Sauces

Gordon Ramsay’s sauce vierge is a warm herb-and-oil dressing made with crushed coriander seeds, basil, shallot confit and balsamic vinegar, which he serves with pan-fried fish. The recipe comes from the Building Blocks chapter of Passion for Flavour (1996) and takes about 5 minutes to assemble. What most recipe sites get wrong is the tomatoes. …

Gordon Ramsay’s mayonnaise is thick, glossy and sharp, made with egg yolks, mustard, white wine vinegar, lemon juice and oil, whisked together in about 5 minutes. The trick is adding the oil drop by drop for the first 30 seconds, because that’s when the emulsion either forms or splits, and everything after that is easy. …

Gordon Ramsay’s pear and saffron chutney from his Christmas video is Williams pears and cooking apples simmered with saffron, orange, ginger and white wine vinegar until golden and chunky. He makes it alongside his honey glazed ham. Keeps for up to six months in a sealed jar. I could not find this recipe in any …

Gordon Ramsay’s béarnaise sauce is sharp, silky and buttery, made with a tarragon vinegar reduction, egg yolks and clarified butter, ready in about 25 minutes. With only a handful of ingredients, the technique has to be right because there’s nothing to hide behind. In Bread Street Kitchen, Ramsay builds his reduction with both red and …

Gordon Ramsay’s peppercorn sauce is creamy, punchy and sharp, made with green peppercorns, cognac, Dijon mustard, beef stock and double cream, ready in about 10 minutes in the same pan you cooked the steak in. The cognac flambé burns off the alcohol and leaves behind a warm, boozy depth that cream alone can’t give you. …

Gordon Ramsay’s red wine jus is dark, glossy and deeply savoury, made with beef trimmings, shallots, a full bottle of red wine and beef stock, reduced for an hour until it coats the back of a spoon. No flour, no cornstarch, just pure reduction. That’s what makes it a jus and not a gravy. In …

Gordon Ramsay’s lemon butter sauce is a French beurre blanc built by reducing vinegar with shallots and garlic until concentrated, then whisking in cold butter piece by piece until the sauce turns thick and glossy. This version comes from his Uncharted cookbook, where he pairs it with grilled salmon in the Iceland chapter, and takes …

Gordon Ramsay’s tartar sauce is sharp, creamy and chunky, made with homemade mayonnaise, crème fraîche, chopped gherkins, shallot, capers and lemon juice, ready in about 3 minutes with no cooking at all. On The F Word he calls it “the Rolls-Royce of sauces with fish and chips.” The recipe appears across three sources. In Quick …

Gordon Ramsay’s Madeira sauce is dark, glossy and rich, made with Madeira wine, chicken stock, bacon, onion and fresh herbs, ready in about 25 minutes. The sauce gets its body from two separate reductions rather than flour, so it’s lighter than a gravy but just as full-flavoured. In Great British Pub Food, Ramsay serves this …