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Read MorePorter vs Stout Stouts differ from porters because they use unmalted, roasted barley instead of malted, unroasted barley. Discover the nuances between stouts and porters, the diverse types of each, and how these two dark beer styles evolved.
Read MoreWhat Are The Five Mother Sauces? Discover the five foundational sauces that serve as the basis for most every sauce used in modern cuisine.
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The craft beer revolution opened the doors to countless varieties of beer. The creativity of the movement is inspiring but makes it hard to distinguish beers from each other, particularly brews with overlapping characteristics. Most people know porters and stouts are dark, heady, and flavorful, but few know the differences between them.
Whether you’re starting a brewery or want to know what makes your favorite dark beer unique, we’ll explain everything you need to know about stouts and porters. Read on to explore the distinctions between porters and stouts, the diverse types of each, and how they evolved into what they are today.
Shop All Brewery SuppliesJump to the sections that most interest you by clicking the links below:
Stouts differ from porters because they use unmalted, roasted barley instead of malted, unroasted barley. Most stouts have higher alcohol contents and IBU scores than porters. While both stouts and porters are dry hopped, stouts contain fewer hops than porters. Stout beer evolved from porter beer, so it resembles the typical porter color and taste. However, stouts achieve richer flavors and coffee essences from roasted barley than is typical of porters.
Malting is the method of steeping, germinating, and drying grains to turn them into malt. Malted barley releases more fermentable starches during the brewing process. Think of brewing with malted vs unmalted barley as preparing instant vs whole oatmeal; instant oatmeal is already partially broken down and cooks up fast, whereas whole oats need more time to break down.
Here’s what you need to know about malted vs unmalted barley.
Brewers distinguish stouts and porters in three fundamental ways: the style of barley used, alcohol content, and IBU ratings. Use our cheat sheet to quickly learn the differences between these essential fall beers.
Most stouts are made from unmalted, roasted barley whereas traditional porters use malted barley. The coffee essence produced by the roasted barley is how most beer enthusiasts distinguish stouts from porters.
Most stouts have higher alcohol content than porters.
Porters usually fall lower on the international bittering unit (IBU) scale than stouts.
Stout beer is characterized by its deep brown to black color and roasted tasting notes of coffee and dark chocolate. Unmalted roasted barley gives stout beers their signature color and character. Brewers keep the hop aroma low by dry hopping stouts and many use pellet or liquid extract bittering hops. Because stout beers are so dark, it’s hard to perceive their clarity. However, most stout varieties are opaque but have a chill haze at low temperatures.
Enamored with its rich, roasted, and potent flavor profile, brewers invented multiple types of stout beers by incorporating unique flavorings and tinkering with the brewing method. Discover the many types of stout beer below.
Porter beer is known for its striking brown to black color produced by dark malts and malted barley, leaving the essence of chocolate on the palette. All porters (minus the Baltic variety) are brewed with top-fermenting ale yeast and are dry-hopped. Porter beers pair well with BBQ and other rich, smoky flavors. Use our comprehensive beer pairing guide to develop a tasting menu.
The porter beer style has evolved into distinct categories both out of necessity for exportation and to accommodate a variety of flavor preferences. Discover the most popular types of porter beer below.
Invented in 18th century London, porters were the first beers popularized during England’s industrial revolution. Porters became the blue-collar beverage of choice because they were strong, slow to spoil, inexpensive, and heat-tolerant. In fact, it was their popularity with the ‘porters’ who transferred goods across London that gave the beer style its name. The earliest porter beers were blends of light, hoppy brews with heady aged ales. Their popularity inspired brewers to reverse engineer the beverage and invent the porter beer brewing style.
A stout porter was originally a high ABV porter. In the 17th century, the term “stout beer” was used to describe any thick, strong beer ranging between 7% and 8% ABV. In the early 20th century, brewers started using roasted barley in their stout porters, which separated them from the porter family. The suffix porter was eventually dropped.
London exported its porter beer to Ireland, where it met with tremendous success. Famed Irish poet, Flann O’Brien, even wrote a poem about the beverage and entitled it A Workman’s Friend. The Irish originally renamed porter a “pint of plain”, which is the name used in O'Brien's poem.
