Master Sauces

[hans.schallenbe]

Originally Posted by fakechef

This should be an easy one for the pro's out there....What are the 5 Master sauces, and what are the basics of each?? Seems I only know two of them...
Thanks
Bobby

interesting what i read; some 28 years ago when i became a culinary apprentice we learned;

brown sauces
demi glace
thickened veal jus
game demi glace

white sauces [veloutes]
veal
chicken
fish
+ cream or liaison
= respective cream sauce
bechamel

tomato sauce
thickened with flour
concassee

butter sauces
hollandaise
bernaise

oil sauce
vinaigrette
mayonnaise

pureed sauces [coulis]

warm and cold specialty sauces

hans

[hans.schallenbe]

Originally Posted by IronChefATL

not to create more havoc (ok thats my purpose odf this reply) but since Bearnaise is not a derivative of Hollandaise, what is it?....and dressing in my opinion doesnt count as a sauce unless you are also going to include all cold emulsions such as mayo. Demi...true demi and even more so to the point espagnole are dead. the use of roux in brown sauces is pointless in finer restaurants these days, and saying that espagnole and Demi are both mother sauces is redundant. The only thing you would make if you had espagnole would be demi, but since thats a bunch of pointless bother....if chewy is a whookie and lives with it ewoks..it makes no sense.

to put an end to the confusion, hollandaise and bernaise are categorized as butter sauces. they are made the same way, except we all know that bernaise includes tarragon. further i would not advice just to add hollandaise sauce into a bernaise reduction, as the the poaching of egg yolk and reduction is important to develop the flavor.

bernaise has a stronger flavor, is traditionally served to grilled items, hollandaise is milder and served with vegetables at times blended into sauces and possibly also gratinated

hans

[hans.schallenbe]

Originally Posted by deltadoc

I've tried three times now to reply to this thread. I don't know why my posts keep not showing up!

I read once that the French consider a sauce has to be so delectable that it can be eaten by itself. Now I can eat a bechamel, a veloute, an espagnole, a tomatoe, and a hollandaise by itself, But I stop short of being able to eat a vinegrette by itself. Therefore by this French perspective, I still tend to not think of vingrettes as sauces.

I also don't think of a demi-glace as a mother sauce, but then, one can contemplate Auguste Escoffier's definition of "demi-glace" as the "perfection of a brown sauce".

Now if "demi-glace" is the perfection of a "brown sauce", one must ask whether the perfection of any "mother sauce" is still a mother sauce or a derivative sauce!


doc

doc,

went into some old book, a menu dated 1809, 28 november in the restaurant of the Very brothers in Paris they served 'des escalopes de saumon a l'espagnole'. in that period of Antonin Carême, the official brown sauce must have been the espagnole was also cheaper. however it was him who started to classify sauces like basic and great brown sauces, basic i believe they refered to the base stocks. the espagnole i agree is a fore runner to the demi glace, an could be considered as a mother sauce. howevver i will try to gather more historical facts from my retired teacher and let you all know, however, i am still surprised, that we use espagnole still today in the US, in europe that sauce is not used anymore. we always refer to the demi glace or a brown veal stock, when preparing brown sauces. maybe the french still cook it.

hans

[fakechef]

Thanks to all who answered---It has been great fun, and educational as well. It turns out I had made all of them before, I just didn't know what they were!! It seems like few people get tired of talking about sauces ( I especially liked the thread on "demi" that I found elsewhere on this site), and I really appreciate the input.

I was a bit surprised by the apparent sarcastic nature of a couple of responses...This was an honest question, and it was not for a test!! I am a 50 year old commodity broker who loves to cook, and I didn't have a freaking classic french cook book handy.

Thanks again to all---I have to limit myself to 60 minutes a day to reading all the older threads, or I seem to not get anything done at work!!
Bobby

[wildorchidcooks]

actually, demi-glace, is an espangole, with madiera or sherry wine added, usually reduced by about half, which makes it a direct derivative or espangole. remember: mother sauces are MOTHER sauces; ie: they are the theoretical parents of all other sauces.

[wildorchidcooks]

wow, thank you for not being dumb...altho, to my knowledge, bearnaise IS a widely considered a derivative of hollandaise...and demi IS NOT DEAD. come to my restaurant...we use it on a handful of dishes with fantastic results...

The Wild Orchid Grille,
Raleigh, NC

[Mikeb]

5 mother sauces are:

- Espagnole - of which demi-glace is a derivative
- Velouté - most cream sauces are based off this, though not necessarily
- Hollandaise - of which Bearnaise sauce is a derivative, as well as Choron sauce, etc...
- Béchamel - of which Mornay sauce is a derivative
- Tomato sauce

Nowadays however, we really don't use any mother sauces. We make glace de viande, many different emulsions, foams, purées, etc... In my entire career I've only cooked in 1 restaurant that used mother sauces, the rest used modern sauces and techniques.

[greyeaglem]

When I was in school (years ago), the teaching chef said there were people who believed there were seven what we called mother sauces, the 6th and 7th being butter and mayo. I still think of the number of mother sauces as being seven. The derivivitave sauces were referred to as small sauces. Butter especially makes sense as a major sauce when you consider all the compound butters made from it.

[BigDog]

Originally Posted by fakechef

I was a bit surprised by the apparent sarcastic nature of a couple of responses...This was an honest question, and it was not for a test!! I am a 50 year old commodity broker who loves to cook, and I didn't have a freaking classic french cook book handy.

Hee hee hee, take it with a grain of salt, my friend.

Often questions posed in a similar manner as yours are students looking for a quick out in finding answers versus "paying the piper" by reading or researching. This is a common occurance in various professions. I participate at a law enforcement forum, and we get people doing this all the time.

Not to say your question is invalid, or the manner presented inappropriate. You just chose a presentation style similar to that used by students asking short cut questions versus studying.

[ChefDrizzle]

my line cook went to JWU and he tought me a nice way to remember them all.. BETH has VD

B echemel
E spangol
T omato
H ollandaise

has

V eloute
D emi-glace

i think its quite clever and ever since he told me about his teacher at JWU telling him this acronym ive allways been able to remember it.