''Suprême'' sauce () is a classic and popular "daughter sauce" of

French cuisine French cuisine is the cooking traditions and practices of France. In the 14th century, Guillaume Tirel, a Court (royal), court chef known as "Taillevent", wrote ''Le Viandier'', one of the earliest recipe collections of medieval France. In ...

. It consists of velouté, a " mother sauce", thickened with cream and strained.

Recipes

According the '' Larousse Gastronomique'', a seminal work of French ''

haute cuisine ''Haute cuisine'' (; ) or ''grande cuisine'' is a style of cooking characterised by meticulous preparation, elaborate presentation, and the use of high quality ingredients. Typically prepared by highly skilled gourmet chefs, haute cuisine dish ...

'', first published in 1938, ''suprême'' sauce is made from the mother sauce ''velouté'' (white stock thickened with a white roux—in the case of ''suprême'' sauce, chicken stock is usually preferred), reduced with heavy

cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this proces ...

or ''

crème fraîche Crème fraîche (English pronunciation: , , lit. "fresh cream") is a dairy product similar to cream cheese, a soured cream containing 10–45% butterfat, with a pH of approximately 4.5. It is soured with a Microbiological culture, bacterial cult ...

'', and then strained through a fine sieve. A light squeeze of lemon juice is commonly added. In many cases, chefs also choose to add finely chopped and lightly sautéed mushrooms to the dish, although this was not specifically mentioned in ''Larousse Gastronomique'' or by

Auguste Escoffier Georges Auguste Escoffier (; 28 October 1846 – 12 February 1935) was a French chef, restaurateur, and culinary writer who popularised and updated traditional French cooking methods. Much of Escoffier's technique was based on that of Marie-A ...

, the "Emperor of the World's Kitchens", who was an arbiter of classic French cuisine. '' The Cook's Decameron'' suggests the following recipe: the sauce is made by placing three-quarters of a

pint The pint (, ; symbol pt, sometimes abbreviated as ''p'') is a unit of volume or capacity in both the imperial and United States customary measurement systems. In both of those systems, it is one-eighth of a gallon. The British imperial pint ...

(350ml) of white sauce into a

saucepan A saucepan is one of the basic forms of cookware (not technically a pan), in the form of a round cooking vessel, typically deep, and wide enough to hold at least of water, with sizes typically ranging up to , and having a long handle protrudi ...

, and when it is nearly boiling, adding half a

cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...

(120 ml) of concentrated fowl stock. It should then be reduced until the sauce is quite thick, passed through a ''

chinois A chinois ( , , ), also known as a bouillon strainer, is a conical sieve with an extremely fine mesh. It is used to strain custards, purees, soups, and sauces, producing a very smooth texture. It can also be used to dust food with a fine layer o ...

strainer A sieve (), fine mesh strainer, or sift is a tool used for separating wanted elements from unwanted material or for controlling the particle size distribution of a sample, using a screen such as a woven mesh or net or perforated sheet ma ...

into a ''

bain-marie A bain-marie ( , ), also known as a water bath or double boiler, a type of heated bath, is a piece of equipment used in science, Industry (manufacturing), industry, and cooking to heat materials gently or to keep materials warm over a period of ...

'' and have added two

tablespoon A tablespoon (tbsp., Tbsp., Tb., or T.) is a large spoon. In many English-speaking regions, the term now refers to a large spoon used for serving; however, in some regions, it is the largest type of spoon used for eating. By extension, the ter ...

s (30 ml) of cream.Waters, Mrs. W. G. (William George)
''The Cook's Decameron: A Study In Taste, Containing Over Two Hundred Recipes For Italian Dishes''
a public-domain cookbook.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Supreme sauce French sauces White sauces

Recipes

See also

References