In
French cuisine
French cuisine () is the cooking traditions and practices from France. It has been influenced over the centuries by the many surrounding cultures of Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium, in addition to the food traditions of the re ...
, the mother sauces (french: sauces mères), also known as in French, are a group of
sauce
In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi-solid food, served on or used in preparing other foods. Most sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to a dish. ''Sauce'' is a French word t ...
s upon which many other sauces"daughter sauces" or are based. Different sets and classifications of mother sauces have been proposed since at least the early
19th century
The 19th (nineteenth) century began on 1 January 1801 ( MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 ( MCM). The 19th century was the ninth century of the 2nd millennium.
The 19th century was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was abolis ...
.
The most common list of mother sauces in current use is attributed to chef
Auguste Escoffier
Georges Auguste Escoffier (; 28 October 1846 – 12 February 1935) was a French chef, restaurateur and culinary writer who popularized and updated traditional French cooking methods. Much of Escoffier's technique was based on that of Marie-Antoi ...
and based on those presented in the 1907 English-language edition (''A guide to modern cookery'') of his seminal cookery book ''
Le guide culinaire
''Le Guide Culinaire'' () is Georges Auguste Escoffier, Escoffier's 1903 French cuisine, French restaurant cuisine cookbook, his first. It is a classic and still in print. Escoffier developed the recipes while working at the Savoy, Ritz and Carlto ...
'':
*
Béchamel sauce
Bechamel sauce ( ) is a sauce traditionally made from a white roux (butter and flour in a 1:1 mixture by weight) and milk. Bechamel may also be referred to as besciamella (Italy), besamel (Greece), or white sauce (U.S.). French, Italian and Greek ...
: White sauce, based on milk thickened with a white
roux
Roux () is a mixture of flour and fat cooked together and used to thicken sauces. Roux is typically made from equal parts of flour and fat by weight. The flour is added to the melted fat or oil on the stove top, blended until smooth, and cooke ...
.
*
Espagnole sauce
Espagnole sauce () is a basic brown sauce, and is one of Auguste Escoffier's five mother sauces of classic French cooking. Escoffier popularized the recipe, and his version is still followed today.Escoffier (1903), ''Le Guide culinaire'', Editions ...
: Brown sauce based on a brown stock reduction, and thickened with a brown roux. Ingredients typically include roasted bones, bacon, and tomato (puréed or fresh).
*
Tomato sauce
Tomato sauce (also known as ''salsa roja'' in Spanish or ''salsa di pomodoro'' in Italian) can refer to many different sauces made primarily from tomatoes, usually to be served as part of a dish, rather than as a condiment. Tomato sauces are c ...
(sometimes or ): As well as tomatoes, ingredients typically include carrots, onion, garlic, butter, and flour, plus pork belly and veal broth.
*
Velouté sauce
A velouté sauce () is a savory sauce that is made from a roux and a light stock. It is one of the "mother sauces" of French cuisine listed by chef Auguste Escoffier in the early twentieth century, along with espagnole, tomato, béchamel, and m ...
: Clear sauce, made by reducing clear stock (made from un-roasted bones) and thickened with a white roux. is French for "velvety".
*
Hollandaise sauce
Hollandaise sauce ( or ; ), also called Dutch sauce, is a mixture of egg yolk, melted butter, and lemon juice (or a white wine or vinegar reduction). It is usually seasoned with salt, and either white pepper or cayenne pepper.
It is well known a ...
: Warm
emulsion
An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally immiscible (unmixable or unblendable) owing to liquid-liquid phase separation. Emulsions are part of a more general class of two-phase systems of matter called colloids. Althoug ...
of egg yolk, melted butter, and lemon juice or vinegar.
The original French editions of ''Le guide culinaire'' did not include Hollandaise as a ''grande sauce'',
but separately described
mayonnaise
Mayonnaise (; ), colloquially referred to as "mayo" , is a thick, cold, and creamy sauce or dressing commonly used on sandwiches, hamburgers, composed salads, and French fries. It also forms the base for various other sauces, such as tartar ...
—a cold emulsion of egg yolk with oil and vinegar—as a mother sauce for cold sauces; this was not included in the English edition.
History
The concept of mother sauces predated Escoffier's classification by at least 50 years; in 1844, the French magazine ''
Revue de Paris
''Revue de Paris'' was a French literary magazine founded in 1829 by Louis-Désiré Véron. After two years Veron left the magazine to head the Paris Opera
The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded ...
'' reported: "''Oui ne savez-vous pas que la grande espagnole est une sauce-mère, dont toutes les autres préparations, telles que réductions, fonds de cuisson, jus, veloutés, essences, coulis, ne sont, à proprement parler, que des dérivés?''" ("Don’t you know that the grand sauce Espagnole is a mother sauce, of which all the other preparations, such as reductions, stocks, jus, veloutés, essences, and coulis, are, strictly speaking, only derivatives?")
