French mother sauces
In French cuisine, the mother sauces, also known as grandes sauces in French, are a group of sauces upon which many other sauces – "daughter sauces" or petites sauces – are based. Different classifications of mother sauces have been proposed since at least the early 19th century.
Current use
The most common list of mother sauces in current use is:- Béchamel sauce: White sauce, based on milk thickened with a white roux.
- Espagnole sauce: Brown sauce based on a brown stock reduction, and thickened with a brown roux. Ingredients typically include roasted bones, bacon, and tomato.
- Tomato sauce : In addition to tomatoes, ingredients typically include carrots, onion, garlic, butter, and flour, plus pork belly and veal broth.
- Velouté sauce: Light coloured sauce, made by reducing clear stock and thickened with a white roux. Velouté is French for "velvety".
- Hollandaise sauce: Warm emulsion of egg yolk, melted butter, and lemon juice or vinegar.
History
In 1833, Marie-Antoine Carême described four grandes sauces. In 1844, the French magazine Revue de Paris reported:Different groups of mother and daughter sauces have been proposed by different chefs, varying in number and selection.
Classification by Marie-Antoine Carême (1833)
In 1833, Marie-Antoine Carême published a classification of French sauces in his reference cookbook L’art de la cuisine française au XIXe siècle. He called them Grandes et Petites sauces.In this cookbook, Carême defined a sauce classification and listed four grandes sauces:
Carême classified numerous sauces as petites sauces.
Classification by Jules Gouffé (1867)
In 1867, the French chef and pâtissier Jules Gouffé published Le livre de cuisine comprenant la grande cuisine et la cuisine de ménage.In this book, Gouffé listed twelve mother sauces..
- Espagnole Grasse
- Espagnole Maigre
- Velouté Gras
- Velouté Maigre
- Allemande
- Béchamel à l’ancienne
- Béchamel de volaille
- Béchamel maigre
- Poivrade brune
- Poivrade Blanche
- Poivrade Maigre
- Marinade
Classification by Auguste Escoffier (1903)
The pioneering chef Auguste Escoffier is credited with establishing the importance of Espagnole, Velouté, Béchamel and Tomate, as well as Hollandaise and Mayonnaise. His book Le guide culinaire was published in 1903. It lists numerous "Grandes Sauces de base", including espagnole, velouté, béchamel, and tomate as well as others such as mirepoix and jus de veau lié.The original French editions of Le guide culinaire listed Hollandaise as a daughter sauce rather than a grande sauce. Mayonnaise, in the chapter on cold sauces, was described as a mother sauce for cold sauces, and compared to Espagnole and Velouté.
The 1907 English edition of Le guide culinaire, A Guide to Modern Cookery, listed fewer "basic sauces", including Hollandaise alongside espagnole, "half glaze", velouté, allemande, béchamel, and tomate. The English edition did not describe mayonnaise as a mother sauce, and included the sentence that "Allemande Sauce is not, strictly speaking, a basic sauce".
Béchamel sauce
Béchamel is a milk-based sauce, thickened with a white roux and typically flavoured with onion, nutmeg, or thyme.Espagnole sauce
Espagnole is a strong-flavoured brown sauce, made from a dark brown roux and brown stock—usually beef or veal stock—and tomatoes or tomato paste.Velouté sauce
Velouté is light in colour, made by reducing clear stock, usually veal, chicken or fish stock, thickened with a white or blond roux. Velouté is the French word for "velvety".Tomato sauce
The sauce tomate described by Escoffier is a tomato sauce made with fatty salted pork breast, a mirepoix of carrots, onions and thyme, and white stock.Hollandaise sauce
Hollandaise is a warm emulsion based on egg yolk and clarified butter, flavoured with lemon juice or vinegar.Béarnaise sauce is a derivation of hollandaise.