A split in the English and Irish porter style occurred in 1817 when Irish brewers stopped using brown malt and instead used patent malt and pale malt. They relied on black roasted barley to give their porters its signature dark color and flavor. With this transition, Irish porters became what we classify as stouts today. Arthur Guinness sparked the widespread transition from porters to stouts when he realized he could reduce his taxes by using unmalted and roasted barley, and other Irish brewers followed his lead. Irish stouts are still one of the most popular Irish beverages and are an essential element of any St. Patrick’s Day food menu.
Back to TopNow that you know the differences between stout and porter beer, you can diversify your winter beer menu. Use this guide to educate your staff on the distinctions between these two popular dark beers.
The five mother sauces are hollandaise, tomato (sauce tomat), bechamel, Espagnole, and veloute. French chef Auguste Escoffier identified the five mother sauces, forever associating them with French cuisine. However, mother sauces are relevant in all modern cooking practices. We can categorize nearly every sauce as an expansion, reduction, or alteration of one of the mother sauces. Whether you’re working on becoming a chef or looking to enhance your restaurant menu, mastering the mother sauces provides the foundation you need to build your own signature flavors.
Shop All SaucepansYou can click on any of the mother sauces below to discover the sauce that most interests you, read on to explore them all, or jump ahead to our five mother sauces chart.
A mother sauce is a foundational sauce that serves as the basis for a variety of derivative sauces. A derivative sauce is a sauce that adds ingredients and flavors to a mother sauce. Chefs also refer to derivative sauces as daughter sauces, small sauces, or secondary sauces. French cuisine claims that there are five foundational mother sauces from which we form all other sauces. Each mother sauce has a unique liquid, thickening agent, and distinct flavorings. Three of the five mother sauces use a roux as their thickening agent.
Use our informative list of the five mother sauces as your guide to their flavor profiles, ingredients, popular derivatives, and common uses.
Hollandaise offers the rich flavor of buttered cream laced with lemon and is the most well-known mother sauce. While some mother sauces are less famous than their derivatives, hollandaise is the star of its sauce family tree. Hollandaise sauce is an emulsion (meaning its ingredients don’t combine naturally). The word hollandaise is French, and it translates to “Dutch sauce” in English. While its name suggests otherwise, hollandaise is a definitively French sauce hailing from a small Norman town renowned for its butter and cream.
Follow these simple steps to make a classic hollandaise sauce.
Note: If your hollandaise becomes too thick, whisk a few drops of warm water into the sauce before serving it.
Tomato sauce, or sauce tomat in French, is a tomato-based sauce that serves as one of the five mother sauces. Tomatoes have high water content and tender flesh that cooks into thick sauces without emulsification. Tomato sauce is popular in Italian cuisine, which uses an array of secondary tomato sauces for pasta and pizza. In his publication, Auguste Escoffier didn’t signify a particular tomato variety, leaving room for seasonal availability and flavor preference. We provide the ingredients for Escoffier’s sauce tomat below.
While not the simplest version of tomato sauce, Escoffier's sauce tomat is as decadent as it is famous. Learn how to make the traditional tomato-based mother sauce below.
To Achieve a Smoother Sauce: we recommend blending the sauce tomat before passing it through the chinois.
Back to TopBechamel is the original cream sauce and serves as the foundation for every cheese sauce you know and love. In its simplest form, bechamel is a combination of milk and white roux. Traditional French, Greek, and Italian bechamel recipes incorporate salt and nutmeg into their sauces. Bechamel was originally an Italian sauce, Balsamella, that became a hit in the French royal court of King Louis XIV where it was renamed ‘bechamel’ after his chief steward. Escoffier standardized the name bechamel when he published his list of mother sauces.
Learn how to make bechamel sauce by following this simple recipe.
