Mother Sauces

What Are The Mother Sauces

by DJL

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.

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The first of the mother sauces, Bechamel, calls for a very light roux, because it is a basic white sauce. To make it, simply whisk milk into a light (barely toasted) roux. Season with some salt and pepper. Many people often let a bay leaf, a clove, and a partial onion simmer with the sauce and then remove them before serving it. I like to add a little pinch of nutmeg much of the time.

From a Bechamel sauce, you can make:

• Cheese sauce by whisking the grated cheese of your choice into the finished sauce (off heat) until it melts. Use about 6 ounces of cheese (by weight) per two cups of sauce. if you’re making a blue cheese sauce, use one part blue cheese to three parts milder cheese. Pour your cheese sauce over macaroni cooked al dente, put in a casserole dish and bake (with hot dogs or tomatoes if you so desire) and stop relying on the blue box when you make mac and cheese.
• Mustard sauce by whisking in about 1/4 cup of prepared mustard at the end. Goes great with brussels sprouts, and don’t dismiss the possibility because they’re actually a delicious vegetable when properly cooked. Just don’t overcook the sprouts because once they get mushy there’s nothing palatable about them.
• Black pepper gravy for a breakfast of biscuits and gravy. Stir in enough freshly cracked black pepper until it’s well-speckled and has the taste you’re looking for.
• Dill cream sauce, which goes great with salmon. This is another sauce that I make on instinct, adding dill until it looks and tastes right… which is the beauty of using a mother sauce. Once you have the basic sauce made, you can work with it to fit the taste profile you’re looking for.The veloute sauce uses a slightly darker roux: one that has been toasted until the flour turns a nice golden brown color (for which reason it is often called a blond roux), and a white stock, often chicken or fish, depending on what it’s being served with. Again, use about one generous cup of liquid per ounce of roux. From the veloute, variations include:
• Mushroom sauce by sauteeing mushrooms and stirring them into the finished sauce.
• White wine sauce by reducing a couple of ounces of white wine by half and then stirring in two cups of finished veloute sauce. Adding straight white wine to the sauce will not achieve as good of a result because the alcohol will not cook out as efficiently and the flavor of the wine will not be concentrated. This is great as a compund sauce with the mushrooms: add the wine to the pan in which you’re sauteeing the mushrooms to deglaze it. Then, add mushrooms and remaining wine into the sauce.
• Aurora sauce, which I’ve never made, but ought to sometime because it shares its name with my wife. Add three ounces tomato puree to two cups of veloute and season to taste. I suppose it would probably go quite well with rosemary roasted chicken. Maybe I’ll try it sometime.
• Herb sauce by finishing the veloute sauce with minced fresh herbs to taste. Be careful if using sage; a little dab’ll do ya.
• Anything else you think of that would match well with your meal. If you want a spicier sauce, add some hot pepper in with the roux and toast it a bit before adding your liquid. If you want some onion flavor, chop up part of an onion and saute it, same as you’d do for a mushroom sauce. If you’re looking for a grapefruit sauce to go with your halibut, reduce grapefruit juice the same as you’d do with white wine.

Brown Sauce takes a dark roux with a brown stock. To make the roux, be careful and don’t divert your attention: a burned roux will ruin your sauce and there’s no way to correct it except to do it again. Because toasting the flour this long greatly reduces its thickening power, you may want to use slightly more roux than you would otherwise to achieve the same thickness of sauce, perhaps along the lines of 2 ounces of roux (2 tablespoons each fat and flour) per generous cup of stock.

As for the stock, making a brown stock involves roasting bones and vegetables with tomato product (often tomato paste) and then simmering them for several hours before straining. You can fake it (for the purposes of this sauce) by adding some tomato paste in with the roux as it reaches its blond stage and stirring it around to caramelize the tomato with the roux before you add the stock. By doing so, you achieve the same source of flavor and color as is used in making a brown stock correctly from the beginning, so in terms of fudging results, it’s a pretty good method.

Once you have your completed brown sauce, other sauces you can make include:

• Demiglaze by reducing the sauce by half.
• Horseradish sauce by adding a teaspoon or so of grated horseradish root to the roux and toasting it just briefly before you add the stock. Adjust horseradish quantity later if you want a stronger taste. Alternately, stir in prepared horseradish to taste toward the end of the simmering time. A pinch of mustard powder is a nice touch to this sauce, and it goes great with roast beef.
• Burgundy by reducing a couple ounces of red wine by half and then stirring the sauce into it, same as you’d do with veloute for a white wine sauce. Add some cracked pepper, some shallots, some thyme, and a half bay leaf in with the wine while you’re reducing it, and once you add the brown sauce you’ve got a classic Bordelaise sauce.
• Mushroom by following the directions included for adjusting a veloute sauce.
• Again, half the technique in using this sauce is thinking of variations to match the meal that you’re making. So, if you need something to go with ribs, you might whisk in some hot sauce at the end. If you want a garlicky and slightly spicy accompaniment to your steak, saute some garlic and crushed red pepper, then add to the sauce (perhaps deglaze with red wine first for a Garlic Burgundy Sauce). Or, start the roux off with strips of bacon cut crosswise (parallel with the short side of the strip) and stir the flour into that for a nice match to your bacon-wrapped filet mignon.

