French mother sauces

In French cuisine, the mother sauces (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. Different classifications of mother sauces have been proposed since at least the early 19th century.

History
In 1833, Marie-Antoine Carême described 4 grandes (great) sauces, potentially the earliest printed reference to mother sauces. In 1844, the French magazine Revue de Paris 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 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 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
 * Velouté
 * Allemande
 * Béchamel

Carême classified numerous sauces as petites sauces.

Classification by Jules Gouffé (1867)
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).

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 is credited with establishing the importance of Espagnole, Velouté, Béchamel and Tomate, as well as Hollandaise and Mayonnaise. 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 more unusual sauces such as mirepoix and jus de veau lié (thickened veal stock).

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

The 1907 English edition of Le guide culinaire by William Heinemann, A Guide to Modern Cookery, listed significantly fewer "basic sauces", including Hollandaise alongside espagnole, "half glaze" (demi glace), velouté, allemande, béchamel, and tomate. The English edition did not describe mayonnaise as a mother sauce. Heinemann also added the assertion that "Allemande Sauce is not, strictly speaking, a basic sauce".

Common classification
The most common list of mother sauces in current use is:


 * 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.

Although sometimes attributed to chefs Marie-Antoine Carême or Auguste Escoffier, their lists differed from this.

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

Derivations of béchamel

 * Crème
 * Mornay
 * Soubise
 * Ecossaise
 * Nantua

Espagnole sauce
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.

Derivations of espagnole

 * Demi-glace
 * Poivrade
 * Grand veneur
 * Bigarade

Velouté sauce
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".

Derivations of velouté

 * Allemande
 * Poulette
 * Cardinal
 * Poultry velouté
 * Suprême
 * Albuféra
 * Fish velouté
 * Bercy
 * Normande

Tomato sauce
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.

Derivations of tomato

 * Bolognese
 * Portugaise
 * Milanaise
 * Creole

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