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Glite Dictionary
bread sauce

bread sauce

3.7
A creamy white sauce made from bread and flavored with cloves and onion, served with chicken or turkey
  • noun
  • /brɛd sɔːs/
  • UK
translation icon : salsa de pan
  • At the holiday feast, we enjoyed our turkey with delicious bread sauce that her mother always made.

We'd rather be eating bread sauce.

Examples

  • The turkey and the goose will be accompanied by the following: plum sauce, bread sauce, cranberry sauce, cloudberry sauce, potatoes, carrots and spinach.

    Spencer (2021)

  • Roast chicken, roast potatoes, bread sauce, cauliflower.

    Steaming (1985)

  • It's got more of the cinnamon and the clay and the bread sauce is more nutmeggy.

  • For dinner, she prepared a traditional roast chicken with bread sauce made from fresh herbs and spices.

  • The chef's secret recipe for bread sauce includes a hint of cloves and is perfect for pairing with poultry.

Synonyms

cream sauce
vsbread sauce
6 1.7

A white sauce made from cream used to add flavor to dishes like pasta or chicken

is made from bread and usually served with poultry
white sauce
vsbread sauce
2 1.7

A sauce made from milk thickened with butter and flour

is made from bread rather than milk thickened with a roux

Surface Forms

bread sauce singular
bread sauces plural

Morphology

bread + sauce

The meaning 'a sauce made from bread' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'bread' (the ingredient) with 'sauce' (a condiment). Naming a sauce by its primary ingredient is a common, cross-linguistic pattern (e.g., 'tomato sauce', 'garlic sauce'), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer the MWE's meaning even if the dish is culturally specific.

Etymology

Bread sauce comes from a simple kitchen trick: cooks used stale bread soaked in milk or broth and cooked down to make a thick sauce for chicken and turkey. That's why the name now means 'a creamy sauce made from bread', usually served with chicken or turkey.