On Food and Cooking

considered as carriers of flavor, sauces form a
broad spectrum. At one end are simple
mixtures that provide a pleasing contrast to
the food itself, or add a flavor that it lacks.
Melted butter offers a subtle richness,
vinaigrette salad dressings and mayonnaise a
tart richness, salsas tartness and pungency. At
the other end of the spectrum are complex
flavor mixtures that fill the mouth and nose
with sensations, and provide a rich
background into which the flavor of the food
itself blends. Among these are the meat-based
sauces of the French tradition, whose
complexity comes largely from the extraction
and concentration of savory amino acids and
other taste molecules, and from the generation
of meaty aromas by way of the browning
reactions between amino acids and sugars (p.
778). Chinese braising liquids based on soy
sauce are similarly complex thanks to the
cooking and fermentation of the soybeans (p.
496), while the spice blends of India and