What Is Brown Bouquet Sauce?

Brown bouquet sauce, more commonly known by its brand name, Kitchen Bouquet, is a shelf-stable condiment, manufactured by the HV Food company. It is most commonly found in a 4-oz. plastic bottle with a yellow label in grocery seasoning aisles.

Ingredients

  • Caramel and vegetable base are the two main ingredients in Kitchen Bouquet. Sodium benzoate -- less than 0.01 of 1 percent -- is used as a preservative.

Usage

  • Recipes for gravy sometimes call for brown bouquet sauce to help with the flavor and the color of the finished sauce. It can also be used as a seasoning; cooks are cautioned to use only a minimal amount as too much can make the final product bitter.

Food Styling

  • Food stylists use brown bouquet sauce to help enhance the appearance of foods for photographic purposes. For example, a roasted turkey may be painted with the sauce or a coffee stand-in may be created from a solution of water and bouquet sauce.

Substitutions

  • Depending on the specific use, dark seasoning sauces such as soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce may be substituted. Baker's caramel, or caramelized sugar, may be used as a substitute for browning.