Ch.11: Sauces

Chapter 11 of the book "On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen" by Harold McGee (1984) The History of Sauces in Europe The Science of Sauces Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces Solid Sauces: Jellies Salt

344 flashcards · Other · by lakesare

Part of Public › Books › On Food and Cooking (Harold McGee) · 16 courses

1. [Sauces] What is a sauce?

   A liquid served with the main ingredient of a dish, to improve that ingredient's flavor. The sauce either deepens the food's own flavor or adds a contrasting or complementary one.McGee: "Sauces are distillations of desire."

2. [Sauces] What does the word sauce originally mean?

   "Salt" (or "salted"). Salt was the first concentrated flavoring; sauce and salsa come from the Latin salsus, "salted".

3. [Sauces] Besides flavor, which two pleasures does a sauce give?

   How it feels in the mouth, and how it looks. Example: a glossy sheen, the bright color of a fruit or vegetable puree, the transparency of a clear jelly.

4. [Sauces] Why do cooks make sauces thicker than water but thinner than solid food?

   Thin enough to coat the food evenly, thick enough to cling to the food and the tongue. A sauce that stays in the mouth makes its flavor last longer and feels rich.

5. [Sauces] In general terms, how does a cook thicken a watery juice?

   By adding large molecules or particles that get in the way of the water molecules. Water molecules that keep bumping into these obstacles flow less freely, so the liquid is thicker.

6. [Sauces] How does a soup differ from a sauce?

   A soup has a less concentrated flavor, so it can be eaten as a food on its own.

7. [Sauces] How does a jelly differ from a sauce?

   A jelly contains enough gelatin to set solid at room temperature. A jelly is solid only until it is eaten: in the mouth it melts and becomes a sauce.

8. [The History of Sauces in Europe] What share of the recipes in the ancient Roman cookbook of Apicius are sauces?

   More than a quarter of its nearly 500 recipes. Most contained half a dozen or more herbs and spices, vinegar and/or honey, and the fermented fish sauce garum.

9. [The History of Sauces in Europe] The Roman word for sauce was ius, the ancestor of the English word "juice".

10. [The History of Sauces in Europe] How did Roman cooks thicken their sauces?

    Mostly with pounded ingredients, and also with wheat starch and egg yolks. Pounded thickeners: the flavorings themselves, nuts, rice, liver, sea urchins, bread or pastry.Starch, eggs and sea urchins are early forms of later, more refined thickening methods.

11. [The History of Sauces in Europe] The sour juice of unripe grapes, which with vinegar replaced Roman fish sauce in medieval sauces, is called verjus.

12. [The History of Sauces in Europe] How did European sauces of the Middle Ages (14th and 15th centuries) differ from Roman ones?

    New flavorings Fish sauce disappeared; Asian spices brought in through Arab trade and the Crusades took the place of local ones. Example: cinnamon, ginger, grains of paradise; almonds became the thickening nut. The cloth strainer Sauces were passed through a cloth sieve (étamine, tamis) to remove coarse particles and give a finer consistency. Thickening by concentration Boiling off water from meat broths gave the consommé and the solid jelly. Jellies were valued partly because they coated cooke…

13. [The History of Sauces in Europe] How did European sauces change between 1400 and 1700?

    Fewer, milder spices; lemon juice for sourness; flour, butter and egg emulsions for thickening. Lemon juice replaced vinegar and verjus; flour and emulsions replaced bread and almonds.In France, meat broths became the central element of fine cooking.

14. [The History of Sauces in Europe] In 18th-century French cooking, what was a sauce supposed to do to a food's flavor?

    Deepen the flavor the food already has, not add new flavors. Harmony came from concentrating meat juices alone; the cook François Marin (around 1750) called meat bouillon "the soul of cooking". The ancient Chinese ideal instead combined sweet, sour, bitter, salty and pungent ingredients in one pot.

15. [The History of Sauces in Europe] Which three classic French sauces are not based on meat juices?

    Hollandaise and mayonnaise (thickened by egg emulsion) and béchamel (milk, butter and flour).

