415A sauces and thickeners practice questions.

Five free practice questions on sauces and thickeners: block E of the Red Seal 415A Cook exam, about 13 of its 150 questions. They are in the exam's format: four options, one correct answer. Answer each one before opening the explanation. No account, no email.

01The questions

1. Procedural · Cooks sauces

   After roasting turkeys in a long-term-care kitchen, the cook makes pan gravy from the roasting pans. Which sequence is correct?

   1. Cook the drippings until the fond turns black, then add stock and cream
   2. Skim off excess fat, make a roux with some of it, add stock, scrape up the fond, simmer and strain
   3. Stir flour into all the fat and drippings, add cold water and serve without simmering
   4. Discard the drippings and fond, then thicken fresh stock with cornstarch
   Show the answer

   B. Correct. The fond (browned drippings) carries the flavour. Pour off most of the fat, cook flour in the reserved fat to a roux, whisk in stock while scraping up the fond to deglaze, simmer until the raw-flour taste is gone, strain and season. Hold at 60 °C or higher.

   Why not the others

   A. Blackened fond is burnt and makes the gravy bitter. The fond should be deep brown, then deglazed with stock and thickened.

   C. Using all the fat makes a greasy gravy, and skipping the simmer leaves a raw-flour taste. Excess fat is poured off and the roux-thickened gravy is simmered, then strained.

   D. Discarding the fond throws away the flavour that makes it a pan gravy. The pan is deglazed with stock to lift the fond into the sauce.

2. Procedural · Processes thickening and binding ingredients

   A cook has just finished a hot blond roux in a rondeau for velouté. How should the stock be added so the sauce does not go lumpy?

   1. Let the roux go cold, then add cold stock all at once
   2. Add boiling stock in one pour, stirring with a spoon
   3. Add cool stock gradually, whisking constantly
   4. Add any stock, then boil hard without whisking
   Show the answer

   C. Correct. Combine opposite temperatures: cool liquid into hot roux (or hot liquid into cool roux). The starch disperses before it heats enough to gelatinize, and constant whisking keeps it moving. Then bring to a simmer and cook at least 20 minutes to remove the raw-flour taste before straining.

   Why not the others

   A. With both cold, the fat in the roux sets and the roux does not disperse; it lumps as the pot heats. Temperatures should contrast: cool stock into hot roux, or hot stock into cool roux.

   B. Hot into hot makes the starch on the outside of each clump gelatinize at once, sealing dry flour inside and forming lumps; it also spatters. Use cool stock with hot roux, added gradually and whisked.

   D. A hard boil without whisking lets the starch settle and scorch on the bottom and clump. The stock temperature should contrast with the roux, added gradually with constant whisking, then simmered gently.

3. Procedural · Processes sauce ingredients

   In a hotel kitchen, a cook sets up mise en place for béarnaise. What is prepared that sets it apart from a plain hollandaise?

   1. Yolks cooked with milk and tarragon to 82 °C
   2. A brown stock reduced to a glaze for the yolks
   3. A reduction of vinegar, shallot, tarragon and peppercorns
   4. Tomato purée to whisk into the finished sauce
   Show the answer

   C. Correct. Béarnaise uses the hollandaise method on a reduction of white-wine vinegar (often with wine), shallot, tarragon and crushed peppercorns. The reduction is strained or used as is, cooled slightly, then whisked with the yolks; the sauce is finished with chopped tarragon (and chervil).

   Why not the others

   A. Yolks cooked with milk to about 82 °C describes a stirred custard (crème anglaise), not an emulsified butter sauce. Béarnaise starts from a tarragon-shallot-vinegar reduction.

   B. Meat glaze is added to a finished béarnaise to make a further derivative, not béarnaise itself. The defining step is the tarragon, shallot and vinegar reduction.

   D. Tomato added to béarnaise makes a further derivative (choron), not béarnaise. Béarnaise itself is defined by its tarragon, shallot and vinegar reduction.

4. Procedural · Selects thickening and binding ingredients

   A hospital tray-line cook must thicken a turkey gravy for a patient with celiac disease. Which thickener is suitable?

