Properly cooked meat always tastes great, but even a perfectly cooked dish often lacks one small detail - the sauce. How to choose from a huge variety of sauces the one that best complements the taste of meat?
Meat sauces - general principles and methods of preparation
First of all, when choosing a sauce for meat, you should rely on your own taste, because many gravies are compatible with meat dishes. But still, there are some tips that are worth listening to. For example, spicy, sour or sweet-sour sauces are more suitable for fatty and fried meat, based on fruit or berry puree - cranberries, cherries, lingonberries, apples, cherry plums, sometimes lemon juice or vinegar is added to them. Lean or boiled meat goes well with sour cream, creamy, tomato or mustard sauces. For baking meat in the oven, creamy and dairy gravies are perfect.
If the sauce is made from berries or fruits, they are first boiled until completely soft and chopped with a mixer or blender - so the consistency of the gravy will be uniform. To prepare sauces based on a butter-flour mixture, the flour is pre-calcined in a dry frying pan or fried in oil, and then only mixed with broth, milk, cream or tomato juice.
Onion marmalade sauce
It perfectly complements any fried meat, the unusual combination of sweet onion sauce and meat will not leave anyone indifferent. It can be prepared from available products; it can be stored in glassware in the refrigerator for about 6 months. Red onions can be substituted for regular onions or shallots. Spice lovers can add spices to their taste.
For cooking you will need:
- 1 kg of red onions;
- 50 g of olive oil;
- 75 g of sugar;
- 100 ml of dry red wine;
- 4 tablespoons of wine vinegar.
Cut the onion into rings and fry in olive oil for five minutes, make sure that it does not burn, otherwise the sauce will taste bitter. Add all other ingredients to the onion, stir and cook over low heat for about an hour, stirring constantly. During the cooking process, the onion should become transparent and sticky, and the marmalade should resemble confiture in consistency.
Cranberry Sauce
The pleasant sweet and sour taste of cranberry sauce will perfectly emphasize the taste of any meat, poultry, fish or game. It can be kept in the refrigerator for several weeks. For its preparation, both fresh and frozen berries are suitable, the latter, however, will have to be defrosted first.
For the sauce you will need:
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1 glass of water
- 2 cups of cranberries.
First of all, you need to prepare the syrup. To do this, dissolve sugar in water and boil for 5 minutes. Grind the cranberries in a blender and add to the syrup. Bring to a boil and simmer over low heat for 7 minutes, stirring constantly.
Spicy sour cream sauce for meat
A simple but extremely tasty sauce that goes well with any meat.
For the sauce you will need:
- a glass of sour cream and meat broth;
- 1 spoon of tomato paste;
- 2 tablespoons of flour;
- 50 g butter;
- 2 onions;
- pepper, paprika, salt.
Fry the flour in butter until golden brown and add chopped onions, tomato paste and, stirring constantly, fry for 2-3 minutes. Add sour cream and broth and cook for eight minutes, season with salt and pepper, you can add various spices to taste.
Whipped Meat Sauce
This is the easiest way to prepare sauce for meat dishes, it does not require heat treatment, all components are simply mixed. Great with kebabs, boiled and baked meat.
For the sauce you will need:
- 150 g of sour cream and mayonnaise;
- a bunch of greens (dill, parsley, cilantro);
- a couple of garlic cloves;
- a pinch of paprika, turmeric, chili pepper.
Mix chopped herbs and garlic with sour cream and mayonnaise, season with spices and salt. Delicious sauce is ready.
