Pan Sauces and Reductions
Cooking Skills: Sauces 1
Chapter 6 · Pan Sauces and Reductions
Shopping list for this chapter
The basics
A pan sauce uses what the meat leaves behind. When you fry chicken, pork or fish, the juices stick and brown on the pan. Pour in a liquid and these bits dissolve into it; this is deglazing. Boil the liquid to reduce it, so water evaporates and the flavour and body concentrate. Many cooks use wine, but stock, lemon juice and vinegar work just as well and keep the sauce alcohol-free.
Whisking cold butter into a hot, not boiling, sauce off the heat gives a glossy finish; this is called mounting with butter. Steak pan sauces are in Cooking Skills: Beef and Steak 1, chapter 3. A wide pan reduces faster than a narrow one because more liquid touches the heat.
The method
- Cook the meat or fish first, then lift it out and keep it warm on a plate. Do not wash the pan.
- Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of fat, keeping the brown bits.
- Deglaze with stock or lemon juice, scraping the pan with a wooden spoon.
- Reduce by boiling hard until the sauce has halved or coats a spoon.
- Finish off the heat with cold butter, cream or herbs, then taste for salt, acid and sweetness.
| Sauce | Liquid | Finish | Goes with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lemon and caper | Stock and lemon | Butter | Chicken, fish |
| Mustard cream | Stock | Cream, mustard | Pork, chicken |
| Honey and soy glaze | Soy and honey | Reduced to sticky | Salmon, chicken thighs |
| Mushroom cream | Stock | Cream | Steak, chicken, pasta |
Hot sauce: a thickening sauce bubbles and spits, and hot sauce sticks to skin and burns worse than water. Stir with a long spoon, keep your face back and turn the handle of the pan inwards.
Allergens: contains milk (butter, cream), gluten in some stocks and soy, and fish if using salmon. Mustard is an allergen. Use oil in place of butter and a plant cream for a dairy-free version.
Try it
A lemon and caper butter sauce
The simplest pan sauce. Pan-fry two chicken breasts or two thick fish fillets first. The sauce takes only a few minutes while they rest, and it makes a plain piece of meat taste like a restaurant dish.
Ingredients (2 portions)
- 2 chicken breasts or fish fillets, pan-fried and resting
- 100 ml low-salt chicken stock
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1 tbsp capers, rinsed
- 25 g cold butter, cubed
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley
- After frying, take the meat out to rest. Pour the stock and lemon juice into the hot pan and scrape up the brown bits.
- Boil hard for 2 to 3 minutes until reduced by half. Add the capers.
- Take the pan off the heat and whisk in the cold butter a cube at a time. Add the parsley, taste and spoon over the meat.
Allergens: contains milk (butter); stock may contain celery and gluten.
A mustard cream sauce
Cream and mustard are a classic pair, and the sauce is ready in minutes. Fry two pork chops or chicken thighs first. Add the mustard off the heat so it stays lively.
Ingredients (2 portions)
- 2 pork chops or chicken thighs, fried and resting
- 1 small shallot or ¼ onion, finely chopped
- 150 ml low-salt chicken stock
- 100 ml double cream
- 2 tsp wholegrain mustard
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- After frying, take the meat out. Cook the shallot in the pan for 2 minutes, then add the stock and boil for 3 minutes until reduced by half.
- Add the cream and simmer for 2 minutes until it coats a spoon.
- Take it off the heat, stir in the mustard and lemon juice, taste and season. Pour over the meat.
Allergens: contains milk, mustard and often celery.
A honey and soy glaze
A glaze is a sauce reduced until it is almost syrupy. This one is salty, sweet and savoury at once, and turns salmon or chicken thighs a glossy dark brown. Watch it carefully at the end, as sugar goes from glaze to burnt quickly.
