FRENCH TECHNIQUE
Master these five and you hold the keys to almost every classic sauce in western cuisine.
The five French mother sauces are Béchamel, Velouté, Espagnole, Hollandaise and Sauce Tomat — the original five from which almost every classical French sauce descends. Every sauce in French cooking descends from these five originals. They sound intimidating. They are not. Each one is built on simple ingredients and a small number of techniques. Learn them once and you will use them forever.
IN THIS GUIDE
What is a mother sauce?
A mother sauce (French: sauce mère) is a base sauce from which a whole family of other sauces is built. Get the base right and the variations are mostly a matter of a few added ingredients. The idea was a way of bringing order to the sprawling world of French sauce-making: learn five foundations, and the hundreds of classical sauces stop being a list to memorise and become a system you understand.
The framework is usually credited to two chefs. In the early 19th century, Marie-Antoine Carême codified four grandes sauces — béchamel, velouté, espagnole and allemande. A century later, Auguste Escoffier reorganised them: he demoted allemande to a derivative of velouté and added hollandaise and sauce tomate, giving the five we still use today.
The five at a glance
| Sauce | Base liquid | Thickened with | Classic uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Béchamel | Milk | White roux | Lasagne, gratins, croque monsieur |
| Velouté | White stock (chicken, fish or veal) | Blond roux | Fricassée, pot pies, poached fish |
| Espagnole | Brown stock | Brown roux | Red-meat braises; the base of demi-glace |
| Hollandaise | Clarified butter | Egg-yolk emulsion | Eggs Benedict, asparagus, fish |
| Sauce Tomate | Tomatoes | Reduction (traditionally a roux) | Pasta, pizza, braised meats |
Béchamel
The simplest and most useful of the five. Butter, flour and milk — nothing else. The technique is everything.
How to make it
Melt butter in a heavy pan over a medium heat. Add plain flour and stir continuously for a full two minutes. This step — cooking out the flour — is what separates a good Béchamel from a floury, stodgy one. Do not rush it. Add warm milk gradually, whisking constantly, until the sauce thickens to a consistency that coats the back of a spoon. Season with salt, white pepper and a grating of fresh nutmeg.
Where you will use it
Lasagne, cauliflower cheese, croque monsieur, fish pie, moussaka.
The mistake most home cooks make
Adding cold milk all at once and not cooking the flour long enough.
Sauce 2 of 5
Velouté
Think of Velouté as Béchamel’s more elegant sibling. The method is identical but instead of milk you use a good warm stock — chicken, fish or veal depending on what you are serving it with.
How to make it
Make a roux of butter and flour exactly as you would for Béchamel. Add your warm stock gradually, whisking until smooth and glossy. A good Velouté should be silky, light and deeply savoury.
Where you will use it
As the base of cream sauces for chicken and fish, in pot pies, as a base for soups.
The mistake most home cooks make
Using a weak or salty stock cube instead of a proper homemade or quality bought stock. The sauce is only as good as what goes into it.
Sauce 3 of 5
Espagnole
The most ambitious of the five and the one most home cooks never attempt. That is exactly why you should.
How to make it
Start by roasting veal or beef bones until deeply coloured. Caramelise your vegetables — onion, carrot and celery — in the same pan. Add tomato paste and cook until it darkens. Add your dark roux and stock and simmer for two to three hours, skimming regularly.
Where you will use it
As the base for Bordelaise, Chasseur and Périgueux sauces. As a braising liquid for beef, lamb and venison.
The mistake most home cooks make
Not roasting the bones and vegetables long enough. The colour you build in the roasting tin is the flavour in the finished sauce.
Sauce 4 of 5
Hollandaise
The most technically demanding of the five — and the one that will make you feel most like a proper cook when you nail it.
How to make it
Whisk egg yolks with a splash of water over barely simmering water in a bain marie until thick and ribbony. Remove from the heat. Add clarified butter drop by drop at first, whisking constantly, then in a thin stream as the emulsion takes hold. Season with lemon juice, salt and a pinch of cayenne.
Where you will use it
Eggs Benedict, asparagus, poached fish, grilled steak.
The mistake most home cooks make
Adding the butter too quickly before the emulsion has formed. Patience at the start is everything.
Sauce 5 of 5
Sauce Tomat
Not what you think. The French mother sauce Tomat bears little resemblance to a jar of Italian passata. It is a long-cooked, deeply savoury tomato sauce built on salt pork, aromatic vegetables and good stock.
How to make it
Render diced salt pork or pancetta in a heavy pan. Add onion, carrot and celery and cook gently until soft. Add a bay leaf, thyme, tomato paste and good ripe tomatoes. Add stock and simmer gently for at least an hour until the sauce is rich, thick and deeply flavoured. Pass through a sieve for a silky finish.
Where you will use it
As a base for any tomato-forward dish, braised meats, stuffed vegetables, pasta sauces that need real depth.
The mistake most home cooks make
Rushing it. This sauce rewards patience above all else.
You do not need to make all five in one week. Pick one. Make it properly. Understand what you are doing and why. Then move to the next. Cook all five over a month and your kitchen confidence will be transformed.
The daughter sauces
Each mother sauce is a starting point. Add a handful of ingredients and you arrive at one of the hundreds of sauces filles — daughter sauces — that make up the classical French repertoire. This is where the five foundations earn their keep. A few of the most useful:
| Mother sauce | Daughter sauces (a few of many) |
|---|---|
| Béchamel | Mornay (+ Gruyère), soubise (+ softened onion), mustard sauce, cream sauce |
| Velouté | Suprême (+ cream), allemande (+ egg yolk and cream), Bercy (+ shallot and white wine) |
| Espagnole | Demi-glace, chasseur (+ mushroom, shallot, wine and tomato), bordelaise (+ red wine and marrow), Robert (+ mustard) |
| Hollandaise | Béarnaise (+ tarragon and shallot), mousseline (+ whipped cream), Maltaise (+ blood orange) |
| Sauce Tomate | Provençale, créole, Portugaise |
Frequently asked questions
What are the five French mother sauces?
The five are Béchamel (built on milk), Velouté (light stock), Espagnole (brown stock), Hollandaise (egg yolk and butter) and Sauce Tomat (tomato). Almost every classic French sauce is a variation of one of these five.
Why are they called mother sauces?
Because they are the ‘mothers’ from which hundreds of other sauces descend. Add cheese to a Béchamel and you have Mornay; enrich a Velouté and you have a cream sauce; build on Espagnole and you have Bordelaise or Chasseur. Learn the five bases and you can make almost any classic sauce.
Which mother sauce should a beginner learn first?
Béchamel. It is the simplest — just butter, flour and milk — and it teaches you the roux and how to build a smooth, thickened sauce, which underpins Velouté and Espagnole too. Master it first and the others follow naturally.
Is Hollandaise really one of the mother sauces?
Yes, though it is the odd one out. Unlike the others it is not thickened with a roux but emulsified from egg yolks and butter, like a warm mayonnaise. It is still a mother sauce because so many others — Béarnaise, Maltaise, Mousseline — are built directly from it.
