fall into various categories. What might be called ‘composed sauces’, i.e. composed in the kitchen and served with a dish, are essential to classical French cuisine and, more generally, are important in adding palatability to numerous dishes throughout the western world. But these sauces have few counterparts in the rest of the world; thus in Asia it is more usual to find that what fills the role of a sauce is part of the dish itself (e.g. curries), or that it is a condiment such as the SE Asian fish sauces.
Even within the category of composed sauces there are vast differences. Some are simple mixtures of ingredients (e.g. pesto, romesco, skorthalia). Others require cooking, sometimes in two stages. Basics (stock, fumet, glace de viande, espagnole) are prepared first, and always on hand in professional kitchens on the French model. These lead to ‘mother’ sauces such as béchamel and hollandaise; mothers because in a third stage they have offspring such as sauce mornay (cheese sauce) from béchamel and mousseline from hollandaise. Family trees can be constructed, into which all recorded composed sauces will fit, but contemplation of them is tedious.
English cookery of the traditional and simple sort is not strong on sauces. The Frenchman who alleged that there was only one, ‘drawn butter’, by which he meant melted butter with a dusting of flour in it, was exaggerating, but in a venial way. A tour of England in the mid-20th century would have revealed that bread sauce (for chicken), parsley sauce (for fish), and cheese sauce (for macaroni) were quite common. These are all delicious when well made; see for example Fernie (1905) on bread sauce. All are essentially versions of the white sauce which had been an economical alternative for the more expensive drawn butter. On the sweet side, the British are partial to custard sauce. There is also the solid ‘sauce’ known as ‘hard sauce’ and associated particularly with Cumbria and with Christmas pudding. It is made with butter, sugar and (usually) brandy or rum, and has been adopted in the USA since the 1880s.
See also aïoli; avgolémono; béarnaise sauce; bordelaise; brown sauce; brown sauces; chocolate sauce; Cumberland sauce; gravy; mayonnaise; mole; ragú; ravigote; rouille; tarator; travelling sauce; velouté, vinaigrette; white sauce.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Fernie, W. T. (1905), Meals Medicinal, Bristol: Wright.
