Welcome to my new blog

All about sauces, all about flavor, all about the easy and a lot about the healthy.

First, we need to define 'sauce'.

In cooking, a sauce is liquid, creaming or semi-solid food served on or used in preparing other foods. Sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to another dish. Sauce is a French word taken from the Latin salsus, meaning salted. Possibly the oldest sauce recorded is garum, the fish sauce used by the Ancient Romans.

Sauces need a liquid component, but some sauces (for example, pico de gallo salsa or chutney) may contain more solid elements than liquid. Sauces are an essential element in cuisines all over the world.

Sauces may be used for savory dishes or for desserts. They can be prepared and served cold, like mayonnaise, prepared cold but served lukewarm like pesto, or can be cooked like bechamel and served warm or again cooked and served cold like apple sauce. Some sauces are industrial inventions like Worcestershire sauce, HP sauce, or nowadays mostly bought ready-made like soy sauce or ketchup, others still are freshly prepared by the cook. Sauces for salads are called salad dressing. Sauces made by deglazing a pan are called pan sauces.

A cook who specializes in making sauces is a saucier.

While writing for my other blog Wish Upon A Dish I came to realize that people don't make sauces from scratch anymore. Look at all those jars of sauces in the mustard/ketchup aisle.

Answer me these three questions.....does anyone ever remember finishing a bottled sauce before they eventually had to throw it away?

Then there's......How many sauce bottles line your refrigerator door?

and last but not least.....how many bottles in your pantry have expired expiration dates?

I am not talking about gravies. Gravies are made using meat or fish (bones, flesh or shells). That, my dears, is a whole 'nother thing.

Marinades are considered sauces if you cook them after marinading is over, to make a pan 'sauce' as well as basting sauces.

Confused yet?

Stick with me and I will make you an expert.