The blog of cooking-ez.com
Cream and sauces
17K 20 4.4
Last modified on: October 15th 2012
Cream and sauces
Have you ever wondered why making beautiful tasty sauces is so easy when you use cream?
First of all, we need to be aware that some flavours only dissolve in water, while others only dissolve in fats.
This phenomenon leads to this kind of accident: If you put a chocolate mousse uncovered in the fridge where you are also keeping fish, the chocolate, being mostly made up of cocoa butter (a fat), will absorb the fish smell. Imagine the taste…
So we have water on the one side and fats on the other. Cream seen under the microscope is made up of water with minute fat globules (which come from milk) suspended in it.
This gives us the explanation: the make up of cream allows it to absorb both types of flavours, so it can absorb virtually all flavours. This means that cream produces sauces which are always full of flavour drawn from everything around it (whatever is stuck on the bottom of the pan, the ingredients in the recipe, etc.).
Add to this that during cooking a proportion of the cream will evaporate, and this means that it will thicken and give a rich smooth texture in the mouth – perfect!
And then there's the question of all those calories, but that's quite another matter…
First of all, we need to be aware that some flavours only dissolve in water, while others only dissolve in fats.
This phenomenon leads to this kind of accident: If you put a chocolate mousse uncovered in the fridge where you are also keeping fish, the chocolate, being mostly made up of cocoa butter (a fat), will absorb the fish smell. Imagine the taste…
So we have water on the one side and fats on the other. Cream seen under the microscope is made up of water with minute fat globules (which come from milk) suspended in it.
This gives us the explanation: the make up of cream allows it to absorb both types of flavours, so it can absorb virtually all flavours. This means that cream produces sauces which are always full of flavour drawn from everything around it (whatever is stuck on the bottom of the pan, the ingredients in the recipe, etc.).
Add to this that during cooking a proportion of the cream will evaporate, and this means that it will thicken and give a rich smooth texture in the mouth – perfect!
And then there's the question of all those calories, but that's quite another matter…
Lasts posts
Wipe meats and fish before cooking
When you want to cook meat or fish, there's a very simple yet very important step to take before you even start: It's to dry, or wipe, each side of the meat or fish, sometimes called "dabbing" or "sponging". But why? And how? Let me explain.8305 April 14th 2024
Toss the salad
When you've finished preparing a salad, green or otherwise, it's usually time to add the dressing and toss. It's often said to "toss the salad", which means to season and mix. Is it easy? Not so easy...2,4245 March 8th 2024
Half milk, half cream
In a multitude of recipes, savoury or sweet, milk is used as the main ingredient, or at least as the main liquid ingredient. Milk is used instead of water, for example, because milk contains a proportion of fat, which adds roundness and softness to the recipe. This mellowness is very pleasant on...2,357 February 27th 2024
Cutting soft cheeses
As you may have already noticed, when you have to use a "soft" cheese in a recipe - their exact name is "soft cheese" - such as Camembert, Munster or Mont d'or, it's not easy to make anything other than thick slices.2,4945 February 20th 2024
It's spinning too fast!
When you need to grate or slice vegetables, you generally use an electric machine that does all the work: a food processor, a mixer with a "slicer" extension or similar. Are these machines really suitable? Generally speaking, yes of course, but there's one criterion that often poses a problem,...5,3965 November 12th 2023
Other pages you may also like
Butter doesn't make you fat, unless you eat too much of it.
Whenever I'm discussing cooking and recipes, there is one idea which comes up frequently, like this: "Oh no! But that's got butter in it" (I should add, for the sake of accuracy, that this is something I hear more frequently from women, who are almost all concerned with keeping their figure). ...38K4.5 March 26th 2012
The window-pane test in bread-making
The home bread-makers often ask themselves “Have I kneaded my dough long enough?” . A good question, as dough that is insufficiently kneaded will not rise properly or will fall flat when the top is slashed, which is very frustrating. To know when the dough is ready, one can rely on the length...86K 23.9 June 16th 2021
Perpetual stock
It's something you have probably have done yourself: cooked or pre-cooked vegetables before adding them to a recipe. This is almost always done the same way: peel the chosen vegetables (carrots, for example), cut them up, boil them in salted water (using a tablespoon or so of coarse salt per litre),...23K5 November 22th 2016
For well opened (puffed) cakes
It's always nice to have a well puffed up cake after baking, not only will it taste good but it looks great too. Let's see how to get this beautiful shape almost every time.26K4.2 January 23th 2019
The skin side of the fish first?
When it comes to cooking fresh fish, if it's filleted with its skin on and you're planning to pan-fry it in a little olive oil, for example, you might ask yourself the following question: Which side, skin or flesh, should come into contact with the pan first?18K4.4 February 13th 2021
Follow this page
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.