Ingredients (2 portions)
- 2 salmon fillets or chicken thighs, pan-fried and resting
- 2 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 garlic clove, grated
- 1 tsp grated fresh ginger
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- Mix the honey, soy sauce, water, garlic and ginger. After the meat is cooked, tip the sauce into the pan on a medium heat.
- Boil for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring, until it bubbles thickly and coats a spoon. It thickens more as it cools.
- Return the meat to the pan, turn it in the glaze for 30 seconds, add the lemon juice and serve.
Burning: honey and soy can burn in seconds. Lower the heat and stay at the pan.
Allergens: contains soy; salmon is fish.
A mushroom cream sauce
Mushrooms fried hard until golden, a spoonful of flour for body, stock and cream. It suits steak, chicken or pasta. Salt the mushrooms at the end, because salt early draws out water and stops them browning.
Ingredients (2 portions)
- 1 tbsp butter
- 200 g mushrooms, sliced
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 tsp plain flour
- 150 ml hot low-salt stock
- 75 ml double cream
- 1 tsp thyme leaves
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- Melt the butter in the pan after cooking the meat, and fry the mushrooms over a high heat for 6 to 8 minutes until golden. Add the garlic and thyme for 1 minute.
- Stir in the flour, then the stock a little at a time. Simmer for 3 minutes.
- Add the cream and heat gently for 2 minutes. Add the lemon juice, taste and season.
Allergens: contains milk, gluten and often celery.
Experiments
Reduction time
Thin, perfect and too far.
- Reduce a sauce for 1, 3 and 6 minutes, tasting a spoonful from each.
Look for: A short reduction is thin and weak; the right one coats a spoon; too long is salty and sticky. Taste as you go.
Cold butter off the heat
Glossy and greasy.
- Whisk cold butter into one sauce off the heat, and add butter to another while it is boiling.
Look for: Off the heat, the butter makes the sauce creamy and glossy. Boiling it makes the butter split into a greasy layer.
Cream or stock only
Rich and light.
- Make half the mustard sauce with cream and half with stock only.
Look for: The cream sauce is round and rich; the stock sauce is lighter and sharper. Both work.
Wide or narrow pan
Speed.
- Reduce the same amount of stock in a wide frying pan and in a small saucepan, timing each.
Look for: The wide pan reduces much faster because more surface touches the heat. Use a wide pan for pan sauces.
Tasting notes
| What I tried | Method or amount | What I saw | What I thought | Will I do it again? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lemon and caper sauce | ||||
| Mustard cream sauce | ||||
| Honey and soy glaze | ||||
| Mushroom cream sauce | ||||
| Reduction time | ||||
| Cold butter off the heat | ||||
| Cream or stock only | ||||
| Wide or narrow pan |
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Sauce too thin | Not reduced enough | Boil harder for another minute, or whisk in a teaspoon of cornflour mixed with cold water |
| Sauce split or greasy | Butter added over a boil | Take off the heat, whisk in a splash of cold water or stock |
| Bitter, burnt taste | Pan was scorched before deglazing | Wipe the pan out and start again with fresh stock |
| Too salty | Over-reduced or salty stock | Add water, cream or a squeeze of lemon |
| Pale and flat | Meat not browned | Brown the meat well first; add a little soy sauce |
| Cream curdled | Boiled with lemon juice or acid | Add lemon at the end, off the heat |
Hot sauce: a thickening sauce bubbles and spits, and hot sauce sticks to skin and burns worse than water. Stir with a long spoon, keep your face back and turn the handle of the pan inwards.
Keeping sauces: cool a sauce quickly in a shallow container within 1 to 2 hours, press cling film onto the surface to stop a skin forming, chill and use within about 2 days. Reheat until steaming hot, stirring. Milk and cream sauces can split when frozen, so freeze other sauces instead.
- I can deglaze a pan with stock or lemon juice.
- I can reduce a sauce until it coats a spoon.
- I can finish a sauce with cold butter off the heat.
- I can make a sticky glaze without burning it.
- I can build a mushroom cream sauce.