[GreaseChef]

Unemployment is a strange thing, can't say that I really enjoy it all that much. I have no purpose, enough money for cigars, but not enough money for Scotch or B&B. I also have plenty of time to think...

I was trying to name the five mother sauces off the top of my head, I kept getting six... So, I looked in my Larousse Gastronomique, first English edition, badly translated. They had a huge section on sauces, but never came right out and put all of the mother sauces together in one spot.

So, I checked a few other books and couldn't get a definitive answer.

Finally I find this at http://www.whatscookingamerica.net/H...uceHistory.htm

Mother Sauces - Also called Grand Sauces. These are the five most basic sauces that every cook should master. Antonin Careme, founding father of French "grande cuisine," came up with the methodology in the early 1800's by which hundreds of sauces would be categorized under five Mother Sauces, and there are infinite possibilities for variations, since the sauces are all based on a few basic formulas. Sauces are one of the fundamentals of cooking. Know the basics and you'll be able to prepare a multitude of recipes like a professional. Learn how to make the basic five sauces and their most common derivatives. The five Mother Sauces are:

Bechamel Sauce (white)

Veloute Sauce (blond)

Brown (demi-glace) or Espagnole Sauce

Hollandaise Sauce (butter)

Tomato Sauce (red)

Sounds right, but where does Beurre Blanc (and derivatives) fit in? Isn't Beurre Blanc a mother sauce?

Then I find this at http://www.911cheferic.com/main/drecipe.asp?recipe=299

History of Beurre Blanc:
The story of its origin is one of serendipity. A French chef in western France forgot to use eggs when making a Béarnaise sauce for a fish dish he was serving. Uncounted culinary delights have been discovered this way.

So my question is, "Is Beurre Blanc a mother sauce, or a variation of Béarnaise?"

Without eggs, I just don't see it as a Béarnaise at all.

[GreaseChef]

BTW...

I came up with 5 different mother sauces in my head. I thought that Béarnaise was a variation of Hollandaise (Just a different acid). I would also NOT say that Brown (espagnole) was with Demi.

My five would have been.

1 - Hollandaise
2 - Demi
3 - Brown - Espagnole
4 - Red
5 - Veloute

+ Beurre Blanc

[chrose]

I believe that "beurre Blanc" is kind of like a Constitutional Amendment, it's not part of the original 5 but has been adopted and added because it meets that basic requirements of a Mother Sauce.

[brewchef]

bechamel and tomato would be the other ones.

[newbiecook]

GreaseChef
How can you say Espangole and Demi are seperate sauces when you need Espangole to make a proper demi...well unless you make it from powder

[GreaseChef]

Never used a powder...

The bulk of my experience has been Italian, not French. I've not been to culinary school, so if I haven't done it at work, I might not know it at all.

That said, I was thinking demi as I have done it when I did work in a French place, roasting then boiling veal bones, skimming and reducing. As for Espagnole, I was thinking more along the lines of using pan drippings.

The Beurre Blanc thing had me in a quandry as to where it fit in. Add a shakey foundation in French food, and you've got some room for errors.

[Nentony]

Where's Chef Kaiser when you need him?

Tony

[Mikeb]

Debating about which sauces are 'mother' sauces is pointless. The 5 mother sauces ARE hollandaise, tomato, béchamel, espagnole and velouté. Why? Because someone decided so. Beurre blanc isn't a mother sauce because it's simply an acid reduction with butter mounted into it (or a hollandaise gone wrong, depending on perspective). We mount butter into a meat sauce to finish as well but that doesn't really warrant giving it separate sauce status...

It doesn't really matter, most restaurants don't use these sauces anymore, they've been replaced by jus de viande, beurre blanc, puréed vegetable sauces (either on their own or worked into another sauce), and many combinations of these.... As well we've got foams, froths and other air-infused sauces, gastriques, and emulsions of all kinds.

[GreaseChef]

Mikeb, no debate as to what the five sauces are. I am mainly surprised at just how wrong I was. Also, I thought that Beurre Blanc would have to fit in there somewhere.

Am I the only one that couldn't name the five 'grand sauces' off the top of my head? I'd bet that I am not alone.

OK, going to do some more reading. I'll post again when I find out just how wrong I have always been about something else. Not sure what that would be, right now I still believe that I am right about it.

[chrose]

Originally Posted by Mikeb

Beurre blanc isn't a mother sauce because it's simply an acid reduction with butter mounted into it (or a hollandaise gone wrong, depending on perspective). We mount butter into a meat sauce to finish as well but that doesn't really warrant giving it separate sauce status...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that I am, but isn't the definition of a "Mother sauce" as one that is used as a base from which a large variety of other sauces can be made from. If that be the case, then technically a Buerre Blanc should be in that class because there is a myriad of sauces that can be made from it.
I see your point but by that definition a veloute is no more than a thickend white stock, and tomato sauce simply tomatoes. Yes, no? This could be one of those discussions that go back and forth. So let's see where it goes. I'm wating to hear Cape Chefs take on this. Brad?

[kuan]

Beurre Blanc is not a sauce, it's an emulsion, more of a vinaigrette warm than a sauce.

But I can't figure out what qualifies as sauce.

Off to dinner... Maybe I'll ask Sarah Stegner.

[chrose]

Hollandaise isn't then a sauce either. It too is an emulsion. I move that we change the word "sauce" in this usage to "sauce thing".
Therefore we have the 5 basic "Mother Sauce things".

[cape chef]

I know we have had this discussion before, but I guess it deserves to be reincarnated once in a while.Grease, don't worry about what you do or don't know, just be open to learning.The topic of sauces in the French domain are quite specific and not really open to to much interpretation.

With that said.
It basically comes down to this.

Liquid + a thickening agent = a leading "mother" sauce
Leading sauce + additional flavorings = small sauces
As kuan said, a beurre blanc is an emulsion that is stabilized by the small amounts of lecithin naturally found in butter. This forms a temporary oil in water emulsion.

Although beurre blanc is similar in concept to hollandaise, it is not truly a leading sauce. Tomato sauce often is made with mire poix and smoked meats in regards to French mother sauce protocol.

[GreaseChef]

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then Beurre Blanc must be a sauce.

Edit: Posted that at the same time as your post, Cape Chef.

Should have said, "If it looks like a leading duck, etc"

[Nick.Shu]

IMHO - as stated above, a mother sauce can diversify into a myriad of other sauces, a base so to speak, not unlike primary colors in art.

Rather than focus on specific sauces, it is probably easier to remember them as what they are (type) rather than what they should be (actual sauce)

So that out of the way, from how i perceive them to be:

Brown Sauces based on brown stocks
White sauces based on white stocks
White sauces based on milk/cream and roux
Cold Emulsion Sauces i.e. mayonnaise
Hot Emulsion Sauces i.e hollandaise

Even though a Beurre Blanc is a sauce, generally speaking, the end product is still a Beurre Blanc. As opposed to a mayonnaise and its derivatives, sauce tartare or mixed with aspic to make a chaud froid. Or making a demiglas from stocks etc.