16. [The History of Sauces in Europe] In the early 19th century the chef Carême sorted French sauces into four families (espagnole, velouté, allemande, béchamel). Each family has one leading sauce, and its other sauces are variations of the leading one.Why did this system suit French cooking after the Revolution, when cooks had less money and help?

    Most leading sauces were cheap, and all could be made ahead and varied at the last minute. Only espagnole used expensive concentrated meat extract; velouté and allemande used unreduced stock, béchamel used milk, and many were thickened with cheap flour.

17. [The History of Sauces in Europe] What are the five basic sauces of classic French cooking, and what are they made with?

    Espagnole (brown sauce) Brown stock (beef, veal), brown roux, tomatoes. Example: bordelaise adds red wine and shallots. Velouté White stock (veal, poultry, fish), yellow roux. Example: allemande adds egg yolks and mushrooms. Béchamel Milk, white roux. Example: Mornay adds cheese. Hollandaise Butter, egg yolks, lemon juice or vinegar. Example: béarnaise adds white wine, vinegar, shallots and tarragon. Mayonnaise Vegetable oil, egg yolks, vinegar or lemon juice. Example: rémoulade adds gherkins,…

18. [The History of Sauces in Europe] How is the basic Italian meat sauce, sugo, made?

    Meat juices are browned on the pan bottom, dissolved in broth and browned again, several times. The meat is cooked slowly so that it releases its juices.Unlike in French stocks, the meat stays in the sauce. Italian sauces are mostly built from whole ingredients (tomato, basil purees) rather than extracted essences.

19. [The History of Sauces in Europe] According to an 18th-century joke, what was England's only sauce?

    Melted butter. The line, attributed to Domenico Caracciolli: "England has sixty religions and one sauce."

20. [The History of Sauces in Europe] What are English bottled sauces such as ketchup and Worcestershire sauce originally imitations of?

    Asian soy and fish sauces and pickles, brought to England by 17th-century traders. English imitations used savory mushrooms and anchovies. Tomato ketchup started as a salty, spiced, vinegary tomato preserve; today's ketchup is a sweetened version.

21. [The History of Sauces in Europe] What did the French nouvelle cuisine of the 1960s and 1970s change about sauces?

    Fewer flour-thickened brown and white sauces; lighter stocks and last-minute pan reductions instead. Sauces were thickened instead with cream, butter, yogurt, fresh cheese, vegetable purees and foams.Gault and Millau's seventh commandment of nouvelle cuisine (1976): "You shall eliminate brown and white sauces."

22. [The History of Sauces in Europe] Which kinds of sauces became common in restaurants around 2000?

    Purees of fruits, vegetables, nuts and spices, and thin Asian dipping sauces based on soy or fish sauce. They take less time, labor and skill than the classic French sauces, whose stocks and reductions restaurants now mostly buy frozen.Some chefs use liquid nitrogen and thickeners from seaweeds and microbes for new suspensions, emulsions, foams and jellies.

23. [The Science of Sauces] Flavor is mainly a combination of which two sensations?

    Taste and smell. Taste is sensed on the tongue and has five kinds; smell is sensed high in the nose and has thousands of aromas.

24. [The Science of Sauces] What are the five tastes, and which molecules cause them?

    Salty (salt), sweet (sugars), sour (acids), savory (amino acids), bitter (alkaloids). All these molecules dissolve easily in water. Astringency (tea, red wine) is a form of touch and the pungency of mustard a form of pain, not true tastes.

25. [The Science of Sauces] How do aroma molecules differ from taste molecules in solubility?

    Aroma molecules dissolve better in fat than in water, and easily leave water for the air. That is how they reach the smell receptors in the nose.

26. [The Science of Sauces] How do taste sensations affect the perception of aroma?

    Sugar makes a sweet food smell stronger, and salt does the same for a savory food.

27. [The Science of Sauces] Where does the flavor complexity of classic French meat sauces come from?

