Hello fellas!! I hope you are doing good and safe. Today let me share some amazing stuff with you all, so let’s get to know about some mouth-watering sauces and here we go:

Originally, there were four basic French Mother Sauces developed by Antonin Careme in the 19th century. Careme created a myriad of signature sauces, but the base came down to four main recipes, hence the name mother sauce. These four sauces are Tomato, Bechamel, Veloute, and Espagnole. Careme is considered one of the godfathers of haute cuisine(high-quality cooking following the style of traditional French cuisine). In the early 20th century, renowned chef Auguste Escoffier added Hollandaise, the fifth mother sauce. Escoffier’s recipe books boasted hundreds of daughter sauces as well.

What is sauce?

Okay, so we all define sauce by our own understanding when we see it, but let’s reach inside a more technical definition. A sauce is a liquid with the addition of a thickening agent and other flavors, such as herbs and spices.

Roux

Roux (pronounced roo) is the thickening agent used in three of the five French mother sauces: Espagnole, Bechamel, and Veloute. The roux is cooked for a different amount of time for each sauce to vary the color. Roux is made from equal parts fat and flour. The fat is heated until it is a frothy liquid, then the flour is stirred in to create a thick paste. A white roux is used for Bechamel sauce, and this variation requires the shortest cooking time. As roux is cooked for longer periods of time, it goes from white to gold to brown.

Here are the basic formulas of five mother sauces:

• Béchamel: Roux +Dairy(milk or cream)
• Velouté: Roux +white stock
• Espagnole: Roux+brown stock
• Tomato: Roux+Tomatoes
• Hollandaise: egg yolks+clarified melted butter+acid like lemon juice

So now we are done with the basics, let’s talk about these mother sauces in more detail:

Béchamel:

 If you have eaten homemade macaroni and cheese, then the chances are you’ve experienced a rich creaminess of Béchamel. It can be made in a very basic for by adding Roux and cream.

COUNTRY: FRANCE
Yield 10 portions(To prepare an amount that can be served to 10 people)

INGREDIENTS:

• 100g Butter (clarified)
• 100g Flour (Refined flour)
• 1 liter Milk 
• 1pc Pique/Cloute (Onion studded with cloves and bay leaf )
• Nutmeg  (Pinch)
• Salt
• Pepper (To taste)

METHOD:

1. Boil milk with cloute. Strain it and cool it.
2. Make a roux with flour and butter and cook it to a sandy structure.
3. Add cold milk and keep on stirring with a wooden spoon to ensure no lumps are formed.
4. Cook on medium flame till the sauce thickens.
5. Spice it up with a pinch of nutmeg and use it accordingly. 

Velouté:

Veloute begins with a white roux but then it gets mix-up with the white stock which is made from the fish, chicken, or veal. Technically not a finished sauce, it’s used as a flavorful starting point for gravies.

COUNTRY: FRANCE
Yields 10 portions(To prepare an amount that can be served to 10 people)

INGREDIENTS:

• 100g Butter (Clarified)
• 100g Flour (Refined flour)
• 1-liter Stock (Chicken, fish, veal, etc )
• Sachet d’epices
• Salt, pepper

METHOD:

1. Heat butter, add flour and cook to a blond roux.
2. Add cold available stock stir it continuously to avoid lumps.
3. Add sachet and cook for15 min on a medium flame, use as required.

Espagnole:

Also known as a brown sauce. Espagnole begins with a mirepoix( carrot, celery, and onions ), beef stock, and re-glazed brown bits from beef bones. From there tomato paste and spices may be added.

COUNTRY :FRANCE
Yield 10 portions(To prepare an amount that can be served to 10 people)

INGREDIENTS:

• 100g Butter(clarified)              
• 50ml Red wine
• 120g Flour(refined flour)        
• 50g Tomato paste(proprietary)
• 1ltrs Brown stock(beef stock)
• 150g Mirepoix
• Sachet d’epices
• Salt, pepper(to taste)
• 20ml Oil

METHOD:

1. Heat oil and brown the mirepoix on a medium flame.
2. Add tomato paste and cook further. Deglaze with red wine and add beef stock.
3. Add sachet d’epices and simmer it for 30 min.
4. Heat butter, add flour, and cook to a brown roux and cool it.
5. Add the roux to the hot liquid and keep stirring to avoid lumps.
6. Cook on a medium flame for 10 min. and use as required  

Tomato:

Probably the very first mother sauce one has ever tasted and most commonly found in the kitchen. Tomato sauce is often a mixture of onions, garlic, and tomatoes. Although in a traditional way it may start with a roux most tomato sauces merely rely on a tomato reduction to build flavor and create thickness.

COUNTRY :ITALY
Yield 10 portions(To prepare an amount that can be served to 10 people)

INGREDIENTS:

• 70ml olive oil 
• 100g chopped onions,
• 20g chopped garlic,
• 1kg tomato(skinned, deseeded, and chopped),
• 80g tomato paste(proprietary)
• 50ml white wine
• 10g Basil(torn),
• salt
• pepper(to taste).

METHOD:

1. Heat olive oil and sauté onions and garlic.
2. Add tomato paste and cook on a medium flame for 10 min.
3. Add fresh chopped tomatoes, white wine, and cook covered for 30 to 40 min. on medium flame
4. Season and add torn basil in the last 10 min. of cooking.
5. Store and use as required.

Hollandaise:

It is also considered as an emulsified sauce. Think of hollandaise as a new mayonnaise that uses clarified butter in place of oil and gets drizzled over asparagus and eggs. Hollandaise takes patience as you’ll need to temper the mixture so that the eggs do not curdle the sauce can break easily but you can patch things together by adding a little heavy cream and whisking until the sauce return to its smooth state.

COUNTRY: FRANCE
Yields 10 portions(To prepare an amount that can be served to 10 people)

INGREDIENTS:

• 500g butter(clarified)      
• tarragon(few leaves)
• 4 no egg yolks(separated from whites)
• 15ml vinegar(white wine vinegar)
• 10 nos peppercorns (crushed)
• 30g onion(finely chopped)
• salt
• pepper(to taste) .

METHOD:

1. In a pan reduce vinegar, chopped onion, tarragon, and crushed peppercorns to half. Take the pan off the fire. Add a tablespoon of water and strain this liquid.
2. Combine the reduced liquid with the egg yolks and whisk on a double boiler to a ribbon stage.
3. Add melted clarified butter in a thin stream and continue whisking until a thick sauce is formed.
4. Season the sauce and hold it warm and use it as required.

Hope you guys like this article and get to know about these delicious sauces well, try the taste and enjoy. Share your reviews in the comment section 😄