French sauces

Five Mother Sauces - Basis of All Classical Sauces

Béchamel sauce: Made by thickening hot milk with a simple white roux. The sauce is then flavored with onion, cloves and nutmeg and simmered until it is creamy and velvety smooth.

Small sauces made from béchamel: Crème Sauce, Mornay Sauce, Soubise Sauce, Nantua Sauce, Cheddar Cheese Sauce, Mustard Sauce.

Espagnole sauce: Sometimes called Brown Sauce, is made by thickening brown stock with roux, similar to a velouté. The difference is that espagnole is made with tomato purée and mirepoix for deeper color and flavor. Moreover, brown stock itself is made from bones that have first been roasted to add color and flavor.

Small sauces made from espagnole: Marchand de Vin Sauce (Red Wine Reduction), Robert Sauce, Charcutière Sauce, Lyonnaise Sauce, Chasseur Sauce, Bercy Sauce, Mushroom Sauce, Madeira Sauce, Port Wine Sauce

Hollandaise sauce: A tangy, buttery sauce made by slowly whisking clarified butter into warm egg yolks. So the liquid here is the clarified butter and the thickening agent is the egg yolks. Hollandaise is an emulsified sauce. Clarified butter is used because whole butter, which contains water and milk solids, can break the emulsion. Clarified butter is just pure butterfat, so it helps the emulsion remain stable.

Small sauces made from Hollandaise: Béarnaise Sauce, Dijon Sauce, Foyot Sauce, Choron Sauce, Maltaise Sauce, Mousseline Sauce

Tomato sauce: This sauce resembles the traditional tomato sauce that we might use on pasta and pizza, but it's got much more flavor and requires a few more steps to make. First we render salt pork and then sauté aromatic vegetables. Then we add tomatoes, stock and a ham bone, and simmer it in the oven for a couple of hours. Cooking the sauce in the oven helps heat it evenly and without scorching.

Small sauces made from the classic tomate sauce: Spanish Sauce, Creole Sauce, Portuguese Sauce, Provençale Sauce

Velouté sauce: Made by thickening white stock with roux and then simmering it for a while. While the chicken velouté, made with chicken stock, is the most common type, there is also a veal velouté and fish velouté.

Small sauces made from velouté: Normandy Sauce, Bercy Sauce, Hungarian Sauce, Mushroom Sauce, Aurora Sauce, Poulette Sauce, Shrimp Sauce, Herb Seafood Sauce.