[Sca-cooks] Dots of Sauce

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Aug 16, 2009, at 1:22 AM, Kingstaste wrote:

> Does anyone know if there is a technical term for
> decorating/garnishing/saucing a plate with little dots of the sauce,  
> usually
> applied with a squeeze bottle?

I don't know what, if any, term specifically applies to this practice,  
except to note parenthetically that in nouvelle terminology (which is  
less detailed than the classical stuff), the kind of sauce that often  
goes in a squeeze bottle is known as a coulis.

Coulis is an old word; I think they're mentioned Taillevent's sick  
dishes, and I suspect the word refers to things being forced through a  
strainer. Of course there's a far cry between Taillevent's broken-bone  
capon essence and Paul Bocuse's strained wild raspberry puree;  
although perhaps not so much, since they do have something in common.  
In modern terms a coulis is probably rather smooth-textured, and  
somewhat concentrated in flavor; it would pretty much have to be, in  
the amounts used.

> Don't want to call it "little dots of sauce" in class if there is a  
> more
> appropriate term for it.

I remember David Bouley, one of the innovators of the practice,  
telling me he had a thing for the pattern on a Paisley necktie. I  
suspect, though, that there's no hard and fast term for the little  
dots, unless it is drops; the practice is probably not old enough to  
tie into the classical terminology.

Adamantius






"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter