Although many people associate tomato sauce with Italian cuisine, French chefs developed their own refined version centuries...

What Is Sauce Espagnole? Sauce espagnole is one of the five classical mother sauces of French cooking. Dark, complex, and deeply savoury, it forms the foundation for many rich brown sauces. Unlike lighter sauces...

What Is Sauce Velouté? Sauce velouté is one of the five classical mother sauces of French cooking. The name “velouté” comes from the French word velours, meaning velvet — a fitting description for its...