What Are The Mother Sauces
Sauces are a liquid that is flavored, thickened and served as an accompaniment to such foods as seafood, pasta and meats. The professional training about sauces all breaks down into a handful of Mother Sauces. From these Mother Sauces all other sauces can be derived. There are six hot mother sauces that any chef will know and from these there are countless sauces the chef can make for his diverse menu:
- Espagnole: This is a basic brown sauce. This sauce is created by using a brown stock like beef, tomato ingredient, flavorings and limited seasonings. From this sauce you can make the sought after Demiglaze by adding Madeira wine and a bouquet Garni which is then simmerd to create reduced intense sauce.
- Demi Glaze:See above…This sauce is a refined Espagnole. You can use different wines to make your Demi Glaze including red wine, white wine and port wine for different flavors.
- Tomato Sauce:This is a sauce created with a tomato base, seasonings and liquid. From this sauce you can create Bologaise, Napolitaine, Provencale and Portugaise sauces.
- Bechamel Sauce: This is a milk based sauce with seasonings and thickened with a white roux. From this sauce you can create sauces like Mornay, Cardinal and Creme.
- Hollandaise Sauce: This sauce is created with egg yolks, clarified butter and seasonings. This sauce can be the base for such sauces as Bearnaise, Maltaise and Choron.
- Veloute: There are many versions of Veloute including: Veal, Chicken, Fish and Vegetable. These are sauces with a liqud (example Chicken stock for Chicken Veloute), a roux to thicken and seasonings. Adding cream will produce a Supreme sauce. Adding egg youlk andcan prudce a sauce Allemande. Adding Eggyolk and cream will produce Normande sauce. From there there are countless amounts of sauces you can make.
Chefs all over the world know that from these mother sauces they can make countless number of other variations of these sauces. Many chefs have these mother sauces readily available to them so they can make different sauces from them. Many companies created powdered versions of these sauces but they could never be the same as the true version.
If anyone is interested in any of these mother sauce recipes just let me know and I will post some!
Chef
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[...] Everyday Weekender wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptYou can use different wines to make your Demi Glaze including red wine, white wine and port wine for different flavors. Tomato Sauce:This is a sauce created with a tomato base, seasonings and liquid. From this sauce you can create … [...]
I would like to know more about mother sauce.theyr’s name and recips
thanx
New young chefs/students, are saying there are 7 mother sauces today. Are vinegaretts a mother sauce today?
Mayonnaise is not listed here as one of the Mother Sauces, and I believe it should be included. There are 7 mother sauces in all.
NO, no, no, no. Vinaigrette and Mayonnaise are salad dressings NOT sauces. The list of Mother Sauces is fixed, inviolate, comprehensive and complete. Dumbass Americans, who can’t tell ketchup from clapshot, should not be allowed to corrupt the tenets of haute cuisine as they do everything else their ignorant gaze fixes on. Morons and mayo…….good grief.
And then there are people like “Gareth” who only offer criticisms and do not offer the correction ? and what’s this about Dumb-ass Americans, You probably should stay where You are or if You are here, Go Home if You think We are all Dumb-ass’s …good grief.
actually there are only five mother sauces and most chefs around the world debate even that. yes i said 5 any one who says there are more would not be correct. your 5 are espangole, hollandaise( which is the debated one), Bechamel, Tomato, and Veloute. Demi-Glace doesnt count because it is a derivitave of Espagnole.
I am assuming by “mother sauce” you are reffering to french cooking, as the french are the ones who use the term. Their are 4 mother sauces, they are as follows: Béchamel, Espagnole, Velouté and Allemande. This weird intermixing and global bastardization of know as “fusion” has really screwed up classic cooking. BTW I don’t care if you believe me or not, it’s the truth, rewrite history if your too proud to accept it.
How come mayonnise sauce is not mother sauce?
mayonnise is not a sauce or ever would be its more of a salad dressing catogory… 7 mother sauce in incorrect it’s only 5 mother sauces if that its more of a debate if anything… and as for the person who called us dumb ass amercians? if i am correct we have a few amercians chefs that are the top ten best in the world, so go back doing dishes biotch
I am in a Culinary class now and there are only five mother sauces.
Veloute ,Belchamel, Espagnole ,Tomato, and Hollandaise
I don’t believe Demi Glaze is a mother sauce because it is made FROM a mother, namely espagnole, even though it is classic.
I will like to know what are the recipes for the 7 Mother sauces because I’m kind of new in the Kitchen Industry and I will like to enrich my knowledge by knowing how to make the 7 mother sauces, I will apreciate your help, JOHNNY HERNANDEZ New Line Cook!!!
There is no demi-glaze, but there is demi-glace! It’s not glaze people, it’s glace. You people are killing me with the glaze! And it is not a mother sauce, it is a derivative of espagnole.
I go to le cordon bleu cooking school. And the five sauces are bechamel,hollandaise,
veoulette ,espagnole,tomato
i also go to le cordon bleu as well you are correct there are 5 mother sauces there were 4 hollandaise was added later and also the people who said is right it is demi-glace wich is not a mother sauce it is espagnole cooked down to half then equel parts brown stock put back in then cooked down to half agine
Gareth , thank you for making clear that some knowledge of food does not make you gracious.
I would like to know more about “mother sauces”.
In response to Gareth { 12.05.08 at 2:16 pm } comment about mayonnaise and vinaigrette not being sauces. Iam sorry but you are wrong. Mayonnaise is a french sauce originally created in the 16th century. So is Vinaigrette . I recomemned you research your comments especially before commenting about americans becuase only an rude American would have made your pathetic comment.
Great stuff to everyone. I’m a free hand cook, never been to school for cooking but clearly gifted by GOD to do it. I went for a Job interview yesterday and i believed according to my experince and somewhat knowledge of the kitchen, I thought that i was qualified for the job. The inteview was going great until, He asked me a few questions. The first one was, what are the five mother sauces I had not a clue from that point I think the interview went south. Therefore my point in all this, to whoever have a gift in some type skill take it serious enough to get educated in that craft. And to ladies & gentlemen that pursulted there passion in the culinary arts field GOD BLESS you.
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