Sauce Work
Core Workflow
- Identify the sauce family, current state, target texture, target flavor, and service context.
- Name the dominant mechanism: emulsion, reduction, starch thickening, dairy stability, fat mounting, extraction, seasoning balance, or holding.
- Choose the lowest-risk intervention and stage it so texture and flavor can be checked before the next change.
- Call out side effects such as dilution, cloudiness, raw starch flavor, excess acidity, dullness, broken fat, or over-reduction.
- Give observable stop cues for viscosity, gloss, seasoning, aroma, and stability.
Sauce Guidance
For broken, greasy, grainy, thin, dull, or over-reduced sauces, describe the observed state before prescribing a fix. Tie recovery to the water phase, fat phase, starch gelatinization, dairy temperature, reduction rate, or seasoning balance that caused the problem.
For pan sauces and reductions, distinguish fond extraction, deglazing liquid, reduction, emulsified finishing fat, and final seasoning. Do not let time stand in for sauce behavior; use cues such as bubbling size, spoon coating, gloss, aroma, and lack of oil pooling.
Route to food-safety when the sauce includes raw or lightly cooked egg, meat drippings, stock cooling, long holding, reheating, canning, fermentation, allergens, or vulnerable diners.
Concision Guidance
Default to action first, then the mechanism that justifies the action. Keep the mechanism focused on the decision at hand rather than listing every possible sauce fault. For urgent recovery, give the stop action, rescue step, and verification cue before explaining side effects.
Output Contract
- Sauce family and target state
- Current observed state when troubleshooting
- Mechanism behind the state gap
- Staged intervention with quantities or increments when useful
- Heat, timing, and texture cues
- Side effects and correction options
- Verification cue and stop condition
- Safety gate or routing note when relevant
References
- Read
references/sauce-work-checklist.md when sauce construction, finishing, scaling, holding, or recovery is central.
1---2name: sauce-work3description: Diagnose, build, finish, scale, and recover sauces through emulsion, reduction, starch, fat, acid, texture, and service cues.4license: MIT5---6
7# Sauce Work
8
9## Core Workflow
10
111. Identify the sauce family, current state, target texture, target flavor, and service context.
122. Name the dominant mechanism: emulsion, reduction, starch thickening, dairy stability, fat mounting, extraction, seasoning balance, or holding.
133. Choose the lowest-risk intervention and stage it so texture and flavor can be checked before the next change.
144. Call out side effects such as dilution, cloudiness, raw starch flavor, excess acidity, dullness, broken fat, or over-reduction.
155. Give observable stop cues for viscosity, gloss, seasoning, aroma, and stability.
16
17## Sauce Guidance
18
19For broken, greasy, grainy, thin, dull, or over-reduced sauces, describe the observed state before prescribing a fix. Tie recovery to the water phase, fat phase, starch gelatinization, dairy temperature, reduction rate, or seasoning balance that caused the problem.
20
21For pan sauces and reductions, distinguish fond extraction, deglazing liquid, reduction, emulsified finishing fat, and final seasoning. Do not let time stand in for sauce behavior; use cues such as bubbling size, spoon coating, gloss, aroma, and lack of oil pooling.
22
23Route to `food-safety` when the sauce includes raw or lightly cooked egg, meat drippings, stock cooling, long holding, reheating, canning, fermentation, allergens, or vulnerable diners.
24
25## Concision Guidance
26
27Default to action first, then the mechanism that justifies the action. Keep the mechanism focused on the decision at hand rather than listing every possible sauce fault. For urgent recovery, give the stop action, rescue step, and verification cue before explaining side effects.
28
29## Output Contract
30
31- Sauce family and target state
32- Current observed state when troubleshooting
33- Mechanism behind the state gap
34- Staged intervention with quantities or increments when useful
35- Heat, timing, and texture cues
36- Side effects and correction options
37- Verification cue and stop condition
38- Safety gate or routing note when relevant
39
40## References
41
42- Read `references/sauce-work-checklist.md` when sauce construction, finishing, scaling, holding, or recovery is central.
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