In cooking,
a sauce is liquid, cream, or
semi-solid food served on or used in preparing other foods. Sauces are not
normally consumed by themselves; they add flavour, moisture, and visual appeal
to another dish. Sauce is a
French word taken from the Latin salsa,
meaning salted. Possibly the
oldest sauce recorded is garum, the fish sauce used by the Ancient Greeks. Sauces need
a liquid component, but some sauces may contain more solid components than
liquid. Sauces are an essential element in cuisines all over the world.
Sauces may
be used for savoury dishes or for desserts. They can be prepared and served
cold, like Mayonnaise, prepared cold but served lukewarm like pesto, or can be
cooked like bechamel and served warm or again cooked and served cold like apple
sauce. Some sauces are industrial inventions like Worcestershire sauce, bbq sauce,
or nowadays mostly bought ready-made like soy sauce or ketchup, others still are
freshly prepared by the cook. Sauces for salad are called salad dressing.
Sauces made by deglazing a pan are called pan sauces. A cook who
specializes in making sauces is called a saucier.
Sauces used in traditional Japanese cuisine are
usually based on shōyu (soy
sauce), miso or dashi. Ponzu, citrus-flavoured soy sauce, and yakitori no tare, sweetened rich soy sauce, are examples of
shoyu-based sauces. Miso-based sauces include gomamiso, miso with ground sesame, and amamiso, sweetened miso. Tonkatsu, okonomiyaki, and yakisoba
sauces are based on this sauce. Japanese horseradish or wasabi sauce is used on
sushi and sashimi or mixed with soy sauce to make wasabi-joyu. Some sauces in Chinese cuisine are soy sauce, doubanjiang,
hoisin sauce, sweet bean sauce, chili sauces, oyster sauce, and sweet and sour
sauce. Korean cuisine uses sauces such as doenjang, gochujang,
samjang, and soy sauce. Southeast Asian cuisines, such as Thai and Vietnamese
cuisine, often use fish sauce, made from fermented fish.
Indian cuisines use sauces such as tomato-based curry
sauces, tamarind sauce, coconut milk-paste-based sauces, and chutneys. There
are substantial regional variations in Indian cuisine, but many sauces use a
seasoned mix of onion, ginger and garlic paste as the base of various Graviesand Sauces. Various cooking oils, ghee and cream are also regular ingredients
in Indian sauces.
Indonesian cuisine uses typical sauces such as kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), bumbu kacang (peanut sauce) and tauco,
while popular hot and spicy sauces are sambal, dabu-dabu and rica-rica.