Saucy

I really enjoyed this! Visually appealing, with pictures of most of the sauces, this book is broken down into chapters by type of sauce, including, Tomato-based, Tangy, Savory, and my favorite, Dessert. The sauce recipe use accessible ingredients, and all come together easily, even if you are not an advanced, or even intermediate cook. Each sauce recipe also includes the area of the world that it is inspired by.

Included at the end of the book are a few recipes such as Stackable Pancakes, Perfectly Crisp Vegetables, and Flaky Baked Fish.

So glad I was able to read this ARC and review it. This is one I will want a physical copy of, I can see myself referring to it often.

Thank you Netgalley and Chronicle Books for the ARC!

I love a good sauce with any meal, so I was very excited to see an entire cookbook devoted only to sauces! The recipes are organized by flavor profile such as creamy, herby, and spicy. There is a section of recommended sauce pairings for different foods and a few simple recipes at the end for go-to "bases" for sauces. The recipes are easy to follow and use pretty common ingredients. There is even a photograph for each one. I can't wait to try them all out. This is a cookbook I will reference again and again.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #ChronicleBooks for a free copy of #Saucy by Ashley Boyd. All opinions are my own.

This cookbook is a great addition to any kitchen. Sauces can make a good dish great and this book has sauces for whatever you fancy, even desserts. This takes the guesswork out of it and homemade sauces are most delicious than store bought. Im excited to try many of the sauces in this book!

This fun cookbook is full of 50 easily accessible and exciting recipients to elevate your regular cooking with a new little sauce! As someone with very minimal kitchen skills, I’m feeling ready to attempt a few sauces to turn my normal boring dinners into real flavorful dishes. What a fun idea!

don’t judge a book by its cover, but this cover is BEAUTIFUL, i would buy it just to display in my kitchen. this is genuinely the most beautiful cookbook i’ve ever seen, everything from swatches of sauce in the table of contents to the fonts/color schemes and close up photos of each recipe. i’m vegan but all of these are easily adaptable and i’ll be trying the majority of them.

Recipes were easy to follow and make. Good flavors and taste, and most of the sauces are approachable for many cooks. Has a couple of standard sauces for the home cook and some that are very unique. Very unique cookbook and good to have around. Would have liked to have seen more regarding making sauces with your own flavors.

This is one of those endlessly useful specialty cookbooks that can turn basic recipes into an interesting meal. It’s a book just about flavor! The directions for all are generally simple, the index is comprehensive, and an appendix includes some basic recipes for dishes to put your sauces on. If I have a critique, it’s that many of these have ingredient lists on the longer side: 10ish ingredients feels like a lot to find in my pantry, especially when making multiple recipes with limited overlap.

Saucy is set up as a book for intermediate home chefs looking to expand their skills with leveled up sauces that are intended to elevate standard everyday meals.

This book has a great guide at the beginning that covers a reference chart of different types of proteins / vegetables to use with specific recipes. I found this to be a very useful tool to navigate and use these recipes in my kitchen!

The categories include:

Creamy
Herby
Savory
Spicy
Tomato-Based
Umami
Tangy
Dessert

One of my favorite recipes that I'm so excited about is the Creamy Chipotle Lime Sauce. There are a lot of really useful recipes included here. That recipe and others like the Comeback Sauce and the Brown Sugar Peach Sauce will be used regularly from this point on!

I decided to rate 4 stars though, because I think the setup of the recipes could have been better. For example, providing the base recipe first and then how it can be elevated - this would expand the skills of the those who are learning these recipes for the first time. Also, there are circumstances where the instructions seemed incomplete, such as with the Roasted Beet Hummus. The instructions advised to roast it, peel and chop, however it does not provide the complete instructions on how to roast the beet. For those who have not roasted a beet before, they will have to use another resource to figure that out instead of having it right there for them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.

Saucy would make a lovely addition to any home chef’s collection of cookbooks, and I am honestly planning to gift some copies to the home chefs in my life once it is published.

I really enjoyed the overall organization of the book and how sauces were grouped (Creamy, Herby, Tomato-Based, Tangy, Savory, Umami, Spicy, Dessert). This makes it easy to zero in on the right sauce for any particular recipe you might be looking to enhance. Or, if you are looking to try a sauce recipe from this book but you aren’t sure what to pair it with, the author has included plenty of pairing recommendations, both alongside each sauce and in a separate section at the back. As a novice in the kitchen myself, I found them helpful.

