The New Gourmet Sauces

The New Gourmet Sauces

by Nancy Backas 
Contributing Editor 

We have long looked to high-end restaurants and accomplished chefs to prepare sauces we classify as gourmet or premium. These sauces are difficult to make, with complex, intense flavors created through a layering of flavors developed during the cooking process.

“Gourmet sauces vary in type but, in general, we would define them as the more-difficult sauces to make, such as reduced brown sauces like demi-glace and its derivatives, created through the addition of wines, acids, herbs, shallots or garlic,” explains Mike Lonteen, C.E.C., vice president of research & development, Custom Culinary, Oak Brook, IL. “The average consumer and unskilled foodservice worker does not have the necessary skills to prepare them properly. A demi-glace, for example, will take hours to prepare and requires cooking techniques that the average consumer may not possess.”

Ethnic sauces have also come under the gourmet-sauce umbrella. Because Americans have opened their palates to more exotic and authentic flavors, they are looking to recreate those flavors at home, and expect even lower-end restaurants to offer authenticity.

Until recently, a truly gourmet sauce had to be made from scratch. But today, with new ingredients, packaging and technological advances, these sauces are available in convenient forms for consumers and for foodservice establishments, to help them offer premium sauces even with a less-skilled labor force.

“Through the use of technology, manufacturers are now able to provide many consumer products that are gourmet in nature. This is accomplished through the utilization of cooking methods, reaction flavors and flavorings, organic ingredients, starch systems, functional roux, gums and emulsifiers,” says Lonteen.

If one looks at the plethora of sauces now available on the market, it’s clear that the term “gourmet” doesn’t just apply to the classic mother sauces and their traditional derivatives, but also to sauces with wildly creative mixtures of flavors.

Everyone has a mother 

Around 40 years ago, if talking to a classically trained chef, one would have thought the history of sauce making and cooking was complete. The traditional French mother sauces were considered the foundation of all classical cooking, with little room for innovation. If we look at manufactured sauces from that era, the word innovation was completely lacking.

Today, chefs have license to create sauces that may or may not start with the classics. They borrow from ethnic and regional cuisines to devise new techniques and flavoring combinations. Fusion cuisine has also come of age, often resulting in very interesting and creative sauces.

At the same time, the classic sauces made with high-end ingredients are showing up on menus again, and not just at the very top restaurants. According to Chicago-based Technomics, Inc., béarnaise, bordelaise, hollandaise and rémoulade sauces increased in incidence on menus significantly in just one year from 2005 to 2006. In the top-250 emerging chain and independent full-service restaurants, menu mentions of bérnaise sauce in entrées increased from 38 to 45, bordelaise from 16 to 19, hollandaise from 66 to 71 and rémoulade from 43 to 53.

Today, food manufacturers can create both classic and new sauces in more authentic flavor profiles than ever before, largely thanks to today’s packaging variations. “Things that were impossible a few years ago are now commercially available, such as a ready-to-use shelf-stable hollandaise sauce,” says Lonteen. Thanks to new technology—and the occasional ingredient substitution or addition sometimes required for shelf stability—few high-quality manufactured sauces are not available on the market today.

Multiple forms and flavors 

Gourmet sauces are now available in multiple forms. For the consumer, ready-to-use bottled sauces are very popular, combining flavors of fruit and heat such as the Chili Lime, Ginger Plum, and Pumpkin Chipotle sauces from American Spoon Foods, Petoskey, MI, and combinations of liquor and savory flavors like the Plum Sesame Sherry sauce from Chef Ann Kirsebom’s Gourmet Sauces, North Vancouver, British Columbia.

Many companies have similar products for foodservice that can be used as-is, or enhanced with any variety of ingredients to create unique, signature flavors. Whether precooked, dehydrated or concentrated, these items offer convenience and consistency and compensate for staff shortages and under-skilled labor. Chefs can concentrate on putting their own originality into sauces without having to worry whether the base has been properly prepared.

For consumers or foodservice operators who like the option of adding some of their own ingredients, sauces like Atlanta-based Buckhead Gourmet’s line of wine finishing sauces can be used straight out of the bottle and heated to accent a meat, poultry or seafood dish, or can be enhanced with the addition of fresh ingredients.

Dry sauce mixes have been around for a long time, but new ingredients and manufacturing techniques have improved these products to make them more like fresh. Similar are the concentrated classic sauce bases like the shelf-stable products from More Than Gourmet, Akron, OH, created with classic techniques and all-natural ingredients. These sauces and stocks are reduced in the company’s state-of-the art facility and packaged in shelf-stable packaging or are fresh-frozen.

