recipes & tips
Deglazing is a wonderful technique for making a quick sauce by capturing the delicious caramelized bits of food—usually meat—and cooking juices in a pan or skillet after sautéing, pan-frying, or roasting. Simply remove the main ingredient(s) from the pan, skim off the excess grease with a large spoon or ladle, add 3 to 4 tablespoons of liquid such as wine or stock (or water, in a pinch), leave the heat on medium, and scrape and stir the contents of the pan with a wooden spoon. Once the liquid has taken on a deep color, you’ve got a very basic sauce. If you like, go one step further by adding a cup or two more stock and/or reducing the sauce by boiling it until it reaches the thickness you desire. To finish it off, you might also choose to stir in some butter or cream, a vegetable purée, herbs, or other seasonings. But don’t make a sauce this way if the pan residue is blackened or burned; it will turn out bitter.
