Yeah, but you didn't use my recipe. To be honest, that's a make-shift recipe, I posted my proper arrabiatta recipe a while back in a thread you were involved in. Was a pasta thread IIRC. Takes a few hours to make the sauce and then I freeze it as it's the base for a lot of my pasta sauces...
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Yeah, but you didn't use my recipe. To be honest, that's a make-shift recipe, I posted my proper arrabiatta recipe a while back in a thread you were involved in. Was a pasta thread IIRC. Takes a few hours to make the sauce and then I freeze it as it's the base for a lot of my pasta sauces...
blunomore
Honorary Master
I've seen it. It's in one of those packets like those soups. I've tasted it. It's awful. Never ever look at it.
Ok, ok, it probably tastes fine to someone who doesn't know any better...
I go with whatever I think will work well that time. Which usually means chucking different things in each time and hoping for the best
Please do not insult me by suggesting I would use powdered cinnamon when I have a huge jar of cinnamon sticks around.
I'm indian. It's one of the key ingredients for flavouring in a lot of dishes.
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Oh buggroff you blerry powdered cinnamon user...
One day, we're going to find out you use something like powedered mash potatoes (you get those, right?)... and you will never live it down!
And powdered cinnamon has its uses. I do use it often. On the rare occasion that I make chocolate cake, I always add it to the batter. Improves the taste no end.
Hosehead
Executive Member
Freezing changes the cellular structures and the taste
La Z Boy . Make the dish fresh on the day. I'd no sooner freeze a stock than a sauce. Sure it takes hours but it's the only way. Correction, most forumites who live on fast food- their taste buds are so damaged, that any self respecting doctor would order them amputated.You could deep fry Poodle Poop, add fistfuls of aromat and they would be coming back for more.
Hot_Chocolate
Expert Member
Hot_Chocolate
Expert Member
blunomore
Honorary Master
I love cooking but have no academic knowledge of it - can someone explain what is the difference (if any!) between 'gravy' and 'sauce' ? 
Hot_Chocolate
Expert Member
I love cooking but have no academic knowledge of it - can someone explain what is the difference (if any!) between 'gravy' and 'sauce' ?
me neither, so I am guessing here... gravy is what you make from the water that meat cooked in, and serving it with meat. sauces usually goes with pastas?
blunomore
Honorary Master
EasyI love cooking but have no academic knowledge of it - can someone explain what is the difference (if any!) between 'gravy' and 'sauce' ?
Gravy is a naturally thickened reduction of a combination of natural juices resulting from the cooking of meat - usually roasted meats. The combination of juices is infused throughout the entire cooking period during the cooking process, and though it can be thickened by using flour or other meals, using various vegetables is the traditional chef's method of thickening the gravy and maintaining a healthy, wonderful flavour.
Sauces is a more general term and though it can include (although I believe incorrectly) gravy, it is best to think of sauce as purposefully made to have a particular flavour. There are various types of sauces - ranging from pasta sauces to topping sauces to creams to bastings and marinades, etc etc. The base component determines the type of sauce, while the flavouring determines the name - thus a cheese sauce can be cream or milk white-sauce based but the flavouring is cheese. Sauces are not necessarily cooked, and often use other sauces as a base. Mayonnaise for example.
Making your own sauces is extremely easy, and if you perfect a few key sauces you will put an edge on your cooking that will make your guests keep coming back for more.
Try this: instead of buying a bottle of all gold, try my Tomato Sauce recipe...
You'll need:
10 whole peeled tomatoes - jam tomatoes are best for flavour and they make good, thick tomatoe sauces with minimal reduction
Brown Sugar - 1 tbsp spoon
Salt
Pepper (coarsely ground black pepper)
3 or 4 small chillies - I prefer jalapeños, seeds removed, sliced once longitudinally
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Leek
Fresh Basil
Chop the tomatoes as finely as you can
Slice the leek finely
Chop the chillies very fine
Chop the basil coarsely
Heat a large saucepan (medium heat) and put a spot of olive oil in the pan, remove from heat, then add the tomatoes, salt and pepper and stir briskly making sure it doesn't stick to the pan. Stir the sugar into the mixture. Put the heat low and replace the pan. Keep stirring, once the tomatoes start to form more liquid in the bottom of the sauce pan, add the leek, place a lid on the pan and allow to simmer for a few minutes. Remove from heat and immediately add the basil - do not stir the mixture immediately - you don't want the basil to burn to the bottom of the pan (basil burns easily), wait a minute or two then pour the sauce into a sieve. Using a spoon or ladel, push the sauce through the sieve catching the juice in the sauce pan, just don't push through too hard, you want the sauce to be solids free (you can keep the left over pulp for baked Mexican foods)
Place the pan back on to low heat, and allow to simmer until thickened. Remove from heat and allow to cool (either in a water bath or covered for 30 - 40 minutes). Place the chillies into a glass bottle, and once the sauce is cooled, stir in the Worcestershire sauce and pour into the glass bottle over the chillies. Replace the lid, place in the refrigerator and leave for 3 days before using for the first time. Use up within 1 week For a nice spicy sauce, use ground fresh chillies and some dried whole cumin in a spice bag throughout the simmering of the sauce. Remove the spice bag just before pouring into the bottle.
Edit: Sorry about that, connection went loopy.
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Liquid nitrogen... Gas... I hope you have homeowners' insurance.
hey - i'm not trying hoseheads recipe, are you crazy? don't wanna any mielie crystals shooting out into my eyeballs or something
hey - i'm not trying hoseheads recipe, are you crazy? don't wanna any mielie crystals shooting out into my eyeballs or something
Hmmm... So you think that'll be perfectly finished off with a strawberry/rasberry coulis... Could work well...
A change is as good as a holiday.
Changing of a cellular structure might change the consistency, however I'm curious as to how this might change the flavour in a negative way, apart from perception (seems we both have a keen interest in the science of cooking - nice). The top 2 restaurants in the world both freeze their seafood stock before defrosting it through muslin, so maybe you could teach them (Heston Blumenthal and Ferran Adria - the two top chefs in the world) a thing or two as to what they could be doing better?
There are few occasions where I feel the need to say this, but I reckon you're looking at too much science and not enough cooking. Even more so when you're talking about recipes for a home cook. A tomato base freezes really well, and to discourage people from cooking batches of it to freeze, for the sake of its cellular structure (which 99.9% of people couldn't tell the difference, including me) is absurd. The only issues that I'm aware of with regards to frozen stock is the fat content, which can turn rancid. However skimming the fat off the top can help considerably with this.
I know of many chefs who freeze stocks and one of the interesting things is that many chefs also freeze cooked tomatoes and defrost them through muslin to make tomato consommé, instead of passing them through defrosted. In fact I was taught this exact technique in France, during a chef's course. I never bothered to ask the reasoning as to why this is better than adding salt and leaving it overnight over a bowl, however I think the salt content might be the issue here.
For those who aren't too bothered about the cellular structure of their stocks, be sure to freeze it in proportionate bags, or in an ice-cube tray. You don't want to be stuck having to defrost an entire bottle of the stuff just to use once - you can't re-freeze it again safely...