Once you know how to make the mother sauces, you can use them as a jumping point to get to anywhere you want to. Your meals will never go sauceless again.

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Bechamel

Recipe for Mornay sauce with butter, onion, and cheese.

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped onion
• 3 tablespoon flour
• 1 cup hot milk
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon chopped parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Preparation:

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat; add chopped onion. Cook over low heat until onion has softened. Stir in flour and cook, stirring, until smooth. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly. Add remaining ingredients; cook, stirring, until cheese is melted and sauce is smooth. Beat egg yolk in a small bowl; add about 1/4 cup of the hot liquid to it, stirring constantly. Pour egg yolk mixture into the hot liquid; stir until the sauce is smooth and hot. To reduce the risk of curdling, a double boiler can be used after the onions are cooked.

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velouté

The classical Allemande sauce is made with veal velouté, but you can use chicken veloute if that’s all you have on hand.

• 1 quart veal (or chicken) velouté
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1-1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
• Salt to taste
• White pepper to taste

Place the veloute in a saucepan and bring to a simmer; reduce very slightly.

Beat the yolks and cream together in a stainless steel bowl. Temper the liaison by slowly adding a small amount of the hot veloute; repeat until you’ve incorporated about a third of the sauce into the liaison. Slowly stir the liaison back into the pan.

Reheat to a very low simmer. Do not bring to a boil. Add the lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Strain through cheesecloth.

This is an incredibly tasty sauce!

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Hollandaise

Basic Hollandaise with Variations

4 egg yolks
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
Salt

1. Vigorously whisk, or beat with an electric mixer, the egg yolks and lemon juice together in a stainless steel bowl until the mixture is thickened. Place the bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water (or use a double boiler – do not allow the water to touch the bottom of the bowl or pan). Continue to whisk rapidly, being careful not to let the mixture get too hot or the eggs will scramble. Slowly drizzle in the melted butter and continue to whisk until the sauce is thickened and doubled in volume. Remove from heat and season to taste with salt. Serve warm.

Makes about 1 cup.

Variations:

Béarnaise Sauce: Stir in 1 tablespoon dry white wine with the lemon juice. After sauce thickens, stir in 1 tablespoon finely chopped onion, 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh or 1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon leaves and 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh or 1/4 teaspoon dried chervil leaves.

Maltaise Sauce: After sauce thickens, stir in 1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel and 2 tablespoons orange juice.

Mousseline Sauce: Prepare Hollandaise Sauce and cool to room temperature. Just before serving, beat 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form and fold into the cooled sauce.

Hollandaise Sauce Variations

• Béarnaise – Hollandaise with Tarragon added to the reduction
• Choron – Béarnaise with Tomato
• Bavaroise – Reduction of Pepper, Horseradish, Thyme, Bay Leaves, Parsley, Vinegar, Crayfish, garnish with Crayfish Tails
• Foyot – Béarnaise with meat glaze
• Maltaise – Hollandaise with Blood Orange Juice and blanched Lemon zest
• Mousseline – Whipped Cream
• Créme Fleurette – Créme Fraiche
• Noisette – Brown Butter
• Paloise – Mint
• Divine – Reduced Sherry and Whipped Cream
• Rubens – Reduction of White Wine, Mirepoix, and Fish Stock – Strain, add Crayfish butter and Anchovy Paste

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Brown Sauce/ Espagnole

Sauce Bigarade Estimated Prep Time: 10 minutes Estimated Cooking Time: 15 minutes
	This is the classic orange sauce to serve with Duck. Instead of Cointreau you can use any orange liqueur, such as Grand Marnier, etc; orange juice would be better than nothing. Ingredients
	2 tablespoons Butter 3 tablespoons Flour 1/2 cup White Wine 1 1/2 cup Chicken Stock 3 Seville Oranges Cointreau Convert measurements: UK Metric Directions Melt butter in a saucepan until it turns brown. Whisk in the flour, cook until it has browned lightly. Whisk in the white wine and the stock, and cook until thickened, then reduce to a simmer. While it is simmering (you want the sauce to reduce a bit), wash and peel the oranges. Cut peel into thin strips, cook the peel in a little boiling water for about 4 minutes or until tender. Juice the oranges, add the juice to the sauce, season, add a splodge of butter, a splodge of the orange liqueur and the drained orange strips. Heat through and serve.