Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with sauces

Join me in the Quest for the Mexican Salad Dressing!

goodnewsfortheinsane — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:30:16 -0800

Help me recreate an awesome Mexican salad dressing! So I just had one of those pre-packaged salad kits, and it came with an awesome dressing. It was a Mexican chicken salad, and the dressing was a tangy, sort-of tomato-ey sort-of corn-y delight with quite a bit of a bite (but no apparent capsaicin heat). I think it or something similar would work brilliantly as a home-made dressing or cold sauce. The ingredients as listed on the packaging:

Water
Soya oil
Tomato purée
Vinegar
Sugar
Dextrose
Herbs and spices
Onion
Modified corn starch
Salt

I'll spare you the food acids and other additives, but suffice to say that, big surprise, MSG was in there (but none of its cousins in the E620-E630 range).

I believe the tomato purée refers to the concentrated kind; it definitely tasted like it (although Dutch tomatoes I feel are generally quite watery so I'm somewhat easily impressed with the concentrated and processed stuff). In fact, the overall taste held the middle between concentrated tomatoes and something corn-like, strongly reminiscent of tortilla chips (the non-cheese kind). Add a faint vinegary tang, and you're pretty much there.

It had about the consistency of common chili sauce (but as I said, no heat). It was very different from any salsa I've eaten, and completely smooth; without any onion or tomato chunks like in salsa or adobo.

Has anyone ever made anything like this? Any pointers? Thanks in advance, guys!

Proper Lasagna consists of RED & WHITE sauce, not PINK.

Mutant — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 13:10:51 -0800

We love lasagna. But my white sauce mixes with my red sauce and it all ends up looking pink. I'm using a rather basic lasagna recipe but consistently have been frustrated by sauces mixing together. It seems to be happening during cooking to some extent, but cutting portions and serving doesn't help much.

While the mixing doesn't effect the taste, my lasagna is rather unsightly compared to professionally prepared portions.

What can I do to keep the sauces as distinct as possible? It seems that professionally prepared (i.e., restaurant) lasagna has distinct layers of white and red sauce, separated by the pasta itself. Mine tends to mingle, almost to the point where I'm ending up with, at times, a pinkish sauce.

I'm not sure if it is caused by my sauce recipe or technique, but it has happened both with meat and veggie lasagna. The filler for either is as follows :

Meat: 1 lb. browned ground beef
Veggies: 1 lb of coarsly chopped broccoli, carrots, bell peppers, celery, green lettuce, all raw

Here is my red sauce :

Chopped onion, one large
Garlic, four cloves
Salt
Pepper
Tomato paste, two cans

This is generally prepared once a week in a large batch that I use for multiple dishes, lasagna included. Sometimes I'll make and use the sauce immediately, other times I've frozen and reheated it, but this hasn't changed my results.

If I'm making meat lasagna I'll mix it (after browning separately) with the red sauce otherwise, I spoon out red sauce, then cover with the veggie mix.

And my white sauce, which remains the same for meat or veggie lasagna :

Munster cheese
Four tablespoons butter
Four tablespoons of flour
Two cups of milk

I melt the butter, then add in salt & pepper. Blend in the flour then cook over over a low flame for two minutes, finally adding milk. Bring mixture to boil and let boil for two minutes.

Technique:

Parmesan cheese on the bottom, then some red sauce (if veggie then layer chopped vegetables on top of red sauce).

A layer of lasagna pasta sheets, more parmesan, then white sauce.

This is repeated three times in total, with red sauce and more parmesan topping off the lasagna.

Bake and serve.

I still don't have good control, and end up with the sauces mixing. Does anyone have any tips on how to insure that the layers don't intermingle too much? The professionally prepared portions that we get at a restaurant are much more visually appealing (and I seem to recall my great grandmothers as having sharp, distinct layers as well).

Thanks for your help!

BBQ Rubs and Sauces

netbros — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 05:08:38 -0800

The barbecue season is upon us (at least in the northern hemisphere), and I'm now in a place that allows outdoor grilling, but I'm a neophyte when it comes to BBQ sauces and rubs. What are your favorite excellent BBQ/grilling sauces? I want to try them all; tomato based, vinegar based, I think there are even some made with mustard. Hot and spicy is good. DIY homemade would probably be even more fun, but if you've found outstanding stuff in a bottle, that's OK too.

I think the pros say there is a difference between barbecue and grilling. See, I don't know this stuff. Apparently, BBQ is done with a closed lid and a rub, while grilling is open lid. Is that right? Do you have any great rub recipes for the smoky kind of closed lid slow cooking? Since I have a chance now, I want to try all this great outdoor cooking.

Help me blend, not bland, my way through summer

Unicorn on the cob — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:10:32 -0800

It's about to be summer in Texas. I bought a smallish food processor. Please give me your best food-processor recipes. I realize there have been discussions of salsa, baba ghanouj and hummus here on the green... and wondered, what else is there? In the summer it's too g.d. hot to cook lots of times, so for example, we make a cold pasta salad with a vegan pesto that's tasty. What other things can I make with the food processor that are like this? Sauces, dips, dressings, salsas, guacamoles, etc.? Soup base, maybe? Can I make nut butter in this thing as well? I have a rice cooker too, and can use it without overheating the kitchen, so if you have a recipe for something that goes well over rice, couscous or quinoa, bring it on!

I prefer vegetarian recipes; however, if you have a bizarre meat-based recipe, let's hear that too, just for the heck of it.

how are dark and light soy sauce different

jdroth — Sun, 25 Jan 2004 16:08:08 -0800

What's the real difference between dark soy sauce and light soy sauce? Fish sauce? If a recipe calls for light (or dark) soy sauce, can one substitute fish sauce? Does fish sauce go bad? Should it be refrigerated, or is it okay to leave it on the shelf for years (which is how long it takes me to use a full bottle)? Also, if it's not okay to substitute one sauce for another, is there a way to approximate one? For example, our supermarket (in a small town) has an ample supply of food ol' Kikkoman soy sauce, which I assume is dark soy sauce. Is there a way to make it approximate light soy sauce?

I love Asian cooking, but sometimes I'm lost about what I can substitute, and my cookbooks just aren't any help.