Are you feeling saucy?

They have already taken over large sections of the garden and by the time you read this they may also have taken over the entire world.

I refer to the raspberries – those of the autumn-fruiting persuasion – the picking of which has turned from a novelty to a mere pleasure and finally a chore with the passing weeks and turning seasons.

We have been picking them since early July. Friends have been in to help themselves – we made sure the effort was maintained during the holiday. But the damned things show little sign of giving up.

A few cold, rainy days would probably do the trick but that, at the time of writing, does not appear to be an option. And storage space is now getting to the point where complex mathematical formulae are having to be resorted to in order that the freezers can accommodate everything without their side walls bulging and cracking.

The jam has been made, the raspberry coulis turned into ice cubes for adding a little colourful interest to drinks, and bags and bags of fruit have simply been thrust into the frozen recesses until uses can be found for the contents, though I suspect raspberries are likely to form a fairly dominant feature of the diet for weeks to come.

There is, of course, always the option of raspberry vinegar. I haven't made it for a couple of years but I was reminded of it when I was leafing through Michel Roux's new book, Sauces.

As well as containing all kinds of recipes for sauces which will enhance and elevate your plainest cooking to new dimensions it also offers a raspberry vinegar recipe. Raspberry vinegar is one of those condiments you will find decanted into small, cork- stoppered bottles and adorned with a twee label and perhaps a gay, gingham necktie, in the kind of specialist food shops where the prices make you wonder whether the goods come with a wad of shares in the business.

Like the "home-made" jams and jellies for which the most outrageous money is demanded for quantities which would barely cover two slices of toast, raspberry vinegar is shrouded in mystique, as though it can only be made at midnight of the new moon by seven naked virgins.

Utter tosh, of course. Like the whole business of jam and jelly making, it is utterly simple and pretty foolproof. It doesn't take a genius to make it – merely to market it as though it does.

Aside from the raspberry vinegar, however, Michel Roux (that's the father, not Roux Jr) has compiled one of the few cookbooks to be really worth their shelf space.

He offers step-by-step guides to making and using more than 200 sauces from béarnaise to tartare and goes rambling off towards fruit coulis and the magic of crème anglaise.

There's also a directory recommending the best sauces for dishes and ingredients – which will certainly simplify the whole business of entertaining at home.

Sauces is out now, published by Quadrille, priced £14.99.

Ingredients

1.5kg very ripe raspberries

1.25 litres white wine vinegar

130g granulated sugar

200ml Cognac

Method

Put half the fruit in a non-metallic bowl and pour on the vinegar to submerge it. Cover and leave in cool place for 24 hours. Strain through a sieve, pressing to extract juice but not pulp, add the remaining fruit to the juice and leave for another 24 hours.

Strain all through a sieve into a heat-proof bowl, add sugar and alcohol and leave until the sugar has dissolved.

Set the bowl over pan of simmering water and cook for an hour.

Strain through muslin into a sterilised bottle and store in fridge for up to three weeks.

Good with shellfish, asparagus and artichokes, to deglaze pan juices of red meats and game, and intensify the sauce. You could also freeze it in ice cube moulds.

Ingredients

1 tblspn soft brown sugar

300g peeled and cored pineapple in 1cm dice

Half a red Serrano chilli, finely diced

1 tblspn sambal oelek

1 tspn lime juice

2 tblspns chopped coriander

Small pinch of salt

Method

Melt the sugar in non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and add the pineapple, cook, stirring frequently, until lightly caramelised – about four to five minutes.

Tip into a bowl, add the remaining ingredients, and keep covered until required. Good with sausages, duck breast or swordfish steaks.

LAMB JUS WITH ROSEMARY

Ingredients

200g sliced carrots

250g diced onions

3 medium garlic cloves, peeled

6 crushed black peppercorns

2 bay leaves

2 rosemary sprigs

200ml Grenache, or similar red wine

Salt and pepper

Method

Roast lamb for 20 minutes then scatter herbs and veg around the pan and continue, moving them around from time to time so they don't burn.

At the end of cooking, remove the lamb to rest and skim off the excess fat with a spoon. Deglaze the pan with the wine and cook over a low heat until reduced by two-thirds. Strain through a sieve into small pan, add any juices from the rested meat and season to taste.