{{short description|Caramelized sugar, deglazed with vinegar}} [[Image:Scallop - tangerine-gastrique.jpg|thumb|250px|Scallop with a tangerine gastrique]] '''Gastrique''' is caramelized sugar, deglazed with vinegar or other sour liquids, used as a sweet and sour flavoring for sauces.<ref>Sarah Labensky, Alan Hause (1999) ''On Cooking'' 2nd ed., Prentice-Hall, New Jersey {{ISBN|0-13-862640-5}}</ref>
The gastrique is generally added to a fond, reduced stock or brown sauce. It is also used to flavor sauces such as tomato sauce, savory fruit sauces, and others, such as the orange sauce for duck à l'orange.
The term is often broadened to mean any sweet and sour sauce, e.g., citrus ''gastrique'' or mango ''gastrique''.<ref>[http://www.bravotv.com/foodies/recipes Top Chef]</ref> An ''agrodolce'' is a similar sauce found in Italian cuisine.
It is different from the Belgian sauce base of the same name, which consists of vinegar, white wine, shallots, tarragon stems, bouquet garni, and peppercorns. The gastrique with this composition was already used by Auguste Escoffier, but at the end of the 19th century, Louis Védy from Brussels turned it into a plant extract that ensures a constant level of acidity when making béarnaise sauce.<ref>Quelques mots sur l’Extrait Végétal Universel de Louis Védy. - Brussels : Impr. Dubois-Geens, [after 1909]. - s.p.</ref>
==History==
Caramel dissolved in vinegar is used by Escoffier in 1903, with no special name, just described as "sucre cuit au caramel blond, dissous avec 1 décilitre de vinaigre" (sugar cooked to a light caramel, dissolved with 1 decilitre of vinegar) in his recipes for Sauce Romaine and Carpe à la Polonaise;<ref>August Escoffier, ''Le guide culinaire'', 1903, ''s.v.''</ref> similarly, Prosper Montagné in 1922 just says "caramel au vinaigre",<ref>Prosper Montagné, "À la cuisine: Plats excentriques", ''"L'Œuvre" féminine'', June 29, 1922, [https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k46142525/f5.image.r=%22caramel%20au%20vinaigre%22?rk=21459;2 p. 1]</ref> and the ''Répertoire de la Cuisine'' says "caramel blond dissous au vinaigre".<ref>Théodore Gringoire, Louis Saulnier, ''Le Répertoire de la Cuisine'' 3rd edition, 1923, [https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9638563t/f45.item.r=vinaigre p. 21]</ref>
The name ''gastrique'' appears to have come in with ''nouvelle cuisine'' by the 1980s, defined as an "indispensable preparation used in making sauces to accompany hot creations including fruits, such as duck à l'orange."<ref>Jean-Paul Champenier, Jacques Sylvestre, Jean Planche, ''Les "Nouvelles" bases de la cuisine'', 1986, {{isbn|2-86268-085-0}}, ''glossary''</ref><ref>Henry Viard, Ninette Lyon, ''Eloge de la gourmandise'', 1983, {{isbn|290382603X}}, p. 21</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://chefsimon.com/gastrique.html Chef Simon ''Gastrique de base''] {{in lang|fr}}
Category:Sauces
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