Reduction sauce is made using the drippings and juices left over after cooking meat, with added ingredients such as cream or balsamic vinegar. The sauce is simmered to reduce its volume, resulting in a heavily flavored gravy that can be used to complement the meat. Other ingredients such as vegetables, wine, or fruit juices can also be added. The sauce can be sieved or paired with other sauces and flavorings.
A reduction sauce is a sauce made for food that uses the drippings and juices left over after cooking the meat. Because these drippings are often quite flavorful, the resulting sauce also has a thick flavor and tends to complement food very well, as it uses the juices emitted by the food as it cooks. An assortment of ingredients are added to these drippings to create a reduction sauce, ranging from cream to balsamic vinegar, depending on the desired effect.
To make a reduction sauce, cooks start by preparing the meat as normal. When the meat is done, it is removed from the pan and left to rest while the sauce is made. Typically, the excess fat is removed so the sauce isn’t greasy, and then the volume of drippings in the pan is doubled with the addition of ingredients such as broth, cream, wine, balsamic vinegar, or fruit juices. In some cases, ingredients such as vegetables may be briefly cooked in the drippings before the liquid is added.
Subsequently, the sauce can be simmered in order to reduce its volume. This reduction makes the sauce thick and thick, so it can be used as a gravy. It also concentrates the flavours. As a result, reduction sauces are often very heavily flavored, and most cooks use only a little, so the flavor doesn’t become overwhelming. The sauce can be poured over the meat like a gravy, or it can be seasoned cleverly so that the dish looks distinctive, depending on the cook’s inclinations.
Once the sauce is finished, it can be sieved to force out chunks of ingredients before being added to food, or it can be left to linger. It can also be paired with other sauces or flavorings, as might be the case with a wine reduction sauce served alongside a horseradish sauce. Consumers can layer the flavors as desired.
Some cooks call sauces of this type “pan gravy,” as they are often made in the pan that was used to cook the food, or the drippings from a pan are poured into a large saucepan. Some common vegetable additions to reduction sauce include things like capers for a lemon, shallot or garlic and mushroom caper sauce. In many cases wine or brandy is used in the sauce, but cooks who prefer not to work with alcohol can use things like juice, cream, soy sauce, vinegar, or broth. More distinctive additions like chocolate and wasabi can also be used for a more exotic flavor.
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