Saucing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The technique of incorporating a liquid condiment into cuisine to boost flavor profiles
2. The process of adding a viscous substance to enhance the taste of food through drizzling or coating
3. The act of using a flavorful liquid to complement and elevate the taste of dishes, often through pouring or spreading

Etymology: Sauce began as a salted thing. Its ancestor is Latin "salsus", meaning "salted", the past participle of "salire", "to salt", which comes from "sal", the word for salt. Spoken Vulgar Latin turned the feminine form into a noun, "*salsa", and Old French carried it forward as "sause", which entered Middle English as "sauce". So the word's first sense was simply something seasoned with salt, and the idea of a liquid poured over food grew out of that seasoning. The same logic turns up in other languages. Ancient Greek "hēdusma", a seasoning or relish, comes from the root that also gave English "sweet", meaning that the Greeks described flavouring in terms of pleasantness rather than salt. Latin chose salt, and English inherited that choice, so "sauce" and "salsa" are doublets, two words from one source that arrived by different routes. "Saucing" is simply the verb "to sauce" with the "-ing" ending, used for the act of putting sauce on something.

Synonyms: dressing, seasoning