Learn Different Stocks, Sauces, and Soups Before Creating New Dishes

An Introduction to different stocks, sauces, and soups

Stocks, soups, and sauces are the foundation of many types of cuisines across the world. Award-winning dishes from five-star restaurants also start from a base made with any of these three. Here’s a basic introduction to these three dish bases:

Stocks

Stocks in cooking are rich, flavorful liquids used as a base for soups, sauces, and other dishes. These are usually produced by simmering meat, fish, or poultry flesh and bones, vegetables, and seasoning with liquid. To cut cooking time and create more efficient operations, you can easily enhance your stocks with rich, meaty flavors by using bouillons and stock bases like Knorr Beef Broth Base or Knorr Chicken Cubes.

Types of stocks in cooking:

• Brown stock – Made with beef or veal bones placed in a lightly oiled roasting pan and browned in an oven.
• White stock – Uses Simmered and un-browned veal or beef bones that provide more delicate flavors.
• Chicken stock – Prepared by simmering chicken bones with mirepoix and seasonings. It is also sometimes referred to as white stock.
• Fish stock – Made with the bones, heads, skin, and trimmings of lean, white deep-sea types of fish.

Soups

Soups should always be prepared with high-quality ingredients, using the proper techniques. Gelatine from boiled bones provides the “body” of the soup, but thickening agents such as meat, fish, poultry, or vegetables can also serve as alternatives. There are two categories of soups:

1. Clear soups

Clear soups are simple and have no solid ingredients. Some examples are:

• Broth – A flavor-packed liquid that is a by-product of simmering meat or vegetables.
• Vegetable soup – A liquid made from clear seasoned stock or broth with one or two types of prepared vegetables.
• Consommé – A rich, flavorful stock or broth made clear and transparent.

2. Thick soups

You can distinguish this soup type from clear ones by its opacity. Thick soups are denser thanks to thickening agents such as roux. For a heavier consistency, you may also add a combination of one or more pureed ingredients to the mix. It creates the following:

• Cream soup – A liquid thickened with a roux or other thickening agents with milk or cream.
• Puree – A soup that is naturally thickened by one or more pureed ingredients or based on starchy ingredients.
• Chowder – A hearty American style of soup made from fish, shellfish, or vegetables.
• Potage – A thick and hearty soup or stew usually comprised of meats or vegetables cooked in a liquid to form a thick mixture.

Sauces

Sauces are liquids that increase flavor and palatability or enhance the appearance, nutritional value, and moisture content of food. Most fried, grilled, roasted, and steamed dishes benefit from the addition of different types of sauces. There are numerous ways of making sauces but they are best enhanced with the following thickeners:

• Slack or brown roux – Prepare by using more fat than flour for thickening demi-glace sauces.
• Lean or white roux – Make by using more flour than fat. This can be blended with milk to create béchamel sauce or with meat stock to create velouté.
• Egg – Use a whole egg as the whites hold moisture loosely for a creamy consistency and the yolk provides more thickening power.
• Starch – Use starch made from waxy maize, corn, potato, rice, or arrowroot. Dissolve the starch in hot water to create gelatinization for a proper thickener.

Types of sauces

• Brown sauce – Prepared with mirepoix, fat, and flour to create a tan-colored sauce.
• Velouté sauce – Prepared from white stock and lean roux to create a base for cream soups and vegetarian sauces.
• Béchamel sauce – Prepared with a mixture of flour, butter, and milk from a meat base.
• Cream sauce – Prepared with rich cream or a milk base to produce a white liquid.

Preparing any of these liquids will require practice as they are not easy to perfect. Your first try might not even give you your intended results. To save time and effort, you can turn to Knorr Chicken Cubes or Knorr Beef Broth Base. These products produce comparable tastes to different stocks, sauces, and soups made from scratch.