Learn Different Stocks, Sauces, and Soups Before

Creating New Dishes

Learn Different Stocks,
Sauces, and Soups Before
Creating New Dishes

Learning different stocks, sauces,

and soups is essential for anyone
starting to build their menu.
Before creating new and unique
dishes, you need to know how to
prepare stocks, sauces, and
soups first. These three serve as
culinary bases from which you
can start to innovate.
An Introduction
to different Stocks, soups, and sauces are the foundation of many types of cuisines across
the world. Award-winning dishes from five-star restaurants also start from a
stocks, sauces, base made with any of these three. Here’s a basic introduction to these three
and soups dish bases:
 Stocks
Stocks in cooking are rich,
flavorful liquids used as a base
for soups, sauces, and other
dishes. These are usually
produced by simmering meat,
fish, or poultry flesh and bones,
vegetables, and seasoning with
liquid. To cut cooking time and
create more efficient operations,
you can easily enhance your
stocks with rich, meaty flavors by
using bouillons and stock bases
like Knorr Beef Broth Base or
Knorr Chicken Cubes.
Types of stocks in cooking:

Brown stock – Made with beef or veal bones placed in a lightly oiled roasting pan and browned in an
oven.
White stock – Uses Simmered and un-browned veal or beef bones that provide more delicate flavors.
Chicken stock – Prepared by simmering chicken bones with mirepoix and seasonings. It is also
sometimes referred to as white stock.
Fish stock – Made with the bones, heads, skin, and trimmings of lean, white deep-sea types of fish.
 Soups

Soups should always be prepared

with high-quality ingredients,
using the proper techniques.
Gelatine from boiled bones
provides the “body” of the soup,
but thickening agents such as
meat, fish, poultry, or vegetables
can also serve as alternatives.
There are two categories of soups:
1. Clear soups

Clear soups are simple and have no solid

ingredients. Some examples are:

Broth – A flavor-packed liquid that is a

by-product of simmering meat or
vegetables.
Vegetable soup – A liquid made from
clear seasoned stock or broth with one
or two types of prepared vegetables.
Consommé – A rich, flavorful stock or
broth made clear and transparent.
 You can distinguish this soup type from clear ones by its
2. Thick soups opacity. Thick soups are denser thanks to thickening agents
such as roux. For a heavier consistency, you may also add a
combination of one or more pureed ingredients to the mix.
It creates the following:

Cream soup – A liquid thickened with a roux or other

thickening agents with milk or cream.
Puree – A soup that is naturally thickened by one or more
pureed ingredients or based on starchy ingredients.
Chowder – A hearty American style of soup made from fish,
shellfish, or vegetables.
Potage – A thick and hearty soup or stew usually comprised
of meats or vegetables cooked in a liquid to form a thick
mixture.
Sauces

Sauces are liquids that increase flavor and palatability or enhance the appearance,
nutritional value, and moisture content of food. Most fried, grilled, roasted, and
steamed dishes benefit from the addition of different types of sauces. There are
numerous ways of making sauces but they are best enhanced with the following
thickeners:

Slack or brown roux – Prepare by using more fat than flour for thickening demi-
glace sauces.

Lean or white roux – Make by using more flour than fat. This can be blended with
milk to create béchamel sauce or with meat stock to create velouté.

Egg – Use a whole egg as the whites hold moisture loosely for a creamy consistency
and the yolk provides more thickening power.

Starch – Use starch made from waxy maize, corn, potato, rice, or arrowroot.
Dissolve the starch in hot water to create gelatinization for a proper thickener.
Types of sauces

• Brown sauce – Prepared with mirepoix, fat,

and flour to create a tan-colored sauce.
• Velouté sauce – Prepared from white stock
and lean roux to create a base for cream
soups and vegetarian sauces.
• Béchamel sauce – Prepared with a mixture
of flour, butter, and milk from a meat base.
• Cream sauce – Prepared with rich cream or
a milk base to produce a white liquid.
Preparing any of these liquids
will require practice as they
are not easy to perfect. Your
first try might not even give
you your intended results. To
save time and effort, you can
turn to Knorr Chicken Cubes
or Knorr Beef Broth Base.
These products produce
comparable tastes to
different stocks, sauces, and
soups made from scratch.