Is it Wrong to Use This in a Sauce ? (ft. Modernist Cuisine)

Mother Sauces Ep6 : How to Make Velouté Sauce using Modern (Forbidden?) ingredients...

Velouté Sauce is basically reduced white stock that is then thickened with white Roux - a 1:1 mixture of butter and flour. The amount of Roux you need is 10% of the overall liquid weight, e.g. 50g are needed to thicken a pint of stock. This sauce is one of the five mother Sauces Series of french cuisine, along with sauce espagnole and sauce tomate and sauce hollandaise and sauce béchamel.

Big thanks to my man Nathan Myhrvold from Modernist Cuisine for inspiring to experiment even more ! Check out their amazing book collections here :

Xanthan Gum is a very powerful thickener and should be used in extremely low proportions (starting at 0.05% ! ). From what I have read so far, the best way to use it would be to combine it first with carrageenan seaweed which unfortunately I did not have access to.

A quick note, instead of diluting Xanthan gum in oil, I did it in clarified butter which added a little richness and a bit more french vibes to my velouté sauce.

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Director, Author, Host & Camera : Alex
Editor : Joshua Mark Sadler

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Salut,

Alex

[jameshoffmann]

Xanthan is great, but the line between a nicely thickened sauce and chicken flavoured snot is dangerously thin, and a mistake a lot of home cooks make because they're working with tiny amounts of xanthan on kitchen scales not designed for that level of precision.
Edit: I forgot to add how much I’m enjoying this series! Looking forward to judgement day in the next one!

[Meipurururu]

I saw the thumbnail and immediately thought msg

[aled]

Hi Alex,

I like your (semi-)scientific approach to cooking a lot. I wanted to share a useful tip I learned in culinary school. When you make a roux it is very important that you have one hot component and one cold component. In your case the roux is hot and your stock is cold before you boil it and your sauce thickens. However, you can switch those functions around. In other words the hot component is your stock and cold component the roux. The way you could do this is by making a roux, of any color, and storing it in the freezer. Than, once you are finishing a sauce you can use a cheese grater to manually grate/add any desired amount of roux to your sauce. In this way you are far less likely to burn your roux (a common mistake in the kitchen) and you can tweak your sauce to perfection since you can add little by little your thickening agent.
I hope you can still use this in the next one, love your work!

[evilboy]

My dude, your videos have snapped me out of a chefs coma. I have been chefing for 15 years and lost my passion about 10 years in. Your genuine passion for cooking has giving me a second breath. Thank you so much, and you keep doing you

[Mellwehn]

Can we just take a moment to really appreciate the artistry Alex's filming? Excellent shots.

[StarScream]

If that pan is NASCAR, you can only stir counter-clockwise.

[stevenshea]

"I can't taste anything since I burned my tongue on the hot roux"

That's me literally every time I make roux

[omarhasanovic]

I thought he was going to talk about MSG

[dolphinboi-playmonsterranc]

Alex, you can't put cocaine in your sauces

[titanx]

Alex:" I need an ultrasonic homogenizer to make my sauce"

Soapmakers: " don't worry, we gotcha buddy"

[thebigh]

YOU GOT NATHAN MYHRVOLD ON YOUR CHANNEL!?
Ok, now THAT is a sign that you have come far Alex. I was already inspired by you - now I am simply happy for you. <3

[freshorangina]

Hi Alex, I really wish you would have mentioned what xanthan actually is. Most people think it’s not clean label, but it pretty much is. It is made by the same microbe that blackens cauliflower, something I think is fascinating. Not sure if you are aware, but combining with Guar gum enhances the thickening ability, so in combination you use less of both. For home cooks I would recommend reconstituting it in water and adding the gel in smaller amounts until the desired consistency is reached.

[tokagerkun]

I see a white powder, and as an asian.
the answer is: use MSG in EVERYTHING

[benisturning]

“Can’t believe I found something useful on the internet” - Alex

Wait...aren’t you on the internet?

[tarpara]

Xantham gum is hydrophobic and oleophilic, hence why it mixes in oil.

[alexreinking]

Two other thickeners that would work quite well in this application would be gum arabic and pectin since you're heating the sauce up anyway. I typically reserve xanthan for cold applications. Another way to remove the air bubbles in a blender processed xanthan is to strain through a coffee filter or use a chamber vacuum (also quite expensive).

[shinji]

3:02 "smells buttery" - in a beautiful french accent.
You're welcome.

[Clone]

*"White Roux"*

Cajun cooks have left the chat

[FistyCarrera]

*tastes first sauce: "it doesn't tast like chicken enough"
*eats chicken: "yeees, it's chickeny"

[marks]

When Alex smiles at the camera my heart skips a beat.