User:Sidizen12/Mother Sauces (French Cuisine)

Mother Sauces (French Cuisine) are the foundation for all of the classic hot sauces in French Cooking. There are 5 Mother Sauces: Béchamel, Velouté, Espagnole, Tomate and Hollandaise. Each of them is distinguished by the different liquids and thickeners that compose each sauce. Each of the Mother Sauces can then garnished or seasoned in a variety of ways to create what are known as small sauces. Mothers Sauces are also often referred to as Leading Sauces.

Origins of Categorization

Carême's Categorization

The term mother sauce (or grandes sauce) was originally used by Antonin Carême in the 19th century. Carême's initially categorized sauces into four families. Each category was based on one of the following four sauces:

1. Béchamel
2. Espagnole
3. Velouté
4. Allemande

Escoffier's Categorization

Early in the 20th Century Auguste Escoffier expanded and modified Carême's four categories. Escoffier removed Allemande sauce because he considered it to be a small sauce. Escoffier's five mother (or leading) sauces are:

1. Béchamel
2. Espagnole
3. Velouté
4. Tomate
5. Hollandaise

Individual Sauces

Béchamel

Béchamel, also known as white sauce, is used to make numerous other small sauces, such as Mornay. Béchamel is traditionally made by whisking scalded milk into a white flour-butter roux.

Espagnole

Originally codified by Auguste Escoffier in the late 19th century. Espagnole's strong taste causes it to be used rarely as a direct sauce, instead it serves as a jumping off point for numerous other small sauces, such as Demi-Glace.

Velouté

Is prepared using a light stock (such as chicken, veal or fish) and a blonde roux. Some sauces that are derived from Velouté are: Allemande, Sauce ravigote, and Suprême sauce.

Allemande

Allemande is a derivative of Velouté. It is made by thickening Velouté with egg yolks and heavy cream and then seasoning it with lemon juice. It is not considered a Mother (or leading) sauce in Escoffier's classification.

Tomate

Tomate is a tomato based sauce that is thickened with a roux. It was codified by Auguste Escoffier.

Hollandaise

Hollandaise is an emulsion of egg yolk, butter and lemon juice.

References

Escoffier, Auguste; Adams, Charlotte (2000). The Escoffier Cookbook and Guide to the Fine Art of Cookery: For Connoisseurs, Chefs, Epicures Complete With 2973 Recipes (55 ed.). New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. pp. 19–21. ISBN 978-0517506622.

Auguste Escoffier (1903), Le Guide culinaire, Editions Flammarion

(1995), "On Cooking", Sarah R. Labensky, Salan M. Hause, Priscilla A. Martel