SCS 12| Sauce Tomat
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In part four of our five part mother sauce series, we talk about Sauce Tomat, the base for many variations of modern tomato sauce. We finish up our talk on thickening agents, with a quick discussion on purees, bread crumbs, and food grade gums like Ultra Tex 3 and Xanthan Gum. In the main technique segment, we go over Escoffier's classic recipe for Sauce Tomat, and then cover some modern variations.
Links For This Episode
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Patrick
You could use the mirepoix, but you would have to puree it really fine in a blender. Anything too course and you're sauce will look broken and chunky. Make sure you pass it through a chinois before you serve.
While the pureed mirepoix will add flavor, the puree as discussed in the above comment was also intended as a thickener. Adding water would drop the viscosity which could possibly lead to better flavor extraction but cancel out the thickening properties of the puree since it would now be fairly watery. If flavor extraction is really what you're after, juice the mirepoix instead of blending. You can then go back and use a food grade gum as a thickener, such as Xanthan or Ultratex.
Ultratex does need shearing power to hydrate and disperse properly, but in my experience, it requires less shearing power than xanthan gum.