The sous vide method, where food is cooked in airtight plastic bags in a precisely controlled water bath at a low temperature and then refrigerated or frozen, was developed in France in the early 1970s. Sous vide is especially well-suited as a packaging vehicle for sauces. Since they’re cooked in a sealed environment, evaporation and flashing off are not an issue.

Aseptic packaging, a unique packaging system whereby sterile food products are sealed in sterilized packaging, was named the most-significant food-science innovation of the last 50 years by the Institute of Food Technologists, Chicago. Filled with microbially sterile product, aseptic packages are sealed tight, rendering a packaged product capable of being stored over long periods of time at normal room temperatures and without preservatives. Aseptically packaged sauces have gained acceptance with consumers and are a boon to foodservice operators who can then be less concerned with storage without refrigeration or freezing. Aseptic packaging also takes up less space than cans and also creates less waste. The most-recent aseptic-packaging innovation is a microwavable package for sweet and savory sauces. Made with polyethylene terephthalic silicon oxide (PET SiOx) as an oxygen barrier, the package is designed to ensure both product safety and its integrity, original flavor, texture and color for six months, without the need for refrigeration or preservatives.

Technical challenges 

From a manufacturing point of view, high-quality sauces present a number of technological challenges. Following are some of the concerns when creating manufactured sauces.

Viscosity and texture control. Viscosity is extremely important when developing sauces. Because each sauce has a different application, each has different viscosity issues. “Some sauces may be used over pasta, which may need to accommodate water being leached out of the pasta, and has to be accounted for,” says Lonteen. “Some may be used as a glaze on meats or seafood. Some may be used as a delivery method of other ingredients such as mushrooms, herbs or other flavorings.” This is why it is important to understand the use of roux, starches and gums—or combinations of these—to achieve the proper viscosity for the specific application.

“New and exciting products are being developed with advances in starches, gum, blends of the two and other stabilizers to ensure heat and freeze/thaw stability, as well as being able to survive cooking processes such as sous vide and modern retort packing,” says Nick Pajor, corporate chef, Red Arrow Products Company LLC, Manitowoc, WI. “The survivability of these products ensures the delivery of perfectly thickened and stabilized sauces.”

A natural, unmodified starch from common dent corn, from Grain Processing Corporation, Muscatine, IA, offers high viscosity and excellent gel strength at an economical price when thickening sauces.

National Starch Food Innovation, Bridgewater, NJ, recently introduced a range of natural, grain-based ingredients that includes three functional wheat flours designed to address the functional shortcomings of native flours, such as cold-water thickening. This line is minimally processed to give sauces a more-balanced profile. One of the company’s products claims to have a “higher threshold of tolerance to viscosity breakdown” than traditional flour. Another is pre-gelatinized, allowing its use in products designed for reconstitution in cold water or microwave applications.

Moisture management and freeze/thaw stability. The amount of moisture, solids and fats present in a sauce, combined with the handling of the finished product, all help determine the types of starches and gums to use. “Mouthfeel also comes into play when designing a sauce using starches and gums,” explains Lonteen. Because each starch has different capabilities, different tolerances to pH, different capabilities to withstand freeze/ thaw cycles, different hydration temperatures, it depends on what kind of sauce is being developed before one can determine the best starch for the application. Over the years, starch suppliers have developed the technology to chemically or physically modify different types of starches to customize results.

Gums can provide viscosity, emulsification or a synergistic effect when combined with starches to help prevent syneresis, or water migration, when a frozen product is thawed.

National Starch Food Innovation says Homecraft Create 765 is the first wheat flour to offer textural stability through as many as 12 freeze/thaw cycles, allowing for the desirable opacity, texture and flavor attributes of flour in gourmet sauces.

Emulsification. Emulsification relies on a balance of ingredients, depending on the type of sauce being developed. The use of mono- and diglycerides is a typical solution for many higher-fat products. Other ingredients, such as whey protein concentrates, can be used effectively, as well.

“Because of new starches, gums and blends of the two emulsified sauces such as hollandaise and beurre blanc are no longer an issue. Heat separation can be controlled through the addition of the right combination of hydrocolloids,” says Pajor.

Eggs, specifically egg yolks, have natural emulsifying properties. “Eggs are particularly important if you want a ‘clean’ label,” says Glenn Froning, Ph.D., food technology advisor, American Egg Board, Park Ridge, IL. “Eggs have natural ingredients called phospholipids which are low-density lipoproteins that contribute to emulsifying properties.” Ingredients such as solid-yolk and dried-egg products make it easier for manufacturers to use eggs as emulsifiers in products. “Using egg products in the manufacturing of sauces creates a higher-quality product,” he continues. “There is better emulsification, less separation and a smoother, creamier result. Using egg yolk in mayonnaise, for example, produces a rich, thick consistency.” He says designers can achieve equally high-quality products whether using dried or liquid forms of egg, noting that fortified whole-egg products have an extra yolk added for each egg.

