How sauce cubes work

Each sauce is cooked once, cooled and frozen in ice-cube trays, so you can take out exactly as much as one meal needs and leave the rest frozen.

A standard ice-cube tray holds about 30ml, or two tablespoons, per cube. Each recipe tells you how many cubes make a serving, from one cube of paste to four of a pasta sauce, and suggests three meals to use it in.

Making your cubes

1. Get the right trays. Silicone 30ml ice-cube trays release cubes easily. Pastes, butters and chilli crisp go in 15ml mini trays, which the recipe will say.
2. Cool completely. Let the sauce cool to room temperature (within 2 hours), then fill the trays three-quarters full; liquids expand as they freeze.
3. Freeze and bag. Freeze until solid, at least 4 hours, then pop the cubes into a freezer bag, press out the air and label it with the name and date.
4. Know how long it keeps. Most sauces keep 3 to 4 months; pastes, stocks and hot sauces up to 6. Each recipe tells you.
5. Cook from frozen. Most cubes go straight into a hot pan with a splash of water. Creamy sauces and marinades are best thawed overnight in the fridge. Heat until piping hot and never refreeze.

Reading a recipe

The strip under each title shows how many cubes the batch makes, what one cube costs, its calories, how many cubes make a serving, and the spice rating from 1 (no heat) to 5 (very hot). The nutrition table gives figures per cube and per serving.

Where to start

• Sauce day makes a tomato sauce, a curry base, teriyaki, onion gravy and garlic-ginger paste in one session.
• Ten-minute dinners turns those cubes and a few others into quick meals for one.
• The Cube cheat sheet lists the serving size and freezer life of all 50 sauces.