Gastrique? What Dat?[dropcap1]Q. [/dropcap1]What is a gastrique? It seems to be some kind of sauce for meats, but I can't find it on the food when it's mentioned on the menu. [dropcap1]A. [/dropcap1]A gastrique is a highly reduced sauce, usually involving some kind of fruit juice and/or vinegar, cooked down to the point where it's almost a syrup. It's another one of those things that chefs use to make it seem that their cooking is tremendously different from the cooking the you when I do at home. You or I would probably have little occasion to make a gastrique, and since you measure it out by the drop it wouldn't be worth the trouble for just a few servings. But nothing's stopping us from doing that, if we like dramatic touches in our cooking.
