Fattening Up Your Sauce

If you have any type of sauce that needs to be thicker, I love the beurre manie method. It's fast and easy, and when you add it to your sauce you do not get a flour taste.

Beurre manié is a pastry, composed of equal parts by volume of soft butter and flour, used to thicken soups and sauces. The flour particles are covered in butter by kneading the flour and butter combined.

If the flour has been completely blended, add it to the sauce in tiny pieces at a time and mix until mixed.

Start off with 1 tablespoon of all-purpose flour and 1 tablespoon of softened butter. It's best to leave the butter for an hour or so before you start. Don't make the butter a microwave.

It's not pretty, but as soon as the flour is applied to the butter, the beurre manie is able to slide into stews, soups and sauces. Make sure to start whisking the broth or sauce until the beurre manie has been fully blended into the dish.

You'll want to do a taste test to make sure that you're not able to taste the flour if it hasn't been mixed in completely. Once you can no longer taste the flour and attain the desired thickness, your sauce is ready.

You can freeze a manie of beurre for up to three months. As most recipes only call for a tablespoon or two of this ingredient at a time when you can freeze whatever you don't use. It can also be generated in big quantities and frozen. 

However, it is important to allow the mixture to soften completely before adding it to the soup. I do not recommend the addition of frozen beurre manie to a hot dish.

At the end you will have a great sauce not only thickened the way you wish, but one with a lovely shine.