Choron Sauce

Hello, Today was my first try making this sauce. I used water to make the sabayon. I used concasse, because I think the sauce looks very elegant when it is made this way. However, I found the flavor of this choron recipe with the tomato concasse to be a bit bland. (I served it over some leftover cod for lunch. Is it appropriate to use a bit of white wine, or even some vinegar or lemon juice to the sabayon to increase the tartness of this sauce?

Just out of curiosity, have you watched the lesson on "How to Make Hollandaise" because we do go into quite a bit of detail on this? See the "related videos" tab for all of the relevant lessons to a particular recipe. Cheers!

Yes, I did watch the video and I did complete the quiz. I am gradually working on the practice sessions associated with these techniques. Admittedly, it has been at least a couple of weeks since I last watched the video, so it is possible that I forgot some of the lesson points. Off the top of my head, I remember a recommendation of using water over vinegar, or another acid in the sabayon. I don't remember the reason -- perhaps consistency? The other point of confusion for me is the definition of a "mother sauce". It is my understanding that even though the sauces start with the same techniques, that they are finished differently. However, I do not know what is considered traditional, versus what is considered an acceptable variation when moving into derivative sauces. I guess my point-- in a long-winded sort of a way, is that I have not had much exposure to anything other than classic Hollandaise. The video seems to advocate the use of water over a gastrique or acid to make the mother sauce.) I see many different recipes on the web that incorporate some kind of an acid into derivative Charon sauce (ie: white wine, vinegar, and even lemon), but I am really hoping for the "authorized version" before I make modifications of my own. (ie: it doesn't seem traditional to use lemon in Charon -- but people do it). Your thoughts?

Hi Rebecca, please refer to the lesson again. Topic 6 specifically covers the differences between using water or an acid as the gastride and why you might want to try out both. Think of a mother sauce as a very delicious sauce that is made with the least amount of ingredients. In the case of hollandaise and béarnaise, each contains egg yolks, butter and an acid (the acid in the béarnaise is simply flavored with tarragon or chervil, shallots and peppercorns). The supporting text recipes that are attached to the lesson reflect the bare-bones ingredients that are required for each sauce. How you choose to incorporate the acid into the sauce is up to you. It doesn't matter whether you choose to add it at the beginning or at the end with the gastride/other acid. Béarnaise already contains the acid in the base sauce. Tomato puree or tomato concassé is added to Sauce Béarnaise to create Sauce Choron. I'll bet you that every resource you look at will have a different variation. The authors of some recipes may feel that more acid is needed at the end. It doesn't really matter. What matters most is that the proper technique is used to make a sauce that is thick and airy and that makes you want to cry because it tastes so yummy! Our approach is to learn the proper technique and take it from there. If some cooks want to add more acid or not at the end or at the beginning, we won't advocate that it is right or wrong. That's what makes cooking so great and way more freeing. Hope this helps. Cheers!

Thank you Kimberly. I will review topic 6 again. I appreciate your definition of a mother sauce. In regard to the Choron sauce, I will try adding more acid at the end to make the sauce better suit my palate.