Sauces

Oil and water don’t mix. This fundamental law of chemistry has frustrated cooks for millennia. Yet some of the world’s most celebrated sauces exist precisely because skilled cooks learned to break this rule. Welcome to the emulsion laboratory, where we force incompatible liquids into stable, creamy suspensions through the manipulation of lipids and proteins. Understanding Emulsions: The Physics of the Impossible An emulsion is a suspension of tiny droplets of one liquid distributed throughout another liquid that it normally can’t mix with. In culinary terms, this usually means oil droplets suspended in water (or water-based liquids). ...

The foundation of French haute cuisine rests on a single principle: controlled viscosity through starch gelatinization and reduction. Before molecular gastronomy, before emulsions and hydrocolloids, there was flour, fat, and time. Understanding these foundations transforms cooking from following recipes to manipulating physics. The Physics of Roux: Why Cooking Flour in Fat Matters At its core, a roux is a suspension of starch granules in fat, heated to unlock thickening potential while developing flavor complexity. The transformation happens in three stages, each with distinct properties and uses. ...