What are the five French Mother sauces?

There were so many culinary terms I remember being introduced to while watching various food/cooking shows and“mother sauces” was definitely one of them. These five sauces are considered to be foundational in French cuisine. I frankly never had a strong desire to learn how to cook French food. But one fateful day, when I ordered eggs benedict at brunch and nearly licked the plate clean because of the hollandaise sauce, I realized I might have been missing out on something.

French Chef Marie-Antoine Carême first classified the mother sauces and categorized them into four main types: Velouté, Béchamel, Allemande, and Espagnole. However, about 100 years later another French Chef, Auguste Escoffier, later refined Carême’s teachings and established the present-day five mother sauces. He reclassified Allemande as a variation of Velouté and added Tomate and Hollandaise sauce. One Creative Cook helpfully noted in their blog that mastering these sauces teaches essential techniques like thickening, emulsifying and balancing flavors - the building blocks of great (French) cooking.

Three or sometimes four of the sauces start out with a roux. A roux is when you cook equal parts of flour and fat, usually butter, to create a mixture that can thicken sauces. What differs between the recipes in terms of roux is for how long you brown the roux. For example, the roux color for a béchamel sauce would be almost white meaning less of a cook time whereas for an espagnole the roux is a deep brown thus a longer cook time. A velouté is somewhere in the middle in terms of roux color and cook time. A tomato sauce CAN be thickened with a roux, but commonly it is not.

Béchamel

There is some debate between the Italians and the French on the origins of this sauce. It’s a pretty simple and foundational sauce that you can dress up. Classically, a touch of nutmeg adorns the sauce.

Ingredients: Butter, Flour & Milk

Derivative sauces: Aurora sauce, Mornay sauce, Nantua sauce, Soubisse sauce [Masterclass article]

Velouté

This sauce is known for its smooth and velvety texture. It is usually a white stock that is thickened with a blonde roux.

Ingredients: White Stock (chicken, veal or fish), Butter & Flour

Derivative sauces: Sauce Suprême, Albufera sauce, Allemande sauce & Normande sauce [Masterclass article]

Espagnole

Characterized as a rich, beefy sauce and sometimes called “Spanish Sauce”. This is also a stock based sauce that is thickened with roux. Brown stock is used, usually beef based, and tomatoes, aromatics and mirepoix ( chopped carrots, celery and onions) is added.

Ingredients: Butter, Flour, Brown Stock (beef or veal), Carrots, Celery, Onions & Aromatics (herbs and/or peppercorn)

Derivative sauces: Demi-glace, Chasseur sauce, Sauce Africaine, Sauce Bigarade, Sauce Bourguignonne, Marchand de Vin sauce, Charcutière sauce, Lyonnaise sauce, Bercy sauce, Mushroom sauce, Madeira sauce & Port Wine sauce [Masterclass article]

Hollandaise

Probably my most favorite sauce or rather the sauce that put me on! Apparently, it is also known as the “Dutch sauce”. I wrote a whole blog post on why that is. This sauce is an emulsification of egg yolks with butter and an acid.

Ingredients: Egg Yolks, Butter, Vinegar or Lemon,

Derivative Sauces: Béarnaise, Mayonnaise, Choron, Maltaise, Foyot, Paloise & Mousseline [Masterclass article]

Tomate

Old-school recipes of making tomato sauce incorporate roux but generally chefs do not make it with a roux. Classically, pork fat is cooked down with tomatoes, aromatics and stock. However, simply using good quality tomatoes with aromatics can do the trick.

Ingredients: Tomatoes, Pork Fat, Aromatics & Stock

Derivative sauces: Portugese sauce, Spiced Spanish sauce, Creole sauce [Masterclass article]

Links to websites mentioned/referenced:

https://food52.com/blog/12209-the-five-mother-sauces-every-cook-should-know?srsltid=AfmBOorrtPGGx_cq2kufncul_LKpQZIp3r0Yhjy--m4CyJIqO8jJkIVy

https://www.billyparisi.com/bechamel-sauce-recipe/

https://ediblecommunities.com/recipes/chanterelle-veloute/

https://www.billyparisi.com/espagnole-sauce/

https://downshiftology.com/recipes/hollandaise-sauce/

https://www.onecreativecook.com/blog/five-french-mother-sauces-guide-recipes

https://www.escoffieronline.com/an-introduction-to-the-5-french-mother-sauces/

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/the-5-french-mother-sauces-learn-about-bechamel-veloute-sauce-espagnole-sauce-tomat-and-hollandaise-sauce

https://www.cordonbleu.edu/news/what-are-the-mother-sauces-of-french-cooking/en

https://chefjeanpierre.com/recipes/sauces/masterclass-on-sauces/

https://www.thespruceeats.com/espagnole-a-basic-brown-sauce-996094

https://www.escoffieronline.com/sauce-tomat-101/