    Concentrated savory amino acids from the meat, plus meaty aromas from browning. The browning aromas come from reactions between amino acids and sugars.

28. [The Science of Sauces] Why should a spoonful of sauce on its own taste too strong?

    A little sauce is eaten with a lot of food, so the sauce's flavor must be concentrated. Thickeners weaken flavor, so the seasoning is checked again after thickening.

29. [The Science of Sauces] A sauce tastes like "something is missing". What should the cook check?

    Saltiness, sweetness, acidity, savoriness and aroma, correcting whichever is lacking while keeping the balance.

30. [The Science of Sauces] In a sauce, what is the continuous phase?

    The material that surrounds all the other components; usually water. Exceptions with fat as the continuous phase: some vinaigrettes, butter, nut butters.

31. [The Science of Sauces] In a sauce, what is the dispersed phase?

    The particles, molecules, oil droplets or air bubbles spread through the water of the sauce. The surrounding water is called the continuous phase.Example: in a fruit puree, water is the continuous phase and cell-wall fragments are the dispersed phase.

32. [The Science of Sauces] How does a dispersed phase make a watery sauce seem thicker?

    It gets in the way of the water molecules, which can move only a short distance before bumping into it. Some thickeners also bind water molecules to themselves, so those water molecules no longer flow at all.

33. [The Science of Sauces] Why is oil more viscous than water?

    Oil molecules are long and drag against each other; water molecules are tiny and move freely. An oil molecule has three chains of 14 to 20 atoms each; a water molecule ( H2O\mathrm{H_2O}H2​O ) has three atoms.

34. [The Science of Sauces] The traditional French word for both the act of thickening and the thickening agent is liaison.

    It meant a close bond of any kind. English borrowed the culinary sense in the 17th century, before the military and romantic ones.

35. [The Science of Sauces] What are the four common ways of thickening a watery sauce?

    Particles: suspension Example: a vegetable puree. Long molecules: dispersion or gel Example: a starch- or gelatin-thickened sauce. Oil droplets: emulsion Example: mayonnaise. Air bubbles: foam Example: the foam on an espresso. Most real sauces combine two or more of these.

36. [The Science of Sauces] What is a suspension?

    A liquid with small solid particles spread through it. Pieces of plant or animal tissue suspended in liquid.

37. [The Science of Sauces] How does a cook make a suspension from a vegetable or a piece of meat?

    By grinding or blending it, which breaks open its cells. The fluid from the cells then surrounds the fragments of cell walls and connective tissue.

38. [The Science of Sauces] In a suspension, how does particle size affect texture and thickness?

    Smaller particles make the sauce both smoother and thicker. The tongue notices small particles less; and smaller particles are more numerous, with more surface area to hold water.

39. [The Science of Sauces] Why are suspensions opaque?

    Their particles are large enough to block light.

40. [The Science of Sauces] Why does a suspension (solid particles in a liquid) tend to separate?

    The particles and the water are very different materials, so they settle apart. The result is a thin fluid layer and a layer of concentrated particles.

41. [The Science of Sauces] How do cooks keep a suspension (solid particles in a liquid) from separating?

    Remove some of the water, or add starch, other long molecules or fat droplets. Example: boiling a tomato puree down a little.

42. [The Science of Sauces] Why are sauces thickened with dissolved molecules (starch, pectin, gelatin) usually translucent?

    Single molecules are too small and too far apart to block light. Long starch (left) and gelatin (right) molecules tangle and slow the flow of the liquid.

43. [The Science of Sauces] Why don't sauces thickened with dissolved molecules (starch, pectin, gelatin) separate?

    Single molecules are too small and light to settle out.

44. [The Science of Sauces] Among thickening molecules, which thicken more efficiently, long or short ones?

    Long ones, because they tangle with each other more easily. Example: a little long amylose starch thickens as much as a lot of short amylopectin.

45. [The Science of Sauces] Why does thickening with molecules usually require heat?

    Heat frees the molecules from larger structures, or unfolds compact molecules into long ones that can tangle. Example: starch from its granules, gelatin from connective tissue; egg proteins unfold.

