French mother sauces

Sauces considered mother sauces. In order (left to right, top to bottom): béchamel, espagnole, tomato, velouté, hollandaise, and mayonnaise.

In French cuisine, the mother sauces (French: sauces mères), also known as grandes sauces in French, are a group of sauces upon which many other sauces – "daughter sauces" or petites sauces – are based.^[1][2] Different classifications of mother sauces have been proposed since at least the early 19th century.^[3]

The most common list of mother sauces in current use is:^[4][5][6][7]

• 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 (puréed or fresh).
• Tomato sauce (sometimes Tomate or Tomat): As well as 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 (made from un-roasted bones) 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.

In 1833, Marie-Antoine Carême described four grandes sauces (great sauces).^[3] In 1844, the French magazine Revue de Paris reported:

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?

— Les Fantaisies du Rocher de Cancale^[8]

Different groups of mother and daughter sauces have been proposed by different chefs, varying in number and selection.

Sauce	Carême	Gouffé	Escoffier				Montagné	Common list
	1833[9]	1867	1903	Heinemann	1907	1912	1938	(current)
Allemande		[10]	[11]	?[12]	[13]	[14]	[15]
Béchamel		[16]	[17]	[18]	[19]	[20]	[15]
Demi-glace			[21]	[22]	[23]	[24]	[25]
Espagnole		[26]	[27]	[28]	[29]	[30]	[25]
Hollandaise sauce				[31]	[32]	[33]	[34]
Jus de veau lié			[21]	[35]	[23]	[24]	[36]
Poivrade		[37]		[38]	[39]	[40]	[41]
Marinade		[42]		[43]	[44]	[45]	[46]
Mayonnaise			[47]	[48]	[49]	[50]	[51]
Mirepoix			[27]	[52]	[29]	?[30]	[53]
Suprême			[11]	[54]	[13]	[20]	[15]
Tomato			[17]	[31]	[19]	[55]	[15]
Velouté		[56]	[21]	[57]	[23]	[14]	[15]

In 1833, Marie-Antoine Carême 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"). He called them Grandes et Petites sauces ("great and small sauces").^[3]

In this cookbook, Carême defined a sauce classification and listed four grandes sauces:

• Espagnole
• Velouté
• Allemande
• Béchamel

Carême classified numerous sauces as petites sauces.^[3]

In 1867, the French chef and pâtissier Jules Gouffé published Le livre de cuisine comprenant la grande cuisine et la cuisine de ménage (The Cookbook Including Grand And Domestic Cooking).^[58]

In this book, Gouffé listed twelve mother sauces. (He used both the terms grandes sauces and sauce mères).

The pioneering chef Auguste Escoffier is credited with establishing the importance of Espagnole, Velouté, Béchamel and Tomate, as well as Hollandaise and Mayonnaise.^[5][59] 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 (thickened veal stock).^[60]

The original French editions of Le guide culinaire listed Hollandaise as a daughter sauce rather than a grande sauce.^[33] Mayonnaise, in the chapter on cold sauces, was described as a mother sauce for cold sauces, and compared to Espagnole and Velouté.^[50]

The 1907 English edition of Le guide culinaire, A Guide to Modern Cookery, listed fewer "basic sauces", including Hollandaise alongside espagnole, "half glaze" (demi glace), velouté, allemande, béchamel, and tomate.^[61] The English edition did not describe mayonnaise as a mother sauce,^[62] and included the sentence that "Allemande Sauce is not, strictly speaking, a basic sauce".^[18]

Béchamel is a milk-based sauce, thickened with a white roux and typically flavoured with onion, nutmeg, or thyme.^[63]

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.^[63]

Velouté is 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".^[64]

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.^[65]

Hollandaise is a warm emulsion based on egg yolk and clarified butter, flavoured with lemon juice or vinegar.^[66]

Béarnaise sauce is a derivation of hollandaise.

• List of sauces
• Obe ata, a West African sauce used as a mother sauce

• Carême, M Antonin (1833). L'art de la cuisine française au dix-neuviême siêcle : traité élémentaire et pratique du travail en gras et en maigre [The art of French cuisine in the nineteenth century: an elementary and practical treatise on working with fat and lean] (in French). Paris.
• Gouffé, Jules (1867). Le livre de cuisine: comprenant la cuisine de ménage et la grande cuisine [The Cookbook Including Grand And Domestic Cooking] (in French). Gallica. Archived from the original on 27 October 2020. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
• Escoffier, Auguste (1903). Le guide culinaire, aide-mémoire de cuisine pratique [The Culinary Guide, practical kitchen cheat sheet] (in French) (1st ed.).
• Escoffier, Auguste (1907). A guide to modern cookery. Heinemann.
• Escoffier, Auguste (1907b). Le guide culinaire, aide-mémoire de cuisine pratique [The Culinary Guide, practical kitchen cheat sheet] (in French) (2nd ed.). Paris : Colin.
• Escoffier, Auguste (1912). Le Guide Culinaire: aide-mémoire de cuisine pratique [The Culinary Guide, practical kitchen cheat sheet] (in French) (3rd ed.). Gallica. Archived from the original on 21 October 2020. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
• Montagné, Prosper (1961) [1938]. Turgeon, Charlotte; Froud, Nina (eds.). Larousse gastronomique: the encyclopedia of food, wine & cookery. Translated by Froud, Nina (etc.). London: Paul Hamilyn. ISBN 0-517-50333-6. OCLC 413918.

• Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts: An Introduction to the 5 French Mother Sauces