Often when I am eating alone, or with just one other person, I will quickly cook a piece of meat in a pan, remove the meat from the pan, then make a pan sauce with a few things I have lying around. This works particularly well with pork chops, lamb chops, or any kind of cutlet. You can just as easily make it for one person or twenty, it is fast and relatively easy to make, there are endless variations and combinations to try, and, it is delicious.



But many people are intimidated by the idea of throwing things together with no measurements or specific ingredients. It is helpful to realize that there is a science behind the process, ordering, and properties of the ingredients that belies the difficulty of getting one to come out right every time. The ability to cook a good pan sauce on the fly is based on the cook possessing only a few qualities: an understanding of why each type of ingredient that needs to go in and what it does to the sauce, which enables you to make appropriate adjustments; a sense of confidence and adventure; and of course, practice.

So what are the elements, and how can you put them together successfully? They are, in the order they are generally combined:

• Fat- fat is necessary for good flavor, as well as texture. You need fat for a good pan sauce. Generally after you cook a pork chop there is a little fat in the pan, and some brown bits. Unless there is a good coating of fat, though, you will probably need to add butter to round out the flavor and the mouth feel of the sauce. Otherwise, the sauce will come out watery. The fat is the first thing in the pan- it's what's left over from cooking, augmented by the extra butter that you add. Oil does not work as well because it doesn't combine as seamlessly with the other ingredients- so you can end up with a separated sauce, which is greasy and gross.
  

• Flavoring- the most standard flavoring would be a finely chopped shallot, but garlic or onion can work well also. The flavoring is added to the fat and cooked for a minute or two to release the aromatic properties and commune with the fat.

• Acid/Liquid- The acid/liquid goes in after the flavoring has cooked in the fat for a couple of minutes. If I have wine open, that would be my first choice, since it's an acidic liquid. A small amount of mild vinegar (like white wine vinegar, or balsamic vinegar) will work if you don't have any wine, but you will want to be careful of not putting too much in, and mindful of the flavor it will impart. As well, you may want to add a little water or broth to get enough liquid (for one or 2 servings, this won't be a problem, only if you are making more.) Ditto lemon juice. I often add mustard, which has both acidity and flavor, along with some wine or lemon juice. Ditto tomato paste or chopped tomatoes.

• Seasoning- salt and pepper should be added with the acid. Fresh herbs are nice if you have them around, but not necessary for success.
  

• Thickener/Rounder- Getting the sauce to be more viscous and less watery can be achieved via different methods. I call this thickening and rounding the sauce, because it's about both taste (rounding out the acids) and texture (achieving a desired viscosity.) First, the acid must reduce pretty significantly before you worry about thickening and rounding. If you are making a small amount of sauce and have good proportions, you may not even need to thicken and round because you are working with such a small amount. An ideal method, but that takes more time, is to put a larger amount of wine in when you add your acid and let it reduce and thicken over heat. This gives rich flavor and generally allows you to skip any further rounding. But since that could take up to 20 minutes if you're making a large amount, there are quicker things you can do which can be just as tasty. Adding a splash of heavy cream and cooking it for a minute works well because it rounds out the acid and adds more of that flavorful fat. If the sauce is pretty thin, and needs good rounding, you can take it off the heat and quickly whisk in a couple small pieces of butter. Done correctly, the result is an emulsified suspension of cold butter in hot sauce that makes it thick and round. Of course, all you taste is a smooth, balanced sauce. (This is the method used for a typical beurre blanc, a French sauce often used on fish, that combines simmering vinegar with cold chunks of butter in this manner.) Knowing how to thicken and round is probably the trickiest part of the process, but the one that allows you to make a sauce in 5 minutes that tastes like it's been cooking all day.
  

• Re-seasoning-check your salt and pepper and make sure you are balanced.

Trouble-shooting: Based on this science, how do you fix the sauce if it's not good? The main things to know are: if it's too boring, you can add salt, pepper, or acid. If it's too thin and watery, or too sour/acidic, you can add fat to round it out, or you can reduce it.

So that's it- mystery solved. To get you started, I'm going to share a recipe based on a sauce I made the other night. It was particularly tasty and easy. This will be a good first step. While you are making it, you can think about the properties of each ingredient and their purpose in the dish. This allows you to make expert adjustments, if it's too salty, sour, boring, etc.

Pork Chop with Whole Grain Mustard Pan Sauce for One

Ingredients:

• one pork chop (I used thin-cut, bone-in)
• splash of olive oil
• 1 T butter
• 1 shallot finely chopped
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• about a teaspoon of whole grain mustard- more if you like it mustardy
• about 1-2 T heavy cream
• salt and pepper

Method:

• Heat olive oil in a pan over high heat. Season pork chop on both sides and cook in pan, about 2-3 minutes per side for a thin pork chop (more time for a fatter one.) Remove to plate.
• Reduce heat to medium. Add butter and melt. Add shallots and cook for about a minute, swirling or stirring pan.
• Add mustard and lemon and stir or swirl to combine. Add salt and pepper. Cook about a minute, until lemon juice has evaporated.
• Add cream and swirl pan. Cook about a minute, until sauce has thickened up a bit.
• Check seasoning , adjust. Pour over chop and eat.
• You will have a lot of sauce so you probably want to have some bread or other starch to soak it up!