The Mother's of All Sauces

The concept of "Mother Sauces" when it comes to cooking, is extremely important to every chef in the industry. While I was attending culinary school I seem to remember it being reinforced by our instructors regularly. Developed by Careme, a famous chef from the early 19th century, it originally only had 4 sauces. Included were bechamel, veloute, Espagnole allemande. I will translate each when while reporting on them. A century later Escoffier dropped the allemande sauce and replaced it with hollandaise and sauce tomate. Today's standard is still 5. Knowing these 5 important sauces allows a chef to create 100's of sauces using each as a base. This allows a chef numerous options to top off his creations. Here are the 5 mothers of all sauces.

Bechamel is the simplest of all the mother sauces as there is no need to make a stock. The ingredients include milk and a roux. To make a bechamel heat milk on the stovetop until it just starts to simmer. Next, add your roux and stir until it's velvety smooth. Season with onion salt and nutmeg. Bechamel can be used alone, in casserole dishes and lasagnas. Add a variety of cheeses to create your favorite mac and cheese. For seafood, create a sauce Nantua by adding shrimp butter and cream to the bechamel. Top shrimp or lobster with the sauce and place it under the broiler until golden brown. Sauce Mornay is the most classic bechamel based sauce. Simply add Gruyere and Parmesan cheeses. This pairs great with chicken and fish. A Veloute' Sauce or white sauce can be made using any white stock including; chicken, veal, fish, and vegetable. Like the bechamel, heat the stock and add your roux until the sauce is smooth. I prefer to use the base stock to match my type of food. For example, If it's a fish dish I use fish stock. Sauce Normande (Normandy) works great on fish dishes. Then fish veloute' with a liaison of egg yolks, butter, and cream. Add sliced mushrooms to complete this classic veloute' variation. Hungarian sauce is great for chicken. Saute diced onions in white wine along with paprika. Reduce by half and add to chicken veloute', boil, simmer and serve. For a simple 'veloute' variation add some tomato paste. Sauce Aurora works great with eggs, pasta, and vegetables.

Espagnole or brown sauce as it's more commonly known requires a little more skill than the previous 2. The stock is made by using roasted bones and a mirepoix combined with tomato paste. These ingredients promote the deep rich color and flavor of an Espagnole. Sauce Robert is a classic and works great on pork and beef dishes. Saute onions in butter, add lemon juice, sugar and deglaze with white wine and reduce by two-thirds. Strain and add 2 teaspoons of dry mustard. Combine with your Espagnole and serve. Another sauce that works well with beef, especially roasts, is a Marchand de Vin. Combine red wine with shallots and reduce by three-fourths. Combine with your Espagnole and simmer for 5 minutes. This is French for A-1 sauce. Hollandaise sauce is unique in that it is the result of emulsification. This is when 2 substances that don't normally combine come together. A hollandaise is achieved by whisking clarified butter into warm egg yolks. I always use a double boiler and begin by whisking my yolks. Next, I start whisking in clarified butter, slowly at first, increasing the amount as the yolks take in the butter and I finish with a splash of lemon juice. Reduce some tarragon and shallots in white wine and add this to your hollandaise for a Bernaise sauce. Great on a filet mignon. Sauce Maltaise is great served over my favorite vegetable, asparagus. Combine hollandaise with the juice of a blood orange and some orange zest. Goes well with broccoli too.

The last mother sauce is my favorite, Sauce Tomate or tomato sauce as we know it. The classic version uses several ingredients. Render some pork fat and add a mirepoix, saute until vegetables are tender. Next, add your crushed plum tomatoes and stock, bring to a boil and simmer for 2 hours. Strain and puree until smooth adding a little chili flake is optional. Sauce Provencale' can be used on a variety of foods including; shellfish, meat, and poultry. Add diced tomatoes, capers, chopped black olives and season with Herbes de Provence. Boil and simmer combined with Sauce Tomate. A Spanish Sauce is a blend of Sauce Tomate and garlic, mushrooms, green peppers, Tabasco, and season with salt and pepper. This sauce works with anything. Most sauces aren't usually consumed by themselves; they are created to add moisture, flavor, and visual appeal to a presented dish. Sauce making is considered to be one of the chef's greatest tests. The preparation demands precision and the pairing with food requires a large depth of knowledge about your ingredients. I always say, "if a chef cannot make or doesn't know their mother sauces don't bother dining at that restaurant." The title given to a line cook specializing in sauce creation is saucier. This was one of my favorite stations when I was a line cook. The position is highly respected by the back of the house staff and usually, sauciers are considered third in kitchen leadership, behind the chef and his sous. Get saucy and give some of these a try. Prendre Plaisir! (Enjoy!)