The food photography and overall visuals of the book are really eye-catching and fun. I was surprised to find such variety in the visuals of a cookbook with such a specific scope! I also enjoyed the layout of the recipe pages, which include notes on culinary influences, how to store each sauce, and optional substitutions or additions to each recipe.

As for the recipes themselves, none of them seem overly elaborate and I think most would be useful and feasible for daily cooking. The book includes several familiar staples, like Southwest Ranch and Teriyaki Sauce, but also some options that were new to me, like Sweet Ginger Sesame Sauce or Apricot Miso Glaze. Overall, there was a good variety in culinary influences and types of sauces included.

I can’t wait to get my hands on a physical copy when it comes out! It will be a go-to book for me.

The cover of this book is very eye catching!! I love how colorful the pages and graphics are - the photos of the sauces are great! This book is really well organized. The recipes are super versatile. Sauces are yummy!!

This delightful book includes a lot of great sauce recipes, which is something, I've found, you can always have more of. Creamy, Herby, Savory, Spicy, Tomato-Based, Umami, Tangy, and Dessert. It seems like a great resource to have on hand, especially when you need a sauce to tie a dish together. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

A good sauce can completely transform a meal and can take a dish from basic to unforgettable! Since moving the food scene has not been anything to write home about so I have been cooking at home way more than I ever have before. This book has been inspirational to say the least! The different sauces have helped me find and try new dishes to pair them with. I haven’t gotten through them all but I still have several dishes planed before the end the year and can’t wait to try more! I also love the artwork and the layout of the book. Overall a great (and beautiful) resource for any home cook!

I adore this book! So many delicious, EASY sauce recipes. I am a sauce person and can’t have a meal without a good sauce. This book is going to be very well loved in my house! I love that there is sweet, savory and everything in between added.

They say not to judge a book by it's cover, but in this case, do it! This really is a gorgeous book of sauces as the cover shows. There are so many delicious sauces in this book. This is a great book for any home cook, even an amateur looking to level up their cooking with a simple sauce.

This is going to be a great book to gift. Graphically it's lovely, easy to read, follow and well organized. There is a great variety of sauces in the book and really something for everyone.

If you love sauces you need this book!

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

As someone who loves dipping foods and is always trying every sauce available. This was the cookbook I needed. I love the variety!!

I love this book! I love the title, I love the font used, I love the drips and the drops. What gorgeous pictures of the sauces! I want to lick the pages, they're that delicious looking! The recommended sauce pairings pages are fantastic! What a great breakdown of what to put these sauces on! The book makes me want to go and make all of these recipes tonight! At the back of the book, there are even recipes for some basics to put the sauces on. And don't forget a very helpful index. This is a truly beautiful book!

One of my goals for the new year was to be more flexible in the kitchen. I want to be able to easily punch up the weekly rotation of roasted vegetables and everyday proteins, and these sauces are the perfect solution. I am especially excited for the sauces in the tomato based and tangy categories. The book also does a great job communicating what sauces work well with what dishes, which will help with no-brainer meal prep in the future.

Plain chicken, meat, and fish are delicious, but they are, in a word, boring. Most of us want to dress up our main dishes and desserts to make them more palatable. If you are like most of us, you’ll want to pick up Ashley Boyd’s excellent cookbook, Saucy: 50 Recipes for Drizzly, Dunk-able, Go-To Sauces to Elevate Everyday Meals. This cookbook contains almost every sauce you will ever need. Most of the recipes are easy.

Each recipe includes comments letting readers know what the sauce is best on. The ingredients (which are mostly minimal) follow the comments, and then step-by-step instructions that are concise and easy to follow. Since most of the sauces can be made ahead, the author has included the shelf life of each. The author has also cleverly included nice, color photographs of most of the sauces.

This is a “must have” cookbook for anyone who cooks and wants to transform plain foods into mouthwatering meals. There is such a variety of good sauces, most cooks will want to try something new every day over different proteins. Incidentally, at the back of the cookbook Boyd has included basic recipes for pan-fried steak, hamburgers, sautéed shrimp, and other basic proteins that can be topped or cooked in the yummy sauces. This cookbook will be used often and is giftable for anyone who likes to cook. Highly recommended.


Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

Ashley Boyd’s Saucy is a great compliment to any baker or cook’s bookshelf. She shares both savory and sweet sauces to add zip to any dish. While I have many cookbooks, I don’t have one specifically for sauces. The Comeback sauce, Orange Chimichurri and Orange Crème Anglaise will be the first ones to try. I can’t wait to purchase a hard copy for myself. Thank you Netgalley and Chronicle Books for the ARC.

This is an amazing little book of sauces! With this book, I guarantee I will never have another boring chicken dinner. This book offers a wide variety of sauce recipes. Also included with each recipe, the sauce’s origin (like France, the Middle East, etc.). If you think you’ll be stuck staring at a sauce recipe and wondering what it is best used for, don’t worry. A handy index matches the sauce with the meat that best pairs. I can’t wait to dive in and start enjoying my dinners at home again!

I have never been much of a sauce person, but these all look incredible! The pictures were so clean and made it look so delish! I'll be trying some of these out soon.

I’m not a big cookbook fan, but this one sounded so different and unique. This cookbook has recipes for sauces you could use on everyday meals. It’s structured by different types: creamy, herby, tomato-based, tangy, savory, umami, spicy, and dessert. Each sauce had a different section and mentioned where that sauce was influenced. Pasta is my favorite food and there was a section that specifically recommended sauces for it, which I absolutely loved. These sauces were also super simple and easy to follow. Some of the sauces I would definitely be checking out are Guava Barbecue Sauce, Coconut Curry Sauce, Apricot Miso Glaze, Spicy Mango Chutney, and Raspberry Glaze. I looked at these recipes electronically, but I’ll definitely need a physical book to own.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with access to read this book!

I love this book! It's fun, it's accessible, and it actually feels like a missing section of the cookbook/how to cook market. I feel like I'll definitely refer to this in the future.

What a great little resource to add to a cookbook collection! I often spend more time scouring for sauce recipes and this has them all in one place. Ingredients are all easy to access and the directions are straightforward. Choose a protein, add a sauce and vegetables and there's a million ways you can combine ingredients for a different dinner every night.

"Saucy" by Ashley Boyd is an extremely fun book with recipes for 50 different sauces. Bursting with colorful macro photographs of each of the recipes, which I found to be very helpful in showcasing the textures of what your finished product should look like.
The sauces are organized by flavor profile such as herby, tangy, umami, and dessert, just to name a few. I really enjoyed the ease in format for listing ingredients and the steps to follow, at times appearing highlighted for a quick glance, all of which seemed like very easy to source items. The country or region of origin that each sauce, came from or was inspired by was a definite highlight as well as the suggested pairings for each sauce and some alternative tweaks you can make to turn them into a multi use item, like a salad dressing for example.
There are also some basic cooking recipes that every cook should learn toward the end of the book, shall we say, vehicles or blank canvases for you to get creative with and sauce-up.
So, how does one review a cookbook? Try some recipes of course! I wont list each one, but I made a few, such as comeback sauce, a smoky mornay and even turning the tonkatsu sauce into a glaze for roasted chicken.
Boyd has given us a very easy to use foundation cookbook that would compliment any kitchen... as sauce does. I'm looking forward to adding it to my collection.

It is difficult to find a unique concept in a cookbook. This book did that. I liked the idea of a book that focused just on sauces. I would recommend this book.

Saucy has a gorgeous table of contents with colorful photos of the sauces referenced above each themed section. The list of recommended pairings prevents decision fatigue and helps new cooks effectively mix and match flavors with ingredients. The section at the end had solid basic cooking instructions for newer cooks who need a basic plan they can follow for essential ingredients. That said, while Saucy supports new home cooks, it also is effective for more experienced cooks (like me) who need some inspriration and want a way to create simple, fast meals that aren't boring. As a single parent who has two jobs and no nearby family to help out, I really appreciate that this can let me make healthy delicious meals that don't require much time to prepare. In fact, I see myself doing food prep for basic elements (shredded chicken, roasted veggies, cooked grains) on the weekend and using a quick 15 min on weekdays to whip up a fresh sauce for whatever items we have prepared.

