[Sca-cooks] Blending sour cream into sauces

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Peters, Rise J. wrote:
> Last night I made chicken paprikas, which has sour cream added to the gravy
> as the last step in the cooking process.  Although the results tasted just
> fine, my sour cream appears to have clotted or coagulated, so that my sauce
> is a nice pink with white spots.  How does one avoid this?


Sounds like you curdled the sour cream with sudden and excessive heat.
To avoid this, place your sour cream in a mixing bowl, and add a
ladelful of the liquid part of your sauce (in other words, avoiding
hunks of chicken, onion, or whatever). Beat until blended. Add another
ladel worth of sauce. Beat. Keep doing this until perhaps 1/3 to 1/2 of
your sauce is in the bowl, then add back to your saucepan/pot and
combine. Reheat as/if needed, gently, and don't let it boil.

BTW, when you do this with egg yolks and/or fresh cream, this technique
is known in France as thickening or enriching your sauce with a liaison.
Which, in culinary French, simply means you're thickening it.

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
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let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98