Saucy transformation
Simple concoctions can turn an ordinary meal into a dining experience
Done right, sauces, glazes, dressings, relishes, chutneys and salsas can amount to, ah-hem, the icing on the cake of an otherwise humdrum meal.
Done smart, the transformation can be accomplished in a snap.
Leftover roast beef, pulled apart with forks, then dressed with sauce whipped up from ketchup, vinegar and brown sugar, creates the centerpiece of a second-day meal with a completely different flavor profile. It can be served as barbecued pulled beef with a crusty baguette and arugula salad topped with olive oil, salt, pepper and a crumble of blue cheese. Better yet, stuff the bread with the beef and salad, for a sandwich. Either way, no one will think leftovers.
Pick the bones of Sunday’s roasted chicken dinner and then top the gleanings with a salsa of diced avocado mixed with minced red onion, chopped cilantro, fresh lime juice and salt. The combination can top a plateful of crispy tortilla chips that have been generously sprinkled with shredded cheddar cheese and popped into the oven for quick melting. Who doesn’t like nachos?
Pull a pack of pork chops from the freezer, defrost in the microwave, pan-fry then plate them. De-glaze the pan with a splash of white wine, spoon in some apricot preserves or orange marmalade as well as a generous pat of salted butter. The sauce comes together before the chops even have a chance to cool off. With steamed broccoli on the side, the plate is a colorful clarion call to the dinner table.
A homemade accoutrement for any entree, even ones such as a grilled ribeye or seared sushi-grade tuna steak that stand tall on their own, will elevate the meal. It’s all about layering.
And there’s real science beneath it all. Just ask a scientist.
“Basically, what you’re doing when you add a sauce is you’re creating a scenario where more of the senses are stimulated,” said Leslie J. Stein, the director of science communications for the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia.
There are five accepted taste qualities: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami.
If you serve roasted chicken for dinner, a bite of that meat will stimulate the senses of umami as well as salty, Stein said.
But, if you add a pan-Asian sweet-and-sour sauce to that same serving of chicken, the number of taste qualities doubles to include, yes, sweet and sour.
“You enhance your dinner with a far more complex flavor experience,” she said.
Shift gears and add a spicy-and-sweet barbecue sauce to that chicken, you’ve layered your meal with chemethesis, which actually triggers the touch system of the body by activating the nerve endings in the mouth and nose with a kind of chemical burn. “It’s technically not a taste quality, but you’ve got an extra sensory sensation. It’s layering,” she explained. Other examples of chemethesis is the tingle of carbonation and the burn of mint.
In sum, adding a sauce or a salsa or a glaze makes for a richer dining experience.