Pan sauces and Hershey cake
Pan sauces are easy and delicious. Photo by Stephanie Klein-Davis l The Roanoke Times.
After yesterday’s conversation about pink slime, I thought you guys would appreciate a more appetizing blog entry. Ha!
Today’s Front Burner column is about pan sauces. The idea for this column stemmed from an earlier blog conversation. It seemed as if a lot of folks would benefit from learning more about making pan sauces. I set forth the basic procedure in my column today, but there are multiple variations. If anybody has other ideas or makes their sauces in a different way, I’d love to hear about that.
Also, this past weekend I made a cake from a recipe I found in the PlateUp database. The recipe is for Hershey cake, which calls for an entire 16-oz. can of Hershey’s syrup in the batter. That sounded like a lot to me, but the cake came out perfectly moist and delicious, and the icing is fudgy and decadent. This cake is so easy to make that you might as well make this the next time you are tempted to use a boxed chocolate cake mix. Your family and friends will not be disappointed!
I will be away today judging at the Virginia Food & Beverage Expo in Richmond. It proves to be an interesting time, so I’ll be sure to fill you all in on my adventures when I return.
March 28, 2012 - 7:00 AM
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I went into a brief diabetic coma just reading that Hershey Cake recipe.
I read the pan sauces article this morning. It made me so hungry! I love pan sauces.
I usually dump off as much of the grease as possible, add a couple of splashes of white or red wine, depending on the meat, and reduce it over low to medium heat stirring constantly. Nothing makes a cutlet, boneless chickne breast, or chop taste better than a drizzle of pan juices made from a reduced pan sauce.
One of my favorite pan sauces is for lamb chops.
Cabernet Sauvignon + beef stock + garlic and rosemary. I make a slurry of either cornstarch and beef stock or arrowroot and beef stock, add it to the reducing wine, stock and herbs and allow it to thicken, then finish with a small pat of butter. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it!
Awesome pork pan sauce: brown pork chops in saute pan, remove. Deglaze with a full bottle of hard cider. Reduce by 1/2 to 3/4′s. Add a tablespoon of whole grain mustard, and a teaspoon or so of butter, whisk until combined. Awesome.
A great book for pan sauces is “How to Cook Without a Book” by Pamela Anderson (not the actress). There are probably at least 30 recipes in there, with things you typically have in your pantry or fridge. She walks through the process (very similar to today’s article), then provides a bunch of yummy combinations. Some favorites from memory: balsamic vinegar, raisins and pine nuts; dijon mustard and orange juice.
These all sound scrumptious. Just to be clear, Taylor, I’m guessing you are talking about a beer bottle-sized bottle of hard cider, like Woodchuck?
Otherwise, what a wonderful idea.
A shout out to Homestead Creamery for representing the Roanoke Valley at the Virginia Food & Beverage Expo.
Indeed, David! And there were several other exhibitors with a Southwest Virginia connection. It was a very cool event and I look forward to sharing more info with readers.
I loved the article in yesterday ROA times about the pan sauces. IT was very informative and the pictures along with it were great. It gives a great summary of pan sauces, what to do and how to use them. Great work! Thanks.
Thank you, Buttons. I’m so glad you liked the column!