46. [The Science of Sauces] What is a gel, in terms of molecules?

    A very moist solid: thickening molecules bonded into a continuous network, with water held still in the spaces between them. A gel of dissolved molecules is translucent; one that also contains particles (such as remains of starch granules) is opaque.Example: a wobbly jelly can be 99% water and only 1% gelatin.

47. [The Science of Sauces] What is an emulsion?

    Droplets of one liquid spread through another liquid that it cannot mix with. Oil droplets (left) and air bubbles (right) slow the flow of the liquid much as solid particles do.The word comes from the Latin for "milk", itself an emulsion of fat in water.

48. [The Science of Sauces] Why is an oil-in-water emulsion milky and thick?

    The oil droplets block light and get in the way of the water molecules.

49. [The Science of Sauces] What is an emulsifier?

    A substance that coats the droplets of an emulsion and keeps them from merging. Example: proteins, cell-wall fragments, and molecules with an oil-like end and a water-soluble end, such as egg-yolk lecithin.

50. [The Science of Sauces] Why does a foam collapse?

    Gravity drains liquid out of the bubble walls until they are only a few molecules thick and break.

51. [The Science of Sauces] How can a cook make a foam last longer?

    Thicken the liquid so it drains more slowly, or add an emulsifier that stabilizes the bubbles. Example: oil droplets or egg proteins slow drainage; egg-yolk lecithin stabilizes the bubbles.

52. [The Science of Sauces] In what three ways do thickeners reduce a sauce's flavor?

    They dilute it, they bind flavor molecules, and they slow the release of flavor to the tongue and nose. Example: fat holds aroma molecules; amylose starch traps them; flour binds more sodium than pure starch, so flour sauces need more salt.

53. [The Science of Sauces] Compare the flavor of a thin sauce with that of the same sauce thickened.

    The thin sauce tastes stronger at once; the thickened sauce releases its flavor more slowly and for longer.

54. [The Science of Sauces] Why does thickening a sauce by boiling off water not weaken its flavor?

    The thickeners have already bound all the flavor they can, and boiling concentrates the rest. Reduction can even make the flavor stronger.

55. [The Science of Sauces] How does salt help restore the flavor of a sauce thickened with flour or starch?

    Thickeners make a sauce taste less salty, which makes its aroma seem weaker too; salt restores both. The thickener binds sodium ions or adds viscosity for the brain to attend to; the number of aroma molecules reaching the nose is unchanged.

56. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] How does gelatin respond to heat, compared with nearly all other food proteins?

    Gelatin melts when hot and sets when cool, again and again; other proteins set permanently. Heat makes other proteins unfold, bond to each other permanently and coagulate.Gelatin's chemical makeup keeps its molecules from forming permanent bonds with each other.

57. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] Why is gelatin a relatively inefficient thickener?

    Its molecules are very flexible, while starch molecules are stiff and get in the way of water better.

58. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] Why are gelatin-thickened sauces usually given some starch as well?

    Thickening with gelatin alone takes 10% or more, which sets fast on the plate and glues the teeth together.

59. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] How are gelatin molecules arranged in collagen?

    Three gelatin chains twist into a triple helix; many helices are cross-linked into strong fibers. Weak bonds hold the three chains of a helix together. Left: collagen triple helices. Right: separated chains, i.e. gelatin.Each gelatin chain is about 1,000 amino acids long.

60. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] How does cooking turn collagen into gelatin?

    Heat breaks the weak bonds of the triple helix, and the separated chains dissolve in water as gelatin.

61. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] At what temperature does the collagen of land-animal muscle start to come apart?

    Around 60°C (140°F). Some gelatin dissolves into the meat juice, more as the temperature rises; strongly cross-linked fibers stay intact.

62. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] What happens to meat when its collagen fibers come apart at around 60°C (140°F)?

    The collagen fibers shrink and squeeze juice out of the muscle fibers.

63. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] Whose collagen is more strongly cross-linked, and so slower to give up gelatin?