The only challenge I see with the book is that most sauce recipes makes a decent quantity yet only lasts 5 days. For a household of a single adult and child, this likely means food waste for me (especially if we do not want to eat the same sauce for days in a row), but most recipes were easily halved. (One exception: I will use that creamy avocado sauce on everything... dip for veggies and crackers, on burrito bowls, in a sandwich, on scrambled eggs and my lunchtime grain and veggie bowl. Amazing.)

I will be buying a copy of this book and it will be prominently available in my kitchen for dressing up some quick and easy meals.

As a cookbook collector and self confessed condiment queen I was delighted by this comprehensive compendium of saucy deliciousness. Spanning the globe and the gamut from simple southern comeback sauces to earthy chimicurris, to exotic curries and beyond this book has something for everyone! The photos and layout are beautiful and the recipes are presented in a simple, easily to follow way. This would make such a wonderful housewarming or hostess gift!

WOW these sauces are amazing! They all are pretty healthy, delicious, and relatively easy to make. I’ll always judge a recipe book based on how many recipes I can make out of my own pantry and these are an overwhelming 11/10. I’m excited to dive in and taste these delicious sauces.

This book makes it very easy to find sauces for the right meals and even gives you suggestions (with recipes). The pictures are full of color and I got to know the sauce more. Directions are easy to follow and the book is divided by the type of saucr. A handy dandy book indeed!

Incredibly creative recipes - well organized and inclusive. There are recipes that have common everyday pantry slash fridge ingredients as well as those that will familiarize you with some new favorites. Bonus: None of them are too difficult to make! But what all these recipes have in common, is that they're bursting with flavor. I'll be going back to this book often.

Great recipe book! So versatile. Great pairing options. Easy to follow recipes. I am looking forward to making so many of these ASAP.

This is a wonderful cookbook! I think it would teach you some basics to sauces that would be very useful when experimenting on your own!

I bought this book for our library, but when I saw that this was on Netgalley before it came in...obviously I had to get a sneak peek!

Sooo many good recipes in this book with a fantastic graphic design! Definitely a great addition to your library for recipes to use on dishes you already know how to cook.

Wow wow wow do I ever love the colors and art style of this book. 10/10. It drew me right in, and I'm sure glad it did.

I'm a self-proclaimed sauce bitch, and this is exactly the sauce primer I need to live all my saucy daydreams.

Not only does everything look and sound amazing, I just just can't get over the presentation. There are photos of many of the sauces, they're organized into useful sections, they mostly use ingredients that are on hand or easy to acquire, and they seem pretty easy to put together, even for a beginner.

I really look forward to a physical copy of this book.

Sometimes cookbooks can be WAY too much to handle. Especially when it has you buying 20 items to make a dish at minimum. But this one I absolutely loved because it’s here to elevate already made dishes in the most simplistic yet flavorful way possible. Because you can make your favorite thing and try something new just to have on the side or drizzled on top. I love the concept behind this book! The pictures were gorgeous as well.

A good sauce is a game change, and Ashley Boyd's new cookbook, Saucy, is arguably one of my favorite cookbooks now! The photography is gorgeous, the recipes are delicious and easy to follow, and the recommended food pairings are so helpful when deciding what type of sauce to make for your favorite dishes.

Fancy sauces can sound intimidating, but Boyd makes it approachable and easy to create a fabulous sauce that adds so much flavor to dishes. I don't think I would have ever made a remoulade if not for this cookbook, but I whipped up a batch to use on wraps for lunch during the week, and it took less than 5 minutes! (It's so good on a roast beef sandwich.)

This cookbook isn't just for when you feel fancy, either. These sauce recipes can jazz up your weekly meal prep or add a big boost of flavor to budget-friendly pantry meals. It would make a great gift too!

Love this book! Love the colorful photography and easily saucy recipes. I'd definitely buy this one to add to my cookbook collection.

I absolutely loved the formatting of this book. I tested 5 recipes in total, one from creamy, herby, umami, spicy, and sweet. The recipes were straightforward and easy to follow. Ingredients and equipment were easily accessible and I appreciated the author included what the inspiration was and the region behind the sauces as well as what they go well with. Would absolutely recommend this to any sauce lover.

