This term dates back to the early 1800s, when French chef Antonin Careme broke down sauces

into five
categories known as the five mother sauces. These sauces provide the foundation for hundreds of
different sauces that have mystified many amateur cooks. By learning the basics of each mother-sauce
category, you will be well on your way toward making your own fantastic derivatives.

The Five Mother Sauces

Mother sauces date back to the 18th century, when lack of refrigeration caused foods to spoil much
faster. Sauces were often used to cover up the flavor of less-than-perfect meats, poultry and seafood.
The five mother sauces include béchamel sauce, veloute sauce, brown or Espagnole sauce, Hollandaise
sauce and tomato sauce. These sauces are also collectively referred to in French as “sayces meres” or
“grandes sauces.”

Each sauce has a distinct characteristic: Béchamel sauce is white, veloute sauce is blond, Espagnole
sauce is brown, Hollandaise sauce is buttery and tomato sauce is red. One look at a sauce and you
should quickly be able to ascertain the mother sauce from which it is derived.

The reason mother sauces have stood the test of time is that they are incredibly versatile and provide
the basic foundation on which you can build dozens of other sauces. For example, if you add diced
shallots, white wine or vinegar, tarragon and peppercorns to Hollandaise sauce, you have a derivative
known as béarnaise sauce.

What Exactly is a Sauce?

Before you can fully appreciate the mother sauces, you should know what a sauce is. Sauces are
thickened liquids used to add richness, flavor and moisture to a dish. Drier foods -– such as grilled
meats, roasts or meatloaf – are often enhanced with sauces and gravies.

Sauces typically contain a liquid, thickener and various flavorings and seasonings. French mother sauces
use milk (béchamel sauce), white stock (veloute), brown stock (Espagnole), clarified butter (Hollandaise),
and tomato (tomato sauce) as the liquid base for each type of sauce.

Several mixtures are used for thickening sauces, including:

Whitewash or slurry – a mixture of flour and cold water

Cornstarch – a mixture of cornstarch and cold water

Liaison – egg yolks that have first been tempered with hot stock (so they don’t scramble) before being
added to the liquid

Adding thickeners to sauces usually requires a slow, continuous whipping technique to prevent lumps
from forming. Once successfully added to the liquid, all thickeners must come to a boil before they
reach their full thickening and holding potential.

The base stock, or liquid used for a sauce, provides much of the flavor. From here, several methods exist
for enhancing flavor, including adding wine, lemon juice, vinegar, seasonings, herbs and cheese, as well
as reducing the sauce to concentrate its flavor.

Wine is often used in sauces, as are acids such as lemon juice and vinegar. Seasonings such as salt,
pepper and cayenne are also used to give a sauce a new flavor. Other ingredients such as cheese can
take a bland béchamel sauce and turn it into a zesty cheese sauce.

Chefs have been taking basic sauces from the list of five mother sauces and enhancing them with
different flavors and seasonings for generations. Because of the endless list of derivatives, hundreds of
different sauces are possible. Once you know the basic mother sauces, you too can begin creating your
own signature sauce.

Creating the Five Mother Sauces

Béchamel Sauce – Béchamel sauce, or white sauce, was a sauce most often served to the rich or to
royalty. Made out of a roux of flour, boiled milk and butter, the creamy white sauce added a smooth
touch to white meats such as chicken, vegetables and eggs. In the years before refrigeration, milk
products were rarely used in the recipes of the average French housewife.

Veloute Sauce – Veloute sauce is often called the “fat white sauce” or “rich white sauce.” This is a white
sauce with a blondish color that starts with chicken, veal or fish stock that has been thickened with a
white roux. Common derivatives of this sauce include allemande sauce (veal), supreme sauce (chicken),
and vin blance sauce (fish). For example, allemande sauce is based on veal veloute with egg yolk and
cream, while supreme sauce is a chicken veloute that has been reduced with heavy cream. Vin blanc
sauce is a fish veloute enhanced with herbs, butter and shallots.
Brown or Espagnole Sauce – This sauce starts with a dark brown roux, veal stock, beef, bones,
vegetables and seasonings. It is heated, skimmed and reduced. After the initial reduction, tomato sauce
is added, and the sauce is further reduced. The entire process is time-consuming, taking hours (if not
days) until the sauce is ready. The flavor of Espagnole sauce is concentrated and intense, so it is rarely
served directly on food.

Instead, Espagnole sauce is often used as the base for derivative sauces such as demi-glace, sauce
chevreuil and sauce bourguignonne. For example, demi-glace is made by adding an equal portion of veal
stock to the Espagnole sauce.

Hollandaise Sauce – Hollandaise sauce is a rich sauce featuring egg yolks and butter. While France made
its own butter for many years, they imported butter from Holland during World War I. During this time,
the sauce formerly known as “sauce Isigny” became known as Hollandaise sauce. When butter
production resumed in France, the name remained the same. Making Hollandaise sauce requires
practice to get it right. Care must be taken so the butter doesn’t curdle.

Tomato Sauce – Tomato sauces are based on tomatoes. A common derivative sauce based on tomato
sauce is marinara sauce.

