The five simple mother sauces every cook should know

Back in the early 1900s, a renowned chef named Auguste Escoffier brought order by identifying the five mother sauces, the foundational recipes from which nearly all other sauces are derived.

Sauces play a vital role in cooking, offering endless possibilities. With so many different ways to combine textures, flavors, and ingredients, experimenting in the kitchen can be a true delight.

History of mother sauces

It was the French chef Auguste Escoffier who, in 1903, officially wrote down and established the idea of the five mother sauces. But the sauces themselves—and even the term ‘mother sauce’—had been around long before that.

Other chefs like Marie-Antoine Carême in the 1830s and Jules Gouffé in the 1860s had their own lists of important sauces, but it was Auguste Escoffier who really simplified things. He narrowed it down to five basic ‘mother sauces,’ and from these, all the other sauces—called ‘daughter sauces’—were created.

What are the mother sauces

So what are the five basic mother sauces? They are béchamel, espagnole, velouté, tomato and hollandaise.

Each of these sauces are unique, some may seem similar to another but the differences between them make them stand apart from each other. In a way you can view these mother sauces as the head of the house.

They also pair differently with different foods, so depending on what you have chosen to make will determine which sauce base you choose to use.

• Béchamel, is the creamy white sauce
• Espagnole, is a dark strong sauce
• Velouté, light smooth sauce
• Sauce Tomat aka Tomato sauce, its in the name
• Hollandaise, zingy tangy sauce

Let us now break these sauces individually and look at little more closely at each one.

Béchamel sauce

Béchamel is a rich creamy sauce and is the base use for the popular dish of macaroni and cheese. This is an easy sauce to make with some very basic ingredients that most of use already have. You can easily make this sauce ahead of time and use it when needed.

The base, this thick creamy sauce is made from a butter flour roux base with milk. You can add in nutmeg, parsley, or garlic to this sauce, as well as cheese.

Try my homemade béchamel sauce right here, it is quick and easy to make once you know how.

Espagnole Sauce, Spanish mother sauces

Espagnole sauce was named after Spain, why? With a few different stories out the as to why is is named after Spain but the one that is more commonly accepted has to do with the colour.

This sauce has a deep reddish color, and since red is often linked with Spain, that connection likely inspired the name. Another common story is that the sauce was actually created in Spain. While there’s no solid proof to back that up, it’s a version many people accept as fact

The base, made from a dark roux, along with vegetables such as carrots and celery, beef broth/stock, parsley and thyme. Tomato paste is often added not in recent recipes.

This sauce is not a quick sauce it can take any where from an hour to three to cook down. But despite the time it takes the recipe itself is easy. Just adding the roughly chopped ingredients cooking them down and then straining the sauce it is wonderfully easy to make ahead of time.

Check out this recipe from Simplyrecipes.com

This sauce is also used as a base for a demi glace, and also a bordelaise sauce that uses a demi glace, shallots, red wine and thyme.

Velouté sauce

Velouté means velvety and this is such a wonderful description for this sauce.

The Base, this sauce is similar to the béchamel being that is made from a roux base but instead of adding milk you add a light chicken or fish broth. This makes the sauce a lot lighter.

You can add wonderful herbs such as tarragon or parsley or maybe garlic or white wine to elevate the basic sauce.

Check out this recipe from girlgonegourmet.com

Despite its very basic base this sauce is truly a mother sauce it can be adapted in so many ways to create some wonderful dishes

Sauce Tomat

This sauce is probably the most obvious as to what it is. It is a tomato based sauce one that may appear very simple but is actually quite complex. Using a good quality tomato such as san marzano’s is key to making this sauce as well as high quality pork rind.

This sauce is originally Italian created in the 17th century. Which knowing tomato sauces this make absolute sense. Most of us when we hear tomato sauce we think Italian.

Traditional sauce tomat does contain meat in the way of fats and broth, this is unlike most tomato sauces we see on the shelves today. It is cooked on the stovetop and them roasted further in the oven. This creates a very rich salty complex sauce.

The base, the ingredients include pork fat or bacon, good quality tomatoes, vegetables such as carrots and onion, herbs like thyme and beef or pork broth.

This recipe from escoffieronline.com has a classic sauce tomat recipe that is worth checking out.

Hollandaise sauce, a Dutch mother sauce

This sauce was originally known as the Dutch sauce but in more recent times it is now referred to as Hollandaise and it is this name that we will be most familiar with.

This is the one sauce that has been swapped out over time. At one point, mayonnaise temporarily took its place as one of the five mother sauces, but eventually, hollandaise was reinstated.

The base, egg yolks, butter, and lemon.

Hollandaise is made by emulsifying egg yolks with lemon juice (the acid) and butter (the fat). While some people shy away from making it at home—often worried it’s too tricky or that the eggs might curdle—with the right recipe and a bit of care, it’s absolutely doable. It may seem complicated at first, but when you follow a good recipe closely, there’s no reason it can’t turn out beautifully.

I love this recipe from deliaonline.com it has never failed me.