Beautifully photographed, this book is meant to provide recipes for simple sauces with flavors from around the world. The chapters include sauces that are Creamy such as Creamy Avocado Sauce; Herby, such as Orange Chimichurri; Tomato-Based, such as Tomato Ginger Sauce; Umami, such as Thai Peanut Sauce; Tangy, such as Lebanese Garlic Sauce; Spicy, such as Spicy Mango Chutney; and Dessert, such as Brown Butter Peach Sauce.
The author provides a guide for the protein-based or other meal that you plan to serve and the suggested sauce pairing. This is a really nice feature for a home cook like me.
The ingredient list for each recipe contains common ingredients, found in a typical North American household, or easily found in the grocery story. The instructions are clearly written and simple.
This is a great book to have on the shelf to jazz up almost anything you may want to eat.

Just like this cookbook’s one word title, Saucy, I only have one word to describe it, yum! The recipes all look, because each has a photo, and sound delicious. Most include only common pantry ingredients, though you may have to buy a few of the more exotic spices if you don’t have them on hand. The recipes are easy enough for beginners to master—mostly it’s as easy as measuring and mixing together the ingredients.

Most of the sauces are vegan and gluten free, or easily adapted to be so. Each of the sauce recipes include ideas for what to serve them with that are both meat and non-meat based. They also include a few alternate ingredients for a slightly different taste or in case you are missing one. Storage instructions are also included.

All of the recipes use healthy natural ingredients. Making your own sauces instead of purchasing the bottles and packets from the store will save you money but also avoid all the chemicals, and other mystery additives, in the grocery store versions.

I’ve tried a few of these recipes. They were delicious and really elevated the plain chicken or vegetables they were served with. Saucy is a 5 star cookbook and a favorite! In fact, I’ve already preordered my own copy.

Thanks to Chronicle Books and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.

This is the sauce bible. It has multicultural influences, beautiful pictures, and easy to follow recipes. These recipes will help you elevate your meals, add flavor to "bland" or "healthy" meals, and will get rid of the overly salty, sugary store bought sauces in your kitchen.

Fantastic idea for a cookbook! Sauces absolutely can turn the ho-hum into something phenomenal and this cookbook is filled with some delicious sauce recipes. I truly believe hollandaise sauce can turn anything into a masterpiece. I can’t wait to try the peanut sauce, comeback sauce, and hot honey sauce, among others. I’d buy this cookbook.

Thanks to the author and publisher for the e-arc I received via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This is the exact kind of cookbook I've been gravitating towards recently. It specializes in the sauces and goes in depth into how to make them and work with them in any regard. It's like Salt Fat Acid Heat but for sauces, if that makes sense. It's a great reference and I will probably get a hard cover copy to keep in my kitchen,

Saucy is a collection of 50 well curated recipes for sauces and accompaniments collected by Ashley Boyd. Released 5th March 2024 by Chronicle Books, it's 152 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout, highly recommended.

The writing is direct and inviting. Information and recipes are arranged logically and are easy to find (and understand). The chapters include sauces arranged thematically: creamy, herby, tomato-based, tangy, savory, umami, spicy, and dessert sauces. Each recipe includes an introduction and description, ingredients in a bullet list, and step-by-step directions. Recommended uses and pairings are included and the author also gives readers a lot of background info and tips on uses and storage. Ingredient measures are given in imperial (American) units with metric standard in parentheses (yay!). Most ingredients will be easy to source at any moderately well stocked grocer in North America.

The photography, by Maren Caruso, is outstanding. It's very clear and in color throughout. Food is styled attractively and appropriately. Cooks who rely on photographs to see what dishes should look like will really appreciate the detailing in this collection. Some few of the photos were possibly a little too "Insta-perfect" and artsy, but really, the book has excellent descriptions and very clear usable photos.

Five stars. It's a niche cookbook, but very versatile and on a cooking niche subject that isn't widely covered. Most cookbooks have a few sauces, very few have many versatile sauces and accompaniments.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

This cookbook deserves to be everyone’s kitchen. The ability to peruse a cookbook opposed to the internet for a list of sauces to upgrade my cooking game is :chef’s kiss:. The sauces are easy, uncomplicated to replicate which is a huge win! I highly recommend.