Different classifications of French sauces into 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
Marie may refer to:
People Name
* Marie (given name)
* Marie (Japanese given name)
* Marie (murder victim), girl who was killed in Florida after being pushed in front of a moving vehicle in 1973
* Marie (died 1759), an enslaved Cree person in T ...
published a classification of French sauces in his reference cookbook ''L’art de la cuisine française au XIXe siècle'' ("The Art of French Cuisine in the 19th Century"). Instead of mother sauces, he called them ''Grandes et Petites sauces'' ("great and small sauces").
In this cookbook, Carême defined a sauce classification and listed four ''grandes sauces'':
*
Espagnole
Espagnole sauce () is a basic Brown sauce (meat stock based), brown sauce, and is one of Auguste Escoffier's five French Mother Sauces, mother sauces of classic French cuisine, French cooking. Escoffier popularized the recipe, and his version is s ...
*
Velouté
*
Allemande
An ''allemande'' (''allemanda'', ''almain(e)'', or ''alman(d)'', French: "German (dance)") is a Renaissance and Baroque dance, and one of the most common instrumental dance styles in Baroque music, with examples by Couperin, Purcell, Bach a ...
*
Béchamel
Carême classified the following as ''petites sauces'':
*
Poivrade
*
Suprême
*
Tomate
*
Hollandaise
Hollandaise sauce ( or ; ), also called Dutch sauce, is a mixture of egg yolk, melted butter, and lemon juice (or a white wine or vinegar reduction). It is usually seasoned with salt, and either white pepper or cayenne pepper.
It is well known a ...
*
Mayonnaise
Mayonnaise (; ), colloquially referred to as "mayo" , is a thick, cold, and creamy sauce or dressing commonly used on sandwiches, hamburgers, composed salads, and French fries. It also forms the base for various other sauces, such as tartar ...
Classification by Jules Gouffé (1867)
In 1867, the French chef and pâtissier
Jules Gouffé
Jules Gouffé (1807 – 28 February 1877) was a renowned French chef and pâtissier. He was nicknamed ''l'apôtre de la cuisine décorative'' (french: The apostle of decorative cuisine).
He had a deep impact on the evolution of French gastro ...
published ''Le livre de cuisine comprenant la grande cuisine et la cuisine de ménage'' (''The Cookbook Including Grand And Domestic Cooking'').
In this book, Gouffé listed twelve mother sauces. (He used both the terms ''grandes sauces'' and ''sauce mères'').
* Espagnole Grasse (Fattier Espagnole)
* Espagnole Maigre (Leaner Espagnole)
* Velouté Gras (Fattier Velouté)
* Velouté Maigre (Leaner Velouté)
* Allemande (Velouté thickened with eggs)
* Béchamel à l’ancienne (Old Fashioned Béchamel)
* Béchamel de volaille (Poultry Béchamel)
* Béchamel maigre (Leaner Béchamel)
* Poivrade brune (Brown Poivrade)
* Poivrade Blanche (White Poivrade)
* Poivrade Maigre (Leaner Poivrade)
* Marinade
Classification by Auguste Escoffier (1903)
The pioneering chef
Auguste Escoffier
Georges Auguste Escoffier (; 28 October 1846 – 12 February 1935) was a French chef, restaurateur and culinary writer who popularized and updated traditional French cooking methods. Much of Escoffier's technique was based on that of Marie-Antoi ...
is credited with establishing the importance of Espagnole, Velouté, Béchamel and Tomate, as well as Hollandaise and Mayonnaise.
His book ''
Le guide culinaire
''Le Guide Culinaire'' () is Georges Auguste Escoffier, Escoffier's 1903 French cuisine, French restaurant cuisine cookbook, his first. It is a classic and still in print. Escoffier developed the recipes while working at the Savoy, Ritz and Carlto ...
'' was published in 1903. The 1912 edition lists the "''Grandes Sauces'' de base" as:
*Espagnole
*Velouté
*Béchamel
*Tomate
Escoffier listed Hollandaise sauce as a daughter sauce in ''Le guide culinaire''.
Mayonnaise
Mayonnaise (; ), colloquially referred to as "mayo" , is a thick, cold, and creamy sauce or dressing commonly used on sandwiches, hamburgers, composed salads, and French fries. It also forms the base for various other sauces, such as tartar ...
was placed in the chapter on cold sauces, 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 five "basic sauces", including Hollandaise alongside the original four. The English edition did not describe mayonnaise as a mother sauce.