   1. Beurre manié made with all-purpose flour
   2. A blond roux made with spelt flour
   3. A roux made with barley flour
   4. A cornstarch slurry
   Show the answer

   D. Correct. Cornstarch contains no gluten, so a slurry of cornstarch in cold stock or water, whisked into the simmering gravy, thickens it safely (arrowroot or potato starch also work). Check that the stock or stock base itself is gluten-free and keep the equipment separate from wheat products to avoid cross-contact.

   Why not the others

   A. All-purpose flour is wheat, so beurre manié carries gluten into the gravy. Use a gluten-free starch slurry such as cornstarch or arrowroot.

   B. Spelt is a species of wheat and contains gluten, so it is not safe for celiac disease despite sometimes being marketed as an 'ancient grain'. Use a gluten-free starch such as cornstarch or arrowroot.

   C. Barley contains gluten (hordein) and must be avoided in celiac disease, along with wheat and rye. Use a gluten-free starch slurry such as cornstarch or arrowroot.

5. Procedural · Finishes sauces

   After a banquet, 20 L of velouté at 80 °C is left over. How should it be cooled for storage?

   1. Leave it on the counter until room temperature, then refrigerate
   2. Hold it at 60 °C overnight and cool it the next morning
   3. Cover the full stockpot and put it straight into the walk-in
   4. Shallow pans in an ice bath: to 20 °C within 2 h, then to 4 °C within 4 h
   Show the answer

   D. Correct. Dividing into shallow pans and using an ice bath (or ice wand or blast chiller) moves the sauce quickly through the danger zone: 60 °C to 20 °C within 2 hours, then 20 °C to 4 °C within the next 4 hours, per food-safety practice and the local public health unit. Then cover, label, date and refrigerate.

   Why not the others

   A. Room-temperature cooling leaves the sauce in the danger zone for hours, a classic cause of Clostridium perfringens illness. Cool actively in shallow pans in an ice bath.

   B. Holding overnight only delays the cooling problem and degrades the sauce. Cool it right away in stages: to 20 °C within 2 hours, then to 4 °C within 4 hours.

   C. A 20 L pot cools far too slowly in the walk-in: the centre stays in the danger zone for hours and it warms everything around it. Divide it and cool in stages.

02Answer key

03What block E covers

This block covers thickening agents and sauces. It includes roux, slurries, beurre manié, liaisons and reduction, the five mother sauces and their derivatives, demi-glace, hollandaise and béarnaise, mayonnaise, pan gravy, coulis and caramel, non-reactive cookware, mounting with butter, nappe consistency, flambéing, gluten-free and allergen swaps, and holding and cooling sauces safely.

The Red Seal Occupational Standard names this block “Sauces”. It carries 8.7% of the exam, about 13 of the 150 questions, split across two tasks. The share column is each task's weight within the block, as the standard publishes it.

04What the questions turn on

Roux and opposite temperatures

Roux is equal weights of fat and flour. Add cool liquid to hot roux, or hot liquid to cool roux, whisking, then simmer at least 20 minutes. A brown roux thickens less than the same weight of blond roux.

Mother sauces and derivatives

The five mother sauces are espagnole, béchamel, velouté, tomato and hollandaise. Mornay is béchamel with cheese, suprême is chicken velouté with cream, and demi-glace is equal parts espagnole and brown stock reduced by half.

Hollandaise temperature control

Whisk the yolks over barely simmering water to a ribbon, around 65 °C, then add warm clarified butter slowly. Grainy curds with no separated oil mean overheated yolks, which cannot be re-emulsified. Hold it at 60 to 65 °C.

Cornstarch has limits

Disperse cornstarch in cold liquid and whisk it into a simmering sauce, where it turns clear in about a minute. Acid, sugar, long heat and stirring break the gel down, so waxy maize starch suits holding and freezing.

05The other blocks

The 415A exam has 13 blocks. Each has its own page of free questions:

The 415A Cook practice exam page describes the full question bank. How these questions are written and checked: how our questions are made. Found a mistake? Tell us and we will fix it.