Verily I say unto thee, that chrisv spake thusly:
> Homer wrote:
>> (snipped and archived)
>>
>> So in summary:
>>
>> Melted butter + flour = roux.
>> Roux + milk + seasoning = béchamel.
>> Béchamel + stock = savoury white sauce.
>
> I'm going to have to give that a go. Thanks.
>
> Can leftover sauce be frozen and later warmed, with good results? (I
> suppose that I've just blasphemed. 8)
Anything that contains dairy products tends to separate if frozen, and
the result is rather nasty. However you can freeze the /stock/, indeed
it's what you should do, so you can accumulate a good selection to use
when required. A light-coloured roux takes less than a minute to make;
the béchamel another couple of minutes; and the final sauce about five
minutes so it's not that time-consuming. The longest part of preparing
a sauce is making the stock, which takes a few hours - long enough for
the meat to fall off the bones; the marrowbone to run out; and the veg
and herbs to properly infuse.
Stock is mainly just liquid (you strain it through a colander and then
discard the "spent" solids), so it's safe to deep-freeze it for years,
although I'd recommend using it within six months, so the flavour does
not become stale.
Remember to label your frozen stock with the date and contents, or you
will end up with a freezer full of "Mystery Stock" and you'll probably
just end up throwing it away.
The results will make sauces; gravies; soups; marinades and bastes for
other roasts or barbecues, once you finish them appropriately.
If you're serious about sauces, you'll need a good saucepan. Brace for
the price ... it can run into hundreds of pounds/dollars! What to look
for is a thick copper base or all copper. The thick base helps prevent
the sauce catching (sticking and burning) and copper reacts quickly to
changes in temperature, which is exactly what you need when making the
sauce. It also conducts heat more evenly than steel or aluminium; that
makes the contents cook more evenly too, although you'll be working it
pretty fast, so that's not a big issue.
Keep all your meat bones, especially the remains of the chicken, which
most people simply discard - what a waste! Put the whole carcase in to
the stockpot, including the gizzards/offal, if supplied. Chicken stock
is probably the most useful of them all, since it is used as the basis
for so many different things (and it's a "safe" flavour, i.e. everyone
likes it).
--
K.
http://slated.org
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| "At the time, I thought C was the most elegant language and Java
| the most practical one. That point of view lasted for maybe two
| weeks after initial exposure to Lisp." ~ Constantine Vetoshev
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