Other Sauce-Making Techniques

While the mother sauces are the basic foundation upon which many sauces are built, you can use a few
other techniques, such as adding thickeners directly to the juices left in a pan after sautéing and adding
vegetable puree or bread crumbs to thicken sauces instead of adding fat. Today’s cooks are moving
away from thick, creamy sauces loaded with fats in favor of lighter glazes and sauces.

Starting out with any of the five mother sauces – béchamel, veloute, Espagnole, Hollandaise or tomato –
you can branch out in the kitchen and create delectable derivative sauces. Whether you follow a specific
recipe, such as making béarnaise sauce, or venture out to create your own is up to you.

Start by learning the basics of sauce-making and then get creative in the kitchen. With a firm
understanding of liquids, thickeners and seasonings, you’ll soon be able to make mouthwatering sauces
of your own that French chefs would be proud of. In addition, once you know the basics, you’ll be better
able to adapt your recipes for flavor or lower fat options.
Béchamel Sauce

Bechamel sauce

Philippe Desnerck/Getty Images

Béchamel sauce is probably the simplest of the mother sauces because it doesn't require making stock.
If you have milk, flour, and butter you can make a very basic béchamel.

Béchamel is made by thickening hot milk with a simple white roux. The sauce is then flavored with
onion, cloves, and nutmeg and simmered until it is creamy and velvety smooth.

Béchamel can be used as an ingredient in baked pasta recipes like lasagna, and also in casseroles. But it's
also the base for some of the most common white sauces, cream sauces and cheese-based sauces. Here
are some of the small sauces made from béchamel:

Cream Sauce

Mornay Sauce

Soubise Sauce

Nantua Sauce

Cheddar Cheese Sauce

Mustard Sauce

Cheesy Sauce

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Velouté Sauce

Chicken Veloute

The Spruce

Velouté sauce is another relatively simple mother sauce, made by thickening white stock with a roux
and then simmering it for a while. While the chicken velouté, made with chicken stock, is the most
common type, there is also a veal velouté and fish velouté.

Each of the veloutés forms the basis of its own respective secondary mother sauce. For instance, chicken
velouté fortified with cream becomes the Supreme Sauce. Veal velouté thickened with egg yolks and
cream becomes the Allemande Sauce. And the fish velouté plus white wine and heavy cream becomes
the White Wine Sauce.

Small sauces from velouté can be derived from the velouté directly, or from each of the three secondary
sauces. For example:
Normandy Sauce

Bercy Sauce

Hungarian Sauce

Mushroom Sauce

Aurora Sauce

Poulette Sauce

Herb Seafood Sauce

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Espagnole Sauce

Espagnole sauce

Philippe Desnerck/Getty Images

The Espagnole sauce, also sometimes called Brown Sauce, is a slightly more complex mother sauce.
Espagnole is made by thickening brown stock with a roux. So in that sense, it's similar to a velouté. The
difference is that Espagnole is made with tomato purée and mirepoix for deeper color and flavor. And,
the brown stock itself is made from bones that have first been roasted to add color and flavor.

Espagnole is traditionally further refined to produce a rich, deeply flavorful sauce called a demi-glace,
which is itself the starting point for making the various small sauces. A demi-glace consists of a mixture
of half Espagnole and half brown stock, which is then reduced by half.

For a shortcut, you could skip the demi-glace step and make the small sauces directly from the
Espagnole. You'll lose some flavor and body, but you'll save time. Here are some examples of small
sauces made from Espagnole:

Marchand de Vin Sauce (Red Wine Reduction)

Robert Sauce

Charcutière Sauce

Lyonnaise Sauce

Chasseur Sauce

Bercy Sauce

Mushroom Sauce
Madeira Sauce

Port Wine Sauce

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Hollandaise Sauce

Homemade hollandaise sauce

The Spruce

Hollandaise sauce is unlike the mother sauces we've mentioned so far, due to a liquid and a thickening
agent, plus flavorings. Hollandaise is a tangy, buttery sauce made by slowly whisking clarified butter into
warm egg yolks. So the liquid here is the clarified butter and the thickening agent is the egg yolks.

Hollandaise is an emulsified sauce, and we use clarified butter when making a Hollandaise because
whole butter, which contains water and milk solids, can break the emulsion. Clarified butter is just pure
butterfat, so it helps the emulsion remain stable.

Hollandaise sauce can be used on its own, and it's particularly delicious on seafood, vegetables, and
eggs. But there are also a number of small sauces that can be made from Hollandaise:

Béarnaise Sauce

Dijon Sauce

Foyot Sauce

Choron Sauce

Maltaise Sauce

Classic Tomate Sauce

Tomate sauce

Philippe Desnerck / Getty Images

The fifth mother sauce is the classic Tomate sauce. This sauce resembles the traditional tomato sauce
that we might use on pasta and pizza, but it's got much more flavor and requires a few more steps to
make.

First, we render salt pork and then sauté aromatic vegetables. Then we add tomatoes, stock, and a ham
bone, and simmer it in the oven for a couple of hours. Cooking the sauce in the oven helps heat it evenly
and without scorching.

Traditionally, the tomate sauce was thickened with roux, and some chefs still prepare it this way. But the
tomatoes themselves are enough to thicken the sauce. Here are a few small sauces made from the
classic tomate sauce:
Spanish Sauce

Creole Sauce

Portuguese Sauce

Provençale Sauce