It's no surprise that in France, the is the most respected role in any kitchen brigade, or that the protein in Mexico's national dish is secondary to its sauce. A good sauce can make a dish; a bad one can render the recipe inedible. But since sauces can require loads of ingredients and time to prepare, these days, supermarket aisles teem with convenient versions: prepared sauces ready to add flavor to dishes in a snap.
Some of these shortcuts are actually worthwhile, and some pale in comparison to the real thing. Is it worthwhile to make your own soy sauce from scratch? How about homemade pesto? To figure out which sauces are worth mastering and which ones can be safely purchased with minimal negative repercussions, we asked expert chefs to weigh in. They spilled the sauce on the ones they always make from scratch and the store-bought shortcuts they actually prefer over homemade.
Make: Mole While you can certainly find mole in a jar, it would be a shame to take a shortcut with this traditional Mexican sauce. There are as many mole recipes as there are cooks, from Puebla's mole poblano to central Mexico's green mole verde. Oaxaca, perhaps the heart of mole, boasts seven versions alone, including black mole or mole negro, made with deeply roasted chiles combined with nuts, seeds, plantains, herbs, spices, raisins, tomatillos, tomatoes, bread, and, yes, a touch of chocolate.
There's no getting around it: A true is a time consuming endeavor. writes that many home cooks making mol.