Monday, May 25, 2015

French terms from menus and recipes:

At cookery classes I learned there were two classic sauces, white and brown. White was made with flour and water or milk, maybe adding butter, cream, egg yolk or cheese, and went with fish or white meats such as chicken and veal or vegetables. The brown sauce was made with stock or meat juices thickened, sometimes with tomato, and went with duck and dark meats. White wine could be added to white sauce and red wine to brown sauce.

However, the French make cookery more complicated.
The five classic sauces defined by chef Escoffier:
béchamel, espagnole, hollandaise, tomate, veloute.

(More in Wikipedia and dozens of cookery websites such as www.culinaryartsabout.com)

Add cream and call it supreme. (Add a hat on the first e in French and pronounce it to rhyme with em, 'sue-prem'.)

Add flavourings such as onion, cloves, nutmeg.

bechamel - standard white sauce made with flour, milk, butter, one of the five basic sauces
chasseur - the chase or hunt on horseback
consomme - clear soup
coulis - thick sauce of vegetables or fruit
demi glace - demi means partly, glace - glazed
fricasse
jus - juice (often of meat)
Lyonnaise - from Lyon or in the style of Lyon
mayonnaise - egg and olive oil mixed as a dressing, thick cream colour
puree - turned into a near liquid, think of the word purified
vinaigrette

(Post being written and researched - come back later for more.)

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