The 5 Mother Sauces

When a sauce is used on a food, it is the first thing to touch the tongue. A sauce is only as good as the ingredients you put into it and the care you take while preparing it

In French cuisine there are 5 basic "Mother Sauces" that provide the foundation for most of the sauces we are familiar with today.

Use them as a base for all sorts of deliciousness.  Enrich them with cream, add in some cheese, stock or wine.  Toss in veggies, meats and herbs. 

THE 5 SAUCES

Bechamel
Veloute
Espagnole
Hollandaise / Mayonnaise
Vinaigrette

BECHAMEL - Your classic white sauce.  The KING of all sauces is often referred to as a cream sauce because of its appearance.  It is probably the most frequently used sauce in all types of dishes.  Made by stirring milk into a butter-flour roux, the thickness of the sauce depends on the proportion of flour and butter to milk.

VELOUTE - Meaning velvety, is a stock-based white sauce thickend with a white roux.  It can be made from chicken, veal or fish stock.  Enrichments such as egg yolks or cream are sometimes added.

ESPAGNOLE - Brown sauce.  This sauce is traditionally made of rich meat stock, a mirepoix of browned vegetables (mixture of diced onion, carrots and celery) nicely browned roux, herbs and sometimes tomato paste.

HOLLANDAISE - Emulsion of egg yolks and fat. Made with butter, egg yolks and lemon juice usually in a double broiler to prevent overheating and served warm.  It is generally used to embellish vegetables, fish and egg dishes.
MAYONNAISE - Emulsion of vegetable oil, egg yolks, lemon juice or vinegar and seasonings.  It's widely used as a spread, a dressing and as a sauce.  It's used as the base for such mixtures as Tartar Sauce, Thousand Island Dressing, Aioli and Remoulade.

VINAIGRETTE - Simple blend of oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.  More elaborate variations can include combinations of spices, herbs, shallots, onions, mustard, etc.  It is generally used to dress salad greens and other cold vegetable, meat or fish dishes

Those are the 5 basic Mother sauces, however the tomato sauce came about later and is often considered to be one of the 5 Mother sauces. It certainly has earned the title since it is the base for a large variety of sauces.

TOMATO -  Primarily made from tomatoes, usually to be served as part of a dish rather than a condiment.  Tomato sauces are common for meat and vegetables, and best known for pasta dishes.

Most of these sauces start of with a ROUX.  What is a ROUX?

ROUX - Cooked mixture of flour and fat, traditionally butter.  It is the thickening agent for 3 of the Mother Sauces.  Bechamel, Veloute and Espagnole.  It is also used as a thickener for gravey and other sauces, soups and stews.