Lisa McManus, chef and editor for America’s Test Kitchen tells us, “If you haven’t used a saucier before, you’re missing out!”

Sauciers resemble regular saucepans but have a bowl-like shape. They were created for French chefs and for the express purpose of making sauces. The bowl-like shape was found to be the best design for the continuous stirring and reduction necessary for successful sauce making,

According to professional chefs, they’re the best choice for every sauce imaginable, and are especially excellent for pastry cream or roux. The bowl shape allows food to stay in motion, meaning it can’t form lumps. This can’t be said of the traditional sauce pan that has more of an L-shaped side; with this pan food is often out of reach of your whisk or spoon.

Some pans sold as “sauciers” are merely slightly modified saucepans. The Test Kitchen experts all said they preferred the sauciers with truly cornerless, rounded bowls and a wide, flaring rim.

Lisa explains that even if you’re never going to whip up béchamel, hollandaise, or velouté, sauciers are delightful to cook in.) She says that once you’ve used a good saucier, it’s very tempting to leave your regular saucepan behind.

After testing lots of sauciers, Lisa and her crew tested could clearly see what the winner was. Then they went on to determine which was the Best Buy (see below). In the testing process, they found the 3- to 3.5-quart sauciers to be the most versatile. Smaller sauciers only excelled at sauce making, while larger ones verged into the territory where they would’ve opted to use a Dutch oven.

The Le Creuset pan is about $149, but it’s currently unavailable and there’s no indication as to when it’ll come back on the market. However, the BEST BUY pan can be found on amazon.com right now for $73.99. While the price is much better, it is a little bigger, which according to the Test Kitchen findings could be a drawback.

Lisa concluded her saucier report by mentioning that one of the fun outcomes of this testing was that along the way, she learned to whisk up beurre blanc, a buttery, tangy sauce that has several applications. So I thought I’d close with a recipe for it (from www.downshiftology). Whether you have a saucier or not, this is worth making—it’s yummy—and the perfect accompaniment to this season’s fresh asparagus!

Besides topping asparagus, it’s delicious on seafood, adds depth and moisture to leaner cuts of meat like baked chicken, pork chops, pork tenderloin, or even turkey. And because it’s similar to hollandaise sauce, it’s superb over Brussels sprouts or garlic herb roasted potatoes.

Beurre Blanc

Yield: approximately 1/2 cup

Ingredients:

1 cup cold, unsalted butter
1/4 cup finely chopped shallots
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/3 cup heavy cream
kosher salt to taste

Directions:

Cook the shallots. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a pan over medium heat. Add the shallots, whisk for 30 seconds, then add the wine and vinegar and continue whisking until the liquid is almost completely reduced (about 2 tablespoons of liquid remaining).

Add the cream and salt and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium low, add the remaining butter a few pieces at a time, while whisking rapidly and continuously.

Strain the sauce through a fine-mesh sieve to discard the shallot, pressing on top with a spoon to extract all the juices and flavor.

Serve sauce immediately while warm.

Recipe formatted with the Cook'n Recipe Software from DVO Enterprises.