Shelf-life issues. For shelfstable (nonrefrigerated and nonfrozen) products, pH is a driving factor in determining shelf life. Vinegars and other acids can help increase the shelf life of a sauce. A blend of acids, such as citric and lactic acids, can be used to lower pH without making the product too sour.

Water activity (aw) is another consideration in helping to determine shelf life. Through the use of soluble ingredients, a sauce’s shelf life may be extended by lowering the aw.

One aid to shelf life that has come into greater usage in the last decade is dried plums. Available in both dry and wet forms, dried plum and fresh plum ingredients have been found to be natural preservatives.

The naturally occurring organic acids in dried plums, combined with their high antioxidant power, helps to suppress microbial development. Research also points to the effectiveness of dried and fresh plums in alleviating the “warmed-over flavor” which characterizes most cooked and reheated meat products, including meat sauces.

Adding a gourmet touch 

Go down the aisle in any gourmet retail outlet and one can be overwhelmed by the number of gourmet sauces and the combinations of flavors that exist. Premium ingredients such as extra virgin olive oil, aged balsamic vinegar, fresh ginger, fresh fruit products, specialty vinegars, truffle, organic ingredients, and fresh or individually quick-frozen herbs are present. Ethnic flavor profiles reign, as do crossover fusion combinations. While one may argue that barbecue sauce is not “gourmet,” the barbecue sauce market has exploded with high-quality versions, as have hot sauce products.

Wine can add instant cachet and rich flavor to a sauce, whether it’s a derivative of a classic sauce, such as veloute or demi-glace, or a completely new creation. The wine should intensify and complement the other ingredients, as well as the application—a rich, brown sauce for beef or game can carry a hearty Burgundy, and a Marsala cream sauce pairs well with poultry or veal, for example.

Traditionally, chefs in the culinary- sauce world reduce wine by 50%. However, to save time and maintain consistency, Jim Polansky, national sales manager, Todhunter Foods & Monarch Wine Company, West Palm Beach, FL, recommends the company’s Culinary Wine Reductions, alcoholfree, 10-fold reductions in red Port, Burgundy, Chablis, sherry and sweet Marsala varieties. “These allow processors and foodservice operations to create signature sauces that turn out the same every time,” he says, noting that in an industrial setting, “it could take hours to reduce the wine without achieving the same product from batch to batch.” Unlike regular cooking wines, which contain 1.5% salt, no salt is added.

Polansky also points to denatured spirits—ingredients containing 40% alcohol and 3% salt (to make them nontaxable and nonpalatable) as another option to add unique flavors to sauce. Tomatobased vodka sauce is a traditional Italian preparation that is achieving widespread recognition, but he suggests other options, including tequila in cold, fruit-based sauces with a Latin theme, whiskey and rum in regional-themed barbecue sauces and Scotch in savory or dessert applications, such as bread puddings. He recommends 0.25% as a starting level for denatured spirits in sauces.

Preserving and enhancing flavor is an issue with developing gourmet sauces. Red Arrow’s Roastin’® line of products helps solve this common problem. “The products are designed to impart savory, dark, roasted brown and pan-dripping notes, accentuated by rich, oven-baked aromas,” says Pajor. “Additional products include Char 4007, which provides a heavily seared, charred note that works well in seasoning blends, soups and sauces, or Fire Roasted 5138, which imparts a smoky, charred flavor perfect for gourmet sauces.”

Quality herbs are also important in the development of high-quality gourmet sauces. Products like SubHerb Farm’s fresh-frozen culinary herbs, preserved with a process that retains their natural flavor and color without additives or preservatives, help manufacturers and chefs create fresh, label-friendly, high-end sauces. The fresh-frozen culinary herb pastes and purées offer authentic, intense flavors with a smooth, consistent texture. These products help sauce manufacturers deliver authentic flavor more easily.

New manufacturing innovations in packaging, flavors and ingredients that help preserve the integrity of gourmet sauces will continue to help this market expand. We will continue to see myriad new flavor combinations appear on the market, as well as the reemergence of classic and “new classic” sauces presented more authentically, both on the grocery shelf for consumers and in foodservice establishments. 

Nancy Backas is a Chicago-based freelance writer and chef. She has been writing about the foodservice industry for more than 20 years and can be reached at [email protected].