1,523 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

Tranché, dissociated, failed, in short... missed!

When preparing a sauce or a cream, there's always a (small) risk that the creamy preparation you're working on will suddenly separate into two parts of different textures: a liquid part, for example, and a more or less solid part, or even become lumpy.

It's terribly frustrating, but we'll see that it's not always irremediable, and that you can try to make up for it with a few simple gestures.

12 K 5/5 (2 reviews)

Keywords for this post:Sauce Cream Tranché Missed Catching up Tip Trick Recovery

Last modified on: June 19^th 2023

For this post: Comment Follow Ask me a question Send to a friend

Tranché, dissociated, failed, in short... missed!

I've already talked to you about the rather special case of warm emulsified sauces (béarnaise, hollandaise) and how to make up for them in the event of tragedy, so I won't go into that again, but this time we'll concentrate a little on creams.

Tranchée?

When a cream "tranche", a french chef word, it's simply no longer homogeneous: instead of a single part, there are several parts in the bowl or saucepan, of different textures, liquid and solid in general.
That's just what "tranchée" means: the taste is unaffected, but the texture is completely, and we amateurs simply say "missed", "failed", "screwed up" or many other terms...

What's happened?

It's difficult to make a general rule but it can be summed up as "There was too much..." or sometimes "There wasn't enough...".
Too much can be an ingredient, a duration, a temperature.
Too much of what? Well, that's where it becomes very much a question of the preparation you were doing, so let's look at a few emblematic cases.

The custard

the custard you started with suddenly turns into a big lumpy mess, you've probably overcooked it by more than 185°F (85°C), or cooked it too quickly (over a hot fire).
To make up for this, try giving it a good whirl with the mixer.

crème anglaise

A ganache

A ganache that tranche is very often a temperature problem: the chocolate begins to set on its own, resulting in lumps, because the temperature of the mixture is heterogeneous.
To make up for this, try putting it in the microwave for a few seconds, before whisking or even mixing vigorously, to bring the mixture back to an even temperature.

ganache chocolat

A mixture of cream + an acidic ingredient

If you add lemon juice directly to crème fraiche (for example), there's a great risk that it will curdle, which is normal, and therefore slice. To avoid this, you can 1) use liquid cream, for which there is less risk 2) add a pinch of bicarbonate of soda to the lemon juice, which will foam up a little but is harmless.
Note that in this case, cream that curdles is unfortunately irrecoverable: your cream has turned into cheese.

crème et jus de citron

To sum up: although cream curdling can be very stressful during preparation, it's not always irreversible, and can often be remedied by a simple gesture.

Lasts posts

Oven height

When we put a dish or cake in the oven, we naturally tend to put it on the middle shelf, and that's what we usually do. But in some cases, this position and height can be a little tricky, so let's find out why.
October 8^th 20251,0985

The importance of sieving

In recipes that use a fine powder (flour, powdered sugar, etc.), you'll often see the advice to sift before using it. To sift is to pass the powder in question through a sieve (a very fine strainer) before incorporating it into your recipe. It's often advice, but is it really useful?
September 3^rd 20256,7153

The grease spray

As soon as you have something in a recipe that sticks to the mold, the question always arises as to how difficult it is to remove from the mold. There's nothing more frustrating than breaking your cake when unmolding it, because part of it has stuck in the mold. The classic way to avoid this is...
August 26^th 20256,1595

Cake moulds

When we make a cake, or a cake of the same rectangular shape, we usually take out our usual mould and tell ourselves that the recipe is anyway "for a cake", but is it really that simple?
August 25^th 20256,2775

Thinning out herbs

If you need to add a long-stemmed herb (tarragon, mint, verbena, thyme, etc.) to a recipe, you'll probably only need the leaves and not the stem, so you'll need to remove the leaves. Leaf removal means keeping only the beautiful leaves, and eliminating the ugly stems and leaves, but how do you do...
August 8^th 20254,4225

See all posts Random post RSS feeds

Other pages you may also like

What is the difference between bakery and patisserie?

This is a question that you may well have asked yourself and which I will attempt to answer. In France the two trades of "boulangerie" (bakery) and "pâtisserie" (patisserie and confectionery) have always been quite distinct, but where exactly do the boundaries lie? .
February 7^th 2017133 K 14.1

Egg yolks and caster sugar

We often come across recipes where we need to mix egg yolks with caster sugar. This would appear to be a very ordinary and simple thing to do but, be warned, these two ingredients can behave oddly together.
February 15^th 201881 K 24.3

Drawing a pattern in pastry

Often in the kitchen, in pastry-making, or in baking, we need to trace a pattern on a pastry. It's just a question of aesthetics but it has its effect after baking on a galette, pithiviers, pâté en croute (terrine in a pie crust), etc.
May 23^th 201934 K4.1

Should I believe my oven?

Can you really trust your oven? This is an important question as we are always tempted to take the temperature indicated as gospel truth and, unfortunately, this is rarely very precise. .
July 4^th 201132 K4.6

Candied fruits: don't get ripped off

Do you like candied fruit? You might like to nibble a handful or add it to a recipe, like a classic fruit cake or delicious Italian specialities like panettone or sicilian epiphany pie.
June 21^th 201766 K 24.2