S...is for Stocks & Sauces
Week two was all about stocks and sauces. They say your knife skills combined with how well you make sauces is the measuring stick of a chef. If that's the criteria, so far so good!
Stocks were a piece of cake. Pretty nasty, but easy to make. Let's just say that cooking school isn't always glamorous. Rubbing down veal bones with your bare hands is just plain gross. And de-fatting chicken back isn't much better. Especially if your chicken backs still have some feathers in them like mine did. Although worse than either of those is getting out your bones from the 40 lb box. You've got to stick your bare hands into 4-6" of blood. Did you ever think I could be so brave??? I didn't.
Sauces on the other hand are much less gross. We used the stocks we already made, so there was no unnecessary carnage in sauce-making. There are 5 mother sauces: Espagnole (brown stock base), Volute' (white stock base), Bechamel (milk base), Hollandaise (butter base), and Tomato (I bet you can guess the base for that!). We turned each sauce into 2-3 secondary sauces, which made quite a few by the end of the week. I sailed right through most of them.
Hollandaise was my one rough moment. It is the perfect sauce. Mostly it's just butter and egg yolk. You've probably had it on a steak or eggs benedict. Hollandaise is a very tempermental sauce. If you get it too hot you scramble the eggs, if it's not whisked fast enough it doesn't emulsify and "breaks", and if it is not hot enough it won't thicken. So you've only got about a 10-15 degree range where it come together properly. I really didn't want to break my sauce, so I was VERY careful. I added 8oz of melted butter, literally one drop at a time and whisked in. I was so overcautious it took me 45 minutes to make my sauce. That's 45 minutes of straight, rapid whisking. I truly thought my arm might fall off. Give that one a try sometime.
Well, turns out I was trying to be so careful I ended up ruining my sauce. I whisked my stainless steel bowl so hard that I whisked little flecks of the metal right into the sauce and turned it gray. Which means that it is un-servable in a restaurant. Sometimes, being cautious in the kitchen bites you in the backside. Julia Child says, "No fear in the Kitchen". I guess I should have listened and not been so afraid to make a mistake.
Stocks were a piece of cake. Pretty nasty, but easy to make. Let's just say that cooking school isn't always glamorous. Rubbing down veal bones with your bare hands is just plain gross. And de-fatting chicken back isn't much better. Especially if your chicken backs still have some feathers in them like mine did. Although worse than either of those is getting out your bones from the 40 lb box. You've got to stick your bare hands into 4-6" of blood. Did you ever think I could be so brave??? I didn't.
Sauces on the other hand are much less gross. We used the stocks we already made, so there was no unnecessary carnage in sauce-making. There are 5 mother sauces: Espagnole (brown stock base), Volute' (white stock base), Bechamel (milk base), Hollandaise (butter base), and Tomato (I bet you can guess the base for that!). We turned each sauce into 2-3 secondary sauces, which made quite a few by the end of the week. I sailed right through most of them.
Hollandaise was my one rough moment. It is the perfect sauce. Mostly it's just butter and egg yolk. You've probably had it on a steak or eggs benedict. Hollandaise is a very tempermental sauce. If you get it too hot you scramble the eggs, if it's not whisked fast enough it doesn't emulsify and "breaks", and if it is not hot enough it won't thicken. So you've only got about a 10-15 degree range where it come together properly. I really didn't want to break my sauce, so I was VERY careful. I added 8oz of melted butter, literally one drop at a time and whisked in. I was so overcautious it took me 45 minutes to make my sauce. That's 45 minutes of straight, rapid whisking. I truly thought my arm might fall off. Give that one a try sometime.
Well, turns out I was trying to be so careful I ended up ruining my sauce. I whisked my stainless steel bowl so hard that I whisked little flecks of the metal right into the sauce and turned it gray. Which means that it is un-servable in a restaurant. Sometimes, being cautious in the kitchen bites you in the backside. Julia Child says, "No fear in the Kitchen". I guess I should have listened and not been so afraid to make a mistake.
posted by Lizzy at
2:53 PM
4 Comments:
Well, you'll just have to keep trying. I know you're doing great! We're so proud of you Chef Lizzy!
Oh, Lizzy, I'm hoping to learn so much from you. Sounds like you're having a good o time.
You are SOOOOO brave!!! I can't believe all that you've had to do with animals... that's the one reason I could never go to a real cooking school- I'm such a coward!! I've messed up Hollandaise sauce, too but I'm sure you'll get the hang of it soon- you're doing such a great job!
Thanks for all of the encouragement! I'll have to treat you all to a feast for helping me think I can do it!! :)
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