Espagnole is a brown sauce thickened with a roux composed of brown stock, mirepoix, and tomatoes. Mirepoix is a French aromatic flavor base of onion, celery, and carrot cooked together in butter or oil over low heat, so they release their flavors without browning. Espagnole is the most complex mother sauce. It has a potent flavor that easily overpowers, so you will rarely directly apply it to your meals. Subsequently, Espagnole sauce is far more popular in its reduced, derivative forms.
Easily create the most complex mother sauce with our Espagnole recipe.
Veloute sauce is a versatile white sauce made by blending a white roux and white stock. There are three types of veloute (chicken, fish, and veal) depending on the variety of white stock used. The most common variety is chicken veloute. Veloute is the most neutral of the five mother sauces, serving as a clean canvas to layer a diverse array of flavors onto. You’ll find veloute sauce as the base in a variety of chicken dishes, creamy soups, and other comfort food staples.
Learn how to make the most versatile white mother sauce with our easy-to-follow veloute recipe.
Note: Veloute sauce thickens as it cools. If you aren't using it immediately, you can thin the sauce by adding more hot stock before serving.
Back to TopAs specialty sauces become one of the most popular food trends, it’s important for restaurants to master the mother sauces so they can create their own derivates and hone their signature flavor. We answer the common questions that arise when chefs make the five mother sauces below.
A sauce is a liquid combined with a thickening agent and flavorings. You can vary your thickening agent to create a sauce that is fluid, semi-solid, or anywhere in between. Sauces enhance the texture, flavor, and aesthetic appeal of other foods. You can incorporate sauces during the cooking process, add them after you plate your food, or serve them on the side.
A roux is a thickening agent made from equal parts flour and fat. You will thicken three of the five mother sauces with a roux. To make a roux, blend flour into melted fat on the stovetop. Cook the mixture between 350-375 degrees Fahrenheit until it reaches your preferred level of browning. You can stop or extend the browning process to make a white, blonde, or brown roux.
Published by esteemed chef Auguste Escoffier in the 19th century, the five mother sauces are the branches of the sauce family tree, and all other sauces are leaves growing from their branches. However, the mother sauces were not always as we know them today. In the 1800s, French chef Marie-Antoine Carême classified veloute, bechamel, allemande, and Espagnole as the foundational (mother) sauces. In the 19th century, Auguste Escoffier revolutionized the culinary world by updating traditional haute cuisine and redefining the mother sauces, making him the father of modern French cuisine. Escoffier identified allemande as a derivative of veloute and removed it from the list of mother sauces. He then added tomato sauce (sauce tomat) and hollandaise to the list of foundational sauces, solidifying the five mother sauces we still recognize today.
Back to TopMother sauces are the matriarchs of the five major sauce families. Perfecting the mother sauces will allow you to venture on your own sauce journey with a solid foundation of time-tested flavor as your guide. If you’re ready to get started, check out our saucepan buying guide and discover the right saucepan for your needs.
Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs are the bestselling Easter candy in America, so boost your sales by making our premium version of this beloved seasonal sweet. Filled with smooth peanut butter and coated in rich chocolate, our peanut butter eggs blend sweet and salty flavors with creamy and crunchy consistencies. Prepare them in bulk and stock your bakery, candy shop, or diner with homemade peanut butter eggs this Easter season.
Shop All Candy Making SuppliesOur no-bake peanut butter egg recipe has a short ingredient list and is easy to make. We use an old-time candy-making secret—food-grade paraffin wax. While wax may sound like an odd ingredient, food-grade paraffin wax is made of vegetable oils, palm oil derivatives, and synthetic resins that are considered edible and safe to consume. Incorporating edible paraffin wax into the chocolate coating adds shine and delivers a satisfying snap when your customers bite into your peanut butter eggs. Discover peanut butter egg ingredients, tools, and preparatory steps below.
Depending on the size of your molds, this recipe makes 12 to 24 eggs. Our recipe converter helps adjust the peanut butter egg recipe ingredients to meet your quantity needs.
Peanut butter eggs are a low-cost, high-profit Easter treat. You can reduce food waste by pouring leftover peanut butter egg coating chocolate into our chocolate rabbit molds. Display these eye-catching treats in your candy shop or bakery to create a nostalgic atmosphere and generate impulse buys.