"sauce cookbook" news and stories

First things first: no, the title is not an exaggeration, unless you're a literalist, as the book's full title is 400 Sauces: Dips, Dressings, Salsas, Jams, Jellies & Pickles., but, second things second, I didn't actually count them. Third things third: beyond the recipes for sauces et cetera, this book offers great primer teaching on this fundamental of cooking, courtesy of authors Catherine Atkinson, Christine France and Maggie Mayhew.

400 Sauces is a a British publication (Hermes House) so some yankee readers will have to adjust to a terminology in which a rocket is not a spaceship but a leaf (arugula, if you didn't know) and measurements are given in metrics as well as ounces. There are some distinctly British offerings that may disorient stateside users: where, outside of a hunting lodge, have you last encountered Cumberland sauce (pages 66, 343); where (perhaps The Inn at Little Washington?) would you find not just a recipe for watercress cream (page 58) but the correct dishes with which to serve it (salmon or sea trout, if you're wondering). Begin by mastering sauce basics (ingredients, measures, prep) and continue by mastering basic sauces (beurre blanc, veloute, bechamel, et cetera). The book moves on to great sections on chutneys, salsas, pickles and relishes, dessert sauces, salad dressings, jams and jellies, marinades and dozens of additional sauces, condiments and virtually every other thing you can serve alongside, atop, or surrounding another food.