The Five French Mother Sauces are fundamental to cooking as we know it. The base to any classical sauces, knowing how to make the Mother Sauces can seriously up your cooking game, so you can wow friends and family at your next dinner party, or just create something delicious to eat on a night in.
Mastering classical French cooking techniques really makes you feel like a pro, and the Five Mother Sauces are so useful to learn as a solid starting point. These sauces are important in any culinary education, and are fundamental skills that most chefs are taught in their training.
These five sauces aren’t as daunting as they may seem – granted, some may take a bit of practice and some are a bit time-consuming, but they are all achievable in any home kitchen. And the best part is that once you’ve mastered the Five French Mother Sauce, the world of cooking is your oyster. These sauces can be turned into a huge number of derivative 'daughter sauces' through adding extra ingredients, or can be adapted however you want to suit what you’re making or what you have in the cupboard.
What are the Five French Mother Sauces?
French Chef Auguste Escoffier declared in the early 20th century that the Five French Mother Sauces are:
- Béchamel – a white sauce made with a roux and milk
- Velouté – a white sauce made with a roux and stock
- Espagnole – a brown sauce made with a roux and stock
- Hollandaise – an emulsion sauce made from egg yolks and butter
- Tomato – a sauce made from tomatoes and salt-cured pork, thickened with a roux
We’ve created the ultimate guide to the Five French Mother Sauces, to hopefully make them seem a little less daunting! These sauces are so versatile and are so useful to any cook, so it is definitely worth giving them a go.
Béchamel
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A béchamel (or white) sauce is made by the addition of milk to a white roux. The roux is made by cooking flour and butter in a saucepan for one minute, and then the milk is gradually added, with constant stirring required so the sauce doesn’t go lumpy. Once all the milk is in, the sauce is brought to the boil and simmered for two minutes, so the flour is cooked out and the sauce can thicken. Béchamel sauce is primarily used in lasagne – to make a béchamel like those traditionally used in lasagne, you can infuse the milk with a bay leaf, an onion and some peppercorns prior to adding it to the roux and making the sauce.
Daughter sauces of béchamel:
- Mornay – béchamel with cheddar cheese (gruyère and parmesan can also be used!)
Velouté
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A velouté sauce is made from flour, butter and stock. A blond roux is made, by cooking the flour and butter in a saucepan for three to five minutes until it’s straw-coloured and smells of biscuits. The stock is gradually added to the blond roux, stirring constantly to avoid lumps. As when making a béchamel sauce, the sauce is brought to the boil and simmered for two minutes to thicken it and to cook out the flour. This sauce will not be as thick as a white sauce, as the more flour is cooked the less its thickening properties. To finish, cream is added to enrich the velouté sauce.
Velouté sauce has lots of daughter sauces, including:
- Allemande – chicken or veal stock velouté with lemon juice, egg yolk and cream
- Poulette – chicken stock velouté with lemon juice and parsley
- Vénitienne – chicken or fish stock velouté with tarragon, shallots and parsley
- Normande – fish stock velouté with cream, butter and egg yolks
- Aurore – chicken stock velouté with tomato purée and butter
Velouté sauce is best served poured over grilled chicken, although it’s great with all types of poultry, fish and green vegetables. A velouté sauce can also be used to make soup, if vegetables or vegetable puree are added.
Espagnole
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Espagnole sauce is slightly more complex than the previous Mother Sauces, but it's nothing to be afraid of. It’s a rich, dark sauce made from stock, flour, vegetables and bacon. An espagnole sauce requires a brown roux – this can be made by cooking flour either in a saucepan for over five minutes, or in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 to 20 minutes until browned. Bacon and vegetables (celery, carrot and onion) are lightly browned, then tomato puree and the browned flour are added. There's no need to add butter here, as the fat in the pan from the bacon is enough to create the roux. Then add stock and aromatics (a bay leaf, thyme sprig and parsley sprig), and bring the sauce to the boil and simmer for up to two hours. The sauce is strained and then reduced to achieve desired thickness and intensity of flavour.
Espagnole sauce can be served as it is with meat, such as beef, veal, pork and chicken, but it is more often than not transformed into its daughter sauces to create some familiar favourites.
Espagnole daughter sauces:
- Bordelaise – espagnole with red wine and shallots
- Madeira – espagnole with dry Madeira
- Robert – espagnole with onion, dijon mustard, white wine, cream, demi-glace and parsley
- Chasseur – espagnole with white wine, sauteed shallots, mushrooms and parsley
Madeira sauce is traditionally served with a beef wellington, although it can go with any red meat, while sauce Robert is delicious with pork.
