Stocks, Sauces and Soups
Stocks, Sauces and Soups tests extraction, clarification, thickening and emulsion stability. Expect questions on stock quality, the mother sauces, derivatives, and soup classifications.
Stock principles
Start white stocks with cold water and bones that have been blanched; start brown stocks with roasted bones and a brown mirepoix. Simmer, never boil, and skim. A typical bone-to-water ratio is about 1:2 to 1:3 by weight. Cook white stock 3–4 hours, brown stock 6–8 hours, and fish stock 30–45 minutes. Add bouquet garni or sachet d'épices. Remouillage is a second extraction from used bones.
Mother sauces
- Béchamel: milk thickened with white roux.
- Velouté: white stock thickened with blond roux.
- Espagnole: brown stock, brown roux, tomato and mirepoix.
- Sauce tomate: tomato-based.
- Hollandaise: emulsion of clarified butter, egg yolk and lemon.
Derivatives include Mornay (cheese into béchamel), Allemande (velouté with yolk and cream), and Bordelaise (espagnole with red wine and shallot).
Soups
Clear soups include consommé, clarified with a raft of egg white, lean meat and mirepoix. Thick soups include cream soups, purées, bisques and chowders. Bisque traditionally uses shellfish shells.
Worked example
Hollandaise breaks during service. Remove from heat, whisk in a teaspoon of warm water to cool and loosen, then whisk in the broken mixture slowly. If still split, start a fresh yolk and whisk the broken sauce into it. Too much heat is the usual cause.
Traps that cost marks
Boiling stock; adding cold liquid to hot roux without whisking; over-reducing a sauce so it becomes salty; and adding acid to hollandaise without controlling temperature.
Key points
- Simmer stocks; never boil.
- Brown stock uses roasted bones; white stock uses blanched bones.
- Five mother sauces: béchamel, velouté, espagnole, tomato, hollandaise.
- Consommé is clarified with a raft.
- Broken hollandaise is usually a heat problem.