Sauce is defined by Miriam Webster as a liquid dressing or topping. Those dressings and toppings vary depending on the food they are covering or incorporated into. One of the first sauces we become familiar with as young children is the popular spaghetti sauce. Short cut methods and fast food pushes over the years have taken what was once a traditional sauce, to a canned or jarred food for many. Learning how to make a sauce is an essential step in learning how to cook. The flavor of many sauces is greatly enhanced by fresh ingredients cooked from scratch or simmered on the stove top for a few hours.http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sauce

Making a sauce may seem intimidating when you hear unfamiliar words like Béchamel or Pesto or the thought of devising your own ingredients for ketchup or barbeque sauce may seem foreign to you. Béchamel is a French word for a white sauce. Pesto is Latin from the root word pestle and relates to the crushing of the ingredients. Both sauces are simple to make and much more flavorful when made fresh as opposed to a boxed or instant version. Adding your own ingredients to a sauce gets easier with practice but simply put, if it is liquid and adds an acceptable flavor it may be used in a sauce.

A sauce typically begins with a liquid, is simmered or cooked down and then thickened with a thickening agent and seasonings added. The type of sauce desired will dictate the beginning liquid, and the thickening agent can be selected as a compatible ingredient to the liquid. Seasonings are specific to the sauce or to the dish which it will coordinate with.

Continue reading for more information on making your own sauce of choice.

To begin your sauce, choose the liquid which suits the dish your sauce will accompany. For an Italian dish, the liquid generally involved tomato based product and may be a accompanied by a broth or juice. For example, a tomato sauce may focus predominantly on chopped tomatoes but simmer them in a beef broth for a beef based recipe. A cheese sauce uses a variety of cheese melted with a milk or a cream before thickening. A cream sauce can use a variety of dairy products as the base ingredient.

When making your own barbeque sauce the liquid may be a wine, a vinegar, ketchup, honey, Worcestershire or any combination of these. Beer is a common liquid in barbeque sauces. In tropical regions, the liquid of choice is often coconut milk. Some sauces will include an oil for flavor or other sauces within them such as a hoisin sauce which uses not only a soy sauce for liquid but adds sesame oil and hot sauce for additional flavor. Sauces are individual items. Each cook adds their own ingredients to make the sauce reflect their preferred taste. As you learn to make sauce you will develop additional techniques and may decide on a different base liquid for your next attempt at the meal.

The easiest thickener for a sauce is time and heat. A sauce which cooks down enough to reduce all the water from it will thicken. Often the process can take longer than the cook has so a thickener is needed to make the sauce provide the best coverage to the other ingredients and the most appealing look for serving the food. The heating to thicken approach is used when alcohols are included, and the heat cooks them away leaving the flavor in the sauce. http://www.foodreference.com/html/art-thickening.html

To thicken a white sauce, the French use two methods. One is called a roux and the other is called a beurre manié. Both use flour as a thickening agent. In a roux, the flour is cooked with an equal part of oil and the liquid of choice is added to it. In a beurre manié, the flour is mixed with butter but not cooked. It is added a thickener to the liquid and as the butter melts the flour thickens. This thickener must be used carefully in dishes where the flour taste won’t overpower the food.http://www.drgourmet.com/techniques/thickeningagents.shtmlhttp://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-beurre-manie.htmmore.

Another way to thicken a sauce is with egg yolks. Beating a few eggs yolks with a small amount of cream can serve as a thickener to a liquid. The eggs yolks should be added to a small amount of warmed sauce before adding to the entire mixture so the eggs will not start to cook by adding into a hot dish. The sauce should only be simmered after adding the eggs. http://www.recipetips.com/glossary-term/t--36479/thickener.asp

A sauce can be thickened by used pureed vegetables. The best example of this is pureed tomatoes added to a tomato sauce for a thicker sauce. Mashed potatoes can be used in small quantities in sauces. A pureed cauliflower can be added to a white sauce for use with a low carb diet.

Sauce seasonings match the liquid and work with the item it is served with. For Italian recipes, the sauce often simmers with oregano, basil, and marjoram. Asian recipes concentrate sauces with garlic, sesame, and ginger. Mexican sauces may add peppers, cumin and chili powder. A cheese sauce can include white pepper for a seasoning, or may season itself from the flavors of the cheese. Remember that sauces which are cooked down and all the water is removed are naturally saltier and these should be seasoned at the end of the cooking. http://www.foodreference.com/html/art-thickening.html

A homemade sauce may be prepared for serving over a pasta or as a dip for a bread. These should be prepared and maintained as a simmer or hot temperature until ready to serve. Other sauces are incorporated into a meal, like a baked macaroni and may cook further as the main dish cooks. For sauces of this type, the thickening process should leave room for the sauce to thicken further as the dish continues to cook.