Hollandaise
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Hollandaise is different to the flour-thickened sauces above in that it’s an emulsion sauce. Hollandaise is made from butter and egg yolks, thickened through emulsification and flavoured with a reduction of vinegar boiled with aromatics. There are lots of different methods to make hollandaise – Mary Berry’s method is to combine the yolks and some reduction in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, then to very slowly pour in melted butter, whisking constantly. You can also add small, cold cubes of butter to the yolks and reduction one at a time, again over simmering water. You can even make hollandaise in a blender, by slowly adding warm melted butter to the yolks and reduction as you blend.
It is really about finding a hollandaise method that works for you; it can be tricky as the sauce is easy to split if it gets too hot, or will not thicken if it's not hot enough or not whisked vigorously enough. But hollandaise is definitely a sauce you can make at home, it can just take a bit of practice!
Daughter sauces of hollandaise include:
- Béarnaise – hollandaise with shallot, tarragon and chervil added to the reduction, with chopped tarragon and chervil added to the finished sauce
- Choron – hollandaise with tomato puree added to the finished sauce
Hollandaise is typically served with eggs for breakfast favourite Eggs Benedict, and its derivative sauces are usually served with steak.
Tomato
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Classic French sauce tomat is arguably the most popular and widely-used of the Mother Sauces. In Escoffier’s original recipe, sauce tomat is made by browning chunks of salt-cured pork and vegetables, adding garlic, bay leaf and thyme, then thickening with a roux and adding crushed whole tomatoes and veal stock. The sauce is simmered for two hours and is then strained and reduced to the desired consistency or flavour intensity. However, nowadays most tomato sauces are made from pureed tomatoes seasoned with herbs.
Daughter sauces of tomato sauce include:
- Creole – tomato sauce with white wine, garlic, onion, bay leaf, cayenne pepper and bell peppers
- Marinara – tomato sauce with garlic, onions and seasoned with herbs
- Provençal – tomato sauce with olive oil, parsley and garlic
Tomato sauce is really versatile, and can be served with just about everything, from meat or pasta to vegetables, fish and eggs. It's derivative sauces are also widely used - creole sauce can be added to just about every savoury dish, while marinara is generally served with meatballs but can really be used for anything.
Who invented the Mother Sauces?
The idea of Mother Sauces was introduced by French chef Antonin Carême, who classified sauces as ‘Grandes et Petites’ in his 19th century cookbook. Carême named four ‘Grandes sauces’: Espagnole, Velouté, Allemande and Béchamel. The term ‘Mother Sauces’ was first used by another French chef Jules Gouffé, who listed 12 Mother Sauces. The Mother Sauces as we know them were pioneered by Auguste Escoffier; he named the Mother Sauces as Espagnole, Velouté, Béchamel and Tomato in his early 20th century book ‘Le Guide Culinaire’. In the English translation of this book, however, hollandaise is promoted to a Mother Sauce – and so the Five Mother Sauces were established, and have remained the same ever since.
What is a roux?
A roux is an equal quantity of fat and flour, used to thicken a known quantity of liquid.
How do you make a roux?
To make a roux, you melt butter in a pan and add an equal quantity of flour, which is stirred and heated until it forms a paste.
White roux vs blond roux vs brown roux?
- A white roux is used to make béchamel sauce and is cooked for one minute
- A blond roux is used to make velouté sauce and is cooked for three to five minutes, until it’s the colour of straw and smells like biscuits
- A brown roux is used to make espagnole sauce and is cooked for over five minutes, until browned, or it can be browned in the oven for fifteen to twenty minutes
Which Mother Sauces don’t use a roux?
Hollandaise sauce doesn’t use a roux; its thickening agent is the emulsification of the yolks and butter. Modern tomato sauce also doesn’t use a roux, made up instead of tomato puree seasoned with herbs and reduced into a sauce.
What is the most useful Mother sauce to be able to make?
Although all of the Mother Sauces are useful to have up your sleeve, and the most useful to you does ultimately depend on what you like to cook and eat, the most widely useful sauces are probably béchamel or tomato. Béchamel provides a reliably delicious base for macaroni cheese and lasagne, and tomato is also useful for a multitude of pasta dishes and can also be served with meat, fish and vegetables. Both can also be turned into lots of different derivative sauces if extra ingredients are added, so are handy to know.
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Written by: Niamh Parker