One of the hardest things when reducing a sauce is to not stop to soon and to not go too far. If you stop too soon you can use a roux or more crudely use flour or starch to thicken the sauce. If you go to far you end up with a glaze. You could add stock or water to thin, however.
A well timed reduction, in my opinion, you end up with a sauce that is "nappe". But the trick is knowing when you're there. An interesting thing about reducing a liquid is that as it reduces further it reduces faster as there is less liquid but the same amount of heat. So there is the critical moment where you go "just far enough" and your sauce is perfect. Too far and you have a glaze or a burned sauce. Not far enough and and the flavors are not blended and concentrated.
I've found in cooking that stopping just before you think something is done is a good heuristic. IT keeps cooking for a bit longer. Timing this can be hard has there is a small window between not reduced enough and too much. It goes fast near the end. A classic "happens slowly, then all at once".
I wonder what kind of sauce you're thinking of when you write all of this... some sort of alfredo sauce for pasta? And Indian curry kind of sauce? Some gravy-like sauce you put on your turkey or chicken?
Could you maybe link to a youtube recipe tutorial of some sort which you feel demonstrates this "reduction" to your approval?
No, way more simple! But closest to a "gravy-like sauce". But you have a lot of room for improvisation once you master the basic technique.
One of the beauties of classical French cooking is that it is simple. It is based on this premise of simplicity. One of the easiest things to learn is a "pan sauce". After that you might learn to make the 5 mother sauces which are super simple too.
What this means is you cook the meat, generally on high heat, in a pan with a fat such as oil and/or butter and when it is done you remove the meat and put it aside. The pan will have crisply bits on the bottom. In French, this is known as "fond". This is good stuff!
After you remove the meat and reduce the heat and you put in a "mirexpox" which is usually some onions or shallots, some diced carrots and some fine diced celery. But really, whatever you want! You're using less heat so they just slowly brown for about 4 minutes or so. This is called "sweating".
Now the magic happens. You crank the heat back up and "deglaze" by adding wine, vinegar, water or whatever. What happens is all the bits that are stuck to the bottom of the pan come off. You use a flat edged wooden spoon to help scrape them off and they come off easily. This is where a ton of flavor lives. You keep the heat on high and let your wine or whatever reduce a bit. It cleans your pan too.
Then you add some meat stock - chicken, beef, veal, etc. Stir everything around a bit and let it reduce. It should boil and steam. Over time the water evaporates and you get to a point where you have a thick sauce that isn't too thick but not watery. In some cases you could add a roux (flour and butter mixture) to thicken. Add some herbs like thyme if that sounds good. When it's at the right thickness you take off the heat and pour through a strainer and add some butter and stir to thicken. Discard the parts you used to help flavor the sauce like the carrots, onions, etc. Or keep them if you like them! Up to your taste!
Now you pour over your meat and whatever else. It's pure flavor and dead simple. And this is but one technique you can play on many ways.
You want a link? Google "pan sauce" and dive in. It is the easiest way to make a basic meal into a gourmet meal I think. Steak, pork, chicken or whatever.
Indeed it can. There are vegetable stocks (and you can make your own if you're really into it) and you can create "fond" from many vegetables. Onion in particular likes to leave sticky bits if you overcook it a bit.
BTW, don't use non-stick pans if you're trying to make a pan sauce! If you really care about cooking at home you should buy some good tools. All-Clad stainless steal is generally good. I have Falk copper but that's probably not a good place to start due to the price. But good cookware matters quite a bit. A cheap $30 pan is OK to boil water in but won't work well for a lot of decent coking.
Well timed reduction? Sorry, don't know what that means, please explain?