Recipe Archive

Sauces & Condiments

Sauces and condiments carry a surprising amount of technique. Find dressings, marinades, stocks, gravies, relishes, and finishing sauces with clear purpose.

965 recipes

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Recipes

Classic Bechamel

Chef Ally

Classic Bechamel

A silky white sauce of butter, flour, and milk, perfumed with nutmeg and made honest by the quality of your dairy. This is the foundation upon which a hundred dishes rest.

Classic Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

Chef Dean

Classic Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

Thick, tangy buttermilk dressing flecked with fresh herbs and punched up with garlic, a sauce so versatile it transforms everything from crisp salads to hot wings to a humble baked potato into something worth talking about.

Classic Mushroom Pan Sauce

Chef Dean

Classic Mushroom Pan Sauce

A glossy, deeply savory pan sauce built from caramelized mushrooms and shallots, finished with cream and fresh thyme. This is the sauce that transforms a Tuesday pork chop into something worth remembering.

Classic Teriyaki Marinade

Chef Dean

Classic Teriyaki Marinade

A deeply savory, glistening marinade that bridges Japanese tradition and American backyard grilling, built from four essential ingredients that transform ordinary proteins into something worth gathering around.

Classic Tzatziki

Chef Dean

Classic Tzatziki

The cucumber-yogurt sauce that has anchored Greek tables for generations, honest and refreshing, requiring nothing more than quality yogurt, patient draining, and the confidence to use enough garlic.

Cocktailsaus

Chef Joost

Cocktailsaus

The pink party sauce beside every Dutch shrimp cocktail, where mayonnaise blushes with tomato and brandy, and the North Sea gets dressed for company.

Coffee-Chile Brisket Rub

Chef Dean

Coffee-Chile Brisket Rub

A bold Texas-style dry rub where dark-roasted coffee meets smoky ancho chile, creating that prized mahogany bark on slow-smoked brisket that pit masters spend lifetimes perfecting.

Colima Cascabel Chile Salsa

Chef Lupita

Colima Cascabel Chile Salsa

Colima's salsa de cascabel is built from rattling dried chiles, roasted jitomate, and garlic worked in the molcajete until it is rough, nutty, and ready for sopitos colimenses.

Colima Coconut-Vinegar Adobo for Tatemado

Chef Lupita

Colima Coconut-Vinegar Adobo for Tatemado

Colima's pork tatemado begins with this sharp red adobo: guajillo chiles, a little ancho for depth, garlic, oregano, and vinagre de coco from the coast.

Colima Pickled Yellow Chiles (Chiles Gueros)

Chef Lupita

Colima Pickled Yellow Chiles (Chiles Gueros)

Colima's pale yellow chiles gueros, blistered lightly and held in sharp vinegar with garlic, onion, bay leaf, and Mexican oregano, the coastal pickle that belongs beside ceviche.

Comeback Sauce

Chef Remy

Comeback Sauce

Mississippi's beloved dipping sauce, tangy and sweet with a whisper of heat, the kind of condiment that turns ordinary food into something you can't stop eating and keeps you reaching for one more bite.

Concentrado de Camaron Seco Sonorense

Chef Lupita

Concentrado de Camaron Seco Sonorense

Sonora's umami spine. Toasted dried shrimp from the Sea of Cortes, steeped with charred onion, guajillo, and chile chiltepin, into the brick-red broth that anchors every Lenten table in the Noroeste.

Condimento Balsamico Tradizionale

Chef Graziella

Condimento Balsamico Tradizionale

The syrupy reduction of Modena that transforms good balsamic vinegar into something approaching the precious tradizionale. A few drops change everything; more than that ruins the dish.

Confiture de Coco (Tahitian Coconut Jam)

Chef Makoa

Confiture de Coco (Tahitian Coconut Jam)

Tahiti's coconut jam turns grated haʻari, sugar, and vanilla into a glossy golden spread for firi firi, pain coco, toast, or any table that needs one more sweet spoon.

Conserva di Pomodoro

Chef Graziella

Conserva di Pomodoro

The summer ritual of southern Italian home cooks, transforming ten pounds of ripe tomatoes into concentrated essence that will carry the taste of August through the winter months.

Consome de Birria Jalisciense

Chef Lupita

Consome de Birria Jalisciense

Jalisco's birria broth, pulled from a slow goat braise, stained red with toasted guajillo, ancho, and pasilla, finished with its own fat and served beside tacos for dipping.

Corfiot Savoro (Σαβόρο Κέρκυρας)

Chef Dimitra

Corfiot Savoro (Σαβόρο Κέρκυρας)

Corfu's savoro is fried small fish steeped in vinegar, rosemary, garlic and black currants, made ahead until the oil, acid and sweetness settle into one bright Ionian sauce.

Crab Apple Jelly

Chef Thomas

Crab Apple Jelly

A rose-gold jelly made from early autumn windfalls, set on its own pectin and tasting of wild orchards, the kind of jar you reach for in February when summer feels like a long time ago.

Cranberry Sauce

Chef Thomas

Cranberry Sauce

A proper cranberry sauce, sharp and ruby-bright, made in the time it takes the turkey to rest, with a cinnamon stick and the zest of an orange doing most of the talking.

Crawfish Butter

Chef Remy

Crawfish Butter

Louisiana's secret weapon: sweet crawfish tails folded into butter with garlic and Cajun spices, ready to melt over anything that needs a little bayou magic.

Crawfish Cream Sauce

Chef Remy

Crawfish Cream Sauce

A silky, butter-rich sauce swimming with sweet Louisiana crawfish tails and the holy trinity, finished with cream and a kiss of heat, the kind of mother sauce that makes everything it touches taste like home.

Creamy Blue Cheese Dressing

Chef Dean

Creamy Blue Cheese Dressing

A robust, chunky dressing built on tangy buttermilk and studded with crumbles of pungent blue cheese. The honest steakhouse classic that transforms a wedge of iceberg into something worth talking about.

Creamy Cajun Remoulade

Chef Dean

Creamy Cajun Remoulade

The classic Louisiana dipping sauce that transforms fried seafood into something transcendent, with Creole mustard bite, horseradish heat, and the briny pop of capers balancing rich mayonnaise.

Creamy Green Goddess Dressing

Chef Dean

Creamy Green Goddess Dressing

San Francisco's legendary 1923 creation reborn for modern tables: a verdant, anchovy-enriched dressing thick with tarragon and chives that transforms salads, grain bowls, and crudités into something worth remembering.

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