    That of older animals and of hard-working muscles. Example: steer collagen takes longer to extract than veal-calf collagen.

64. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] For making stock, why are bones and skin good for body but meat needed for flavor?

    Bones and skin are rich in collagen but poor in flavor molecules; meat is the opposite. Collagen: bones about 20%, pig skin 30%, veal knuckles up to 40%, muscle only about 1%.Muscle's soluble part: about 5% non-collagen proteins, 2% amino acids and other savory molecules, and 1% each of collagen, sugars and minerals.

65. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] How much juice does meat release when thoroughly cooked?

    About 40% of its weight. The flow essentially ends once the meat reaches 70°C (160°F).

66. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] How long are stocks typically cooked to extract the meat and bones?

    Fish under an hour, chicken or veal a few hours, beef about a day.

67. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] What happens to dissolved gelatin when a stock cooks for a very long time?

    It breaks into shorter pieces, which thicken less.

68. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] Why are veal bones and meat prized for stock?

    They taste neutral and give a lot of soluble gelatin. Beef and chicken stocks taste distinctly of their meat. Cartilaginous veal knuckles and feet give especially much gelatin.

69. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] How much water is used for stock, compared with the meat and bones?

    1 to 2 times the weight of the meat and bones. Example: 1 kg of meat and bones in 1 to 2 liters of water.

70. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] How much stock does a batch of meat and bones yield?

    About half the weight of the meat and bones. Example: 1 kg of meat and bones gives about 0.5 liter of stock; the rest of the water evaporates.

71. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] Why is salt never added to a stock while it cooks?

    The meat and vegetables release salt, and it becomes concentrated as the stock reduces.

72. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] What do blanching (for a light stock) and roasting (for a dark stock) both do to the bones and meat?

    They coagulate the surface proteins, so these won't cloud the stock. Blanching also removes surface impurities; roasting adds color and roasted flavor through Maillard reactions.

73. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] Why is a stock started in cold water and heated slowly?

    Slow heating lets dissolved proteins coagulate into large clumps that are easily skimmed off or settle. Starting hot gives tiny protein particles that stay suspended and cloud the stock.

74. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] Why is a stock never boiled?

    Boiling churns particles and fat droplets through the liquid, making it cloudy.

75. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] Why is a stock pot left uncovered?

    Evaporation cools the surface, dries the scum for skimming, and starts concentrating the stock. A cooler surface means the stock is less likely to boil.

76. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] What is a double stock?

    A stock made by cooking a fresh batch of meat and bones in an existing stock instead of water. Especially flavorful and expensive. Repeating the step gives a triple stock.

77. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] What fraction of the gelatin in beef bones does a standard 8-hour kitchen extraction release?

    About 20%. So the bones may be extracted a second time, up to 24 hours in total.

78. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] What is glace de viande?

    Stock reduced to a tenth of its volume; it is about 25% gelatin and cools to a stiff, clear jelly. The name means "meat ice" or "meat glass".

79. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] What is glace de viande like in texture, taste and aroma?

    Syrupy and sticky, intensely savory, with a mellow but flat aroma. Concentrated gelatin makes it sticky and concentrated amino acids make it savory; the aroma is flat because volatile molecules boiled off during the long reduction.

80. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] What is demi-glace?

    Stock reduced to 25 to 40% of its volume (10 to 15% gelatin), with about 3 to 5% added starch. Many classic brown sauces start from demi-glace.

81. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] Why does demi-glace contain starch?

    Mainly to save money: starch thickens the stock with less reduction. Less reduction also boils off less flavor and avoids the stickiness of very concentrated gelatin.

82. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] Why is a pan sauce made by reducing stock to brown in the roasting pan, several times, less sticky than reduced stock?

    The high pan temperature breaks the gelatin into shorter molecules. The sauce therefore also sets more slowly.

83. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] How is a stock clarified for consommé?

