For foods like chocolate, a beautiful sheen and luster comes with tempering, which shuffles fatty acids in the chocolate's composition to give it a glossy finish. However, tempering doesn't work on more liquid, less rich products like savory sauces, so to make your sauce as shiny and enticing as a chocolate glaze, try these secret ingredients.

One of the easiest ways to enhance your sauce's gloss is to add butter, because just like with tempering, fats make things glossy. The only problem with using butter or other fat to add shine to a sauce is that too much butter can throw the flavors out of whack or mask them entirely, so start with adding small amounts at a time and use the fat sparingly.

For starch-based sauces like gravy and béchamel, choosing cornstarch as your thickener as opposed to flour will give a shinier appearance to the sauces. Another option is tapioca starch, which is gluten-free, heightens the appearance of gloss, and thickens at a lower temperature, making it good for recipes with a short cooking or baking time.