Daughter sauces
Many sauces, often referred to as daughter sauces, can be derived from mother sauces.
Béchamel sauce
Béchamel is a milk-based sauce, thickened with a white
roux
Roux () is a mixture of flour and fat cooked together and used to thicken sauces. Roux is typically made from equal parts of flour and fat by weight. The flour is added to the melted fat or oil on the stove top, blended until smooth, and cooke ...
and typically flavoured with onion, nutmeg, or thyme.
Derivations of béchamel
*Crème
*
Mornay
*
Soubise Soubise can refer to:
* Soubise, a salpicon of cooked and pureed rice and onions; used primarily "au gratin". (steaks, tournedos)
* Soubise sauce, based on Béchamel sauce, with the addition of a ''soubise'' of onion and rice purée
* Soubise, Char ...
*Ecossaise
*
Nantua
Nantua (; Arpitan: ''Nantuat'') is a commune in and subprefecture of the Ain département in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. In 2019, it had a population of 3,454. The commune of Nantua comprises the glacial Lac de Nantua.
...
Espagnole sauce
Espagnole is a strong-flavoured brown sauce, made from a dark brown roux and
brown stock
Stock, sometimes called bone broth, is a savory cooking liquid that forms the basis of many dishes particularly soups, stews, and sauces. Making stock involves simmering animal bones, meat, seafood, or vegetables in water or wine, often for an ...
, usually beef or veal stock, and tomatoes or
tomato paste
Tomato paste is a thick paste made by cooking tomatoes for several hours to reduce the water content, straining out the seeds and skins, and cooking the liquid again to reduce the base to a thick, rich concentrate. It is used to impart an intens ...
.
Derivations of espagnole
*
Demi-glace
Demi-glace (, 'half glaze') is a rich brown sauce in French cuisine used by itself or as a base for other sauces. The term comes from the French word ''glace'', which, when used in reference to a sauce, means "icing" or "glaze." It is traditio ...
**
Poivrade
** Grand veneur
** Bigarade
Velouté sauce
Velouté is a clear sauce, light in colour, made by reducing clear stock (made from un-roasted bones), usually veal, chicken or fish stock, thickened with a white or blond roux. ''Velouté'' is the French word for "velvety".
Derivations of velouté
*
Allemande
An ''allemande'' (''allemanda'', ''almain(e)'', or ''alman(d)'', French: "German (dance)") is a Renaissance and Baroque dance, and one of the most common instrumental dance styles in Baroque music, with examples by Couperin, Purcell, Bach a ...
**
Poulette
*
Cardinal
Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to:
Animals
* Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae
**''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...
* Poultry velouté
**
Suprême
***
Albuféra
* Fish velouté
**
Bercy
Bercy () is a neighbourhood in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, the city's 47th administrative neighbourhood.
History
Some of the oldest vestiges of human occupation in Paris were found on the territory of Bercy, dating from the late Neolithic ...
**
Normande
The Normande is a breed of dairy cattle from the Normandy region of north-west France. It is raised principally for its milk, which is high in fat and suitable for making butter and cheese, but also for its meat, which is marbled and good-fla ...
Tomato sauce
The ''sauce tomate'' described by Escoffier is a tomato sauce made with fatty salted pork breast, a
mirepoix
A mirepoix ( ; ) is a flavor base made from diced vegetables cooked—usually with butter, oil, or other fat—for a long time on low heat without coloring or browning, as further cooking, often with the addition of tomato purée, creates a dark ...
of carrots, onions and thyme, and white stock.
Derivations of tomato
*
Bolognese
* Portugaise
* Milanaise
Hollandaise sauce
Hollandaise is a warm emulsion based on egg yolk and clarified butter, flavoured with lemon juice or vinegar.
Derivations of hollandaise
*
Béarnaise
** Foyot
**
Paloise
**
Choron
* Bavaroise sauce
* Crème fleurette
* Maltese sauce
* Noisette sauce
Mayonnaise
Mayonnaise is an emulsion of egg yolk and oil, served cold and flavoured with lemon juice, vinegar, and seasoning.
Derivations of mayonnaise
*
Rémoulade
*
Tartar sauce
Tartar sauce (French: ''sauce tartare''; spelled tartare sauce in the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, South Africa) is a condiment made of mayonnaise, chopped pickles and/or relish, capers, and herbs such as tarragon and dill. Tarta ...
*
Gribiche
*
Samourai
See also
*
List of sauces
The following is a list of notable culinary and prepared sauces used in cooking and food service.
General
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* (salsa roja)
*
*
* – a velouté sauce flavored ...
References
{{Reflist, 1
External links
Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts: An Introduction to the 5 French Mother Sauces
French cuisine
French sauces
Mother sauces