UKH

I can knock up a passable meal, but one thing I rarely think about is sauces.

I tend to cook things which are inherently wet like casseroles, or just make some gravy.

Can anyone point me to a good resource for learning the basics & principles of sauce making? I'm thinking of classic/traditional stuff, rather than modern nonsense drizzles/foams/reductions that you dribble on by the microlitre.

Cheers
Chris

In reply to Chris Harris:

I haven't got it myself, but a lot of people swear by Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mastering-Art-French-Cooking-Vol-1/dp/0241956463

Looks like there's about sixty pages on sauces, which should be enough to at least skim the classic French repertoire!

In reply to Chris Harris:

Leith's cookery bible has a lot of the basic sauces

In reply to Chris Harris:

Silver Spoon
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Silver-Spoon-Cookery-Phaidon/dp/0714862452/ref=...

got an Italian slant, but not just your pizza/pasta recipes

In reply to Chris Harris:
Larousse Gastronomique has a wonderful section on sauces, what goes with what meat/fish/veg combo etc.

It does however assume a certain level of cooking ability - e.g. it doesn't tell you the exact method and will use terms like "make a roux"

Here it is on Amazon, but if you know of a book people sale near you, they often do it at £10:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Larousse-Gastronomique-Hamlyn/dp/0600620425

It is a monster of a book, more a refernce guide than a traditional recipe book, but any home would benefit from having one if any foodies live there

In reply to Chris Harris:

The BBC good food website is generally very good and I'd be surprised if it didn't have the recipes and information that you want.

Cat