    With egg whites: their proteins coagulate into a fine network that catches the particles and floats up as a "raft". Egg whites and chopped meat and vegetables are stirred into the cold stock, which is brought slowly to a simmer for about an hour. The raft is skimmed off and the liquid strained.The name comes from the French for "to use up".

84. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] Why are fresh meat and vegetables added during the egg-white clarification of consommé?

    Clarification removes some flavor and gelatin, which the fresh ingredients replace. Their dissolved proteins also form large particles that the egg-white network catches easily.

85. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] How do Chinese cooks clarify a meat broth without eggs?

    Twice with batches of finely chopped chicken meat, each simmered 10 minutes and strained off. Meat proteins, like egg-white proteins, collect the fine particles.

86. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] Who started the false idea that searing meat "seals in the juices"?

    The 19th-century chemist Justus von Liebig. Liebig also pioneered mass-produced meat extract, from another mistaken belief: that the soluble substances in meat carry most of its nutritional value. They do carry much of its savory flavor.

87. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] What is commercial meat extract made of?

    About 50% amino acids, peptides and gelatin, 20% water, 20% minerals and 5% salt. It is stock with more than 90% of its water evaporated.

88. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] Why do manufacturers of meat extract deliberately break down its gelatin?

    Intact gelatin would make the concentrated extract too thick to work with. They break it by extra hours of cooking and by pressure-cooking (135°C/275°F, 6 to 8 minutes). Most evaporation happens below 75°C (170°F) to limit browning.

89. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] How can a cook improve the flavor of a commercial meat extract or canned broth?

    Simmer it briefly with herbs and/or diced aromatic vegetables. Its aroma is generic and has been weakened by concentration.

90. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] Why can gelatin be extracted from fish at much lower temperatures than from mammals?

    Fish collagen is less cross-linked, suited to a cold body. Example: tilapia collagen melts at about 25°C (77°F), cod collagen at about 10°C (50°F).Squid and octopus collagen is more cross-linked and needs long heating at 80°C (180°F).

91. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] Why are fish stocks cooked for less than an hour?

    Longer cooking dissolves chalky calcium salts from the bones and breaks down the fragile fish gelatin. The calcium salts make the stock cloudy and chalky.Fish gelatin gels are delicate and melt at 20°C (70°F) or lower.

92. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] Why does cooking crustacean shells in water give a stock no body?

    The shells contain no collagen.

93. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] Why are crustacean shells extracted in butter or oil rather than water?

    Their color and flavor compounds dissolve better in fat than in water.

94. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] When wine is reduced for a sauce, which of its flavors become concentrated?

    Its tartness (acids), sweetness (sugar) and savoriness (succinic acid). Its aromas are changed by cooking instead. Much of the alcohol is cooked off because it tastes harsh when warm.

95. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] Why can a strongly reduced red wine become unbearably astringent?

    Its tannins become concentrated.

96. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] How do cooks keep a strongly reduced red wine from becoming too astringent?

    Reduce it with protein-rich ingredients: their proteins bind the tannins first. Tannins bound to food proteins can no longer bind the proteins of the mouth, which is what feels astringent.Example: finely chopped meat or a gelatin-rich stock reduction, much as milk proteins bind tea tannins.

97. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] How does heating thicken a sauce with proteins such as egg yolk?

    The proteins unfold and tangle into a loose network. Folded proteins (left), a thickening network (center), coagulated clumps (right).

98. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] What happens when a protein-thickened sauce curdles?

    Overheated proteins bond tightly into dense clumps, and the sauce turns grainy and thin again.

99. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] When thickening a sauce with egg yolks, when should the cook take it off the heat?

    As soon as it thickens noticeably (it coats a spoon); then stir until it cools. Most animal proteins coagulate from about 60°C (140°F), but the point varies, so the cook watches the consistency, not the thermometer.

100. [Gelatin- and Protein-Thickened Sauces] Why do cooks stir a little hot sauce into egg yolks before adding the yolks to the hot pot?

     Yolks added straight to the hot pot partly overheat into grains; premixing warms and dilutes them gently. The warmed mixture is then added to the rest of the sauce.