New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Master Sauces

post #1 of 25
10/7/04 at 9:01am
Thread Starter 
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
Reply
post #2 of 25
10/7/04 at 11:01am
I think they are: bechamel, veloute, espagnole, tomato and hollandaise

bechamel is a milk sauce made with a roux.

Veloute is the same but made with a stock instead of milk.

Espagnole is a brown sauce, made with brown stock, a roux and mirepoix.

Tomato is tomato sauce.

hollandaise is a egg yolk/butter sauce made with a reduction of vinegar or lemon juice (or a little of both) and white wine.

Most of these sauces can be made in different ways. Many do not make espagnole sauce anymore, but just reduce a brown stock. I don't think bechamel is made as often as it used to either.

doc
Reply
post #3 of 25
10/7/04 at 11:07am
BTW: Sometimes a vinegrette is considered a sauce. There is debate as to whether there are 5 or 6 mother sauces. I tend to think of vinegrette as a dressing more than a sauce, and some think that the vinegrette is one of the 5 mother sauces and tomato is the 6th. Depends on who you talk to.

doc
Reply
post #4 of 25
10/7/04 at 8:35pm
Don't forget demiglace.
Reply
post #5 of 25
10/7/04 at 10:32pm
In order to make a quart demi glace you need to first make a quart of espagnole, add a quart of brown stock and reduce to 9/10 of a quart and finish with 1/10 of a quart of sherry, so demi glace is not actually a master sauce since a master sauce is required in order to make it.
Reply
post #6 of 25
10/8/04 at 5:14pm
We're not helping you out of a jam on an exam, are we? ;)

Just curious: why have you not been able to find this via, say, google?
Reply
post #7 of 25
10/8/04 at 6:55pm
Or any other freakin' classic french cookbook. If this refers to an exam, going to class would provide the answer, possibly reading the text, etc.....
Reply
post #8 of 25
10/9/04 at 3:03pm
Demi is sometimes included as a mother sauce by some because there are so many sauces which derive from it. Johnson and Wales (the culinary school that Kate and I both attended) teaches that there are 6 mother sauces: Bechamel, Espagnol, Tomato, Hollandaise, Veloute and Demi-Glace. So, it just depends who you ask.

Doc has a good point regarding vinaigrettes. They are used more and more often now on entree's, have many derivatives and are an emulsion like hollandaise.
Reply
post #9 of 25
10/9/04 at 4:28pm
I don't agree with the vinaigrette being a mother sauce. You have to be able to derive other sauces from a mother sauce. Vinaigrettes have their own flavors, ie., raspberry, balsamic. You can't derive a balsamic from a raspberry or either from a plain white vinegar/oil vinaigrette, hence it's not a mother sauce.
Reply
post #10 of 25
10/9/04 at 6:49pm
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
Reply
post #11 of 25
10/10/04 at 6:30am
I have also heard that some consider mayonnaise the 6th Mother Sauce since it is the base of a number of other sauces including remoulade, rouille, aioli, tartar sauce, etc.
Reply
post #12 of 25
10/10/04 at 9:12am
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.
Reply
post #13 of 25
10/10/04 at 5:12pm
What do you mean Bearnaise is not a derivative of Hollandaise? You make a gastrique of pepper, tarragon, shallots, vinegar, white wine and add that to Hollandaise to make a Bearnaise.

I'm with Pete. If there ever were a sixth mother sauce it would be Mayonnaise. Hellman's for me, not that Kraft stuff! :)
Reply
post #14 of 25
10/14/04 at 3:09pm
I think when I asked this question-- I believe it was here, a couple years ago-- I could not find it in Google either. The answers vary. My problem was, the chef asked us as sort of a take-home question, so I could not ask him, either!
The answer does depend on what they want you to know. Each school, even each chef, will tell you something different. Find out the answer your particular chef wants to know. :D
Reply
post #15 of 25
10/14/04 at 3:53pm
Actually, I was just told in class today about bearnaise and whether its a mother sauce or a derivative of hollandaise. Its made the same way as a hollandaise only flavored with terragon. But some people argue that bearnaise is a reduction with the terragon making it a totally different sauce from hollandaise.

For my red seal test though, a bearnaise isn't a mother sauce.
Reply
post #16 of 25
10/14/04 at 9:29pm

master sauces

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
Reply
post #17 of 25
10/14/04 at 9:56pm
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
Reply
post #18 of 25
10/15/04 at 2:05am

espagnole versus demi glace

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
Reply
post #19 of 25
10/18/04 at 1:31pm
Thread Starter 

Master Sauces---THANKS

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
Reply
post #20 of 25
9/17/06 at 1:09am
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.
Reply
post #21 of 25
9/17/06 at 1:29am
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
Reply
post #22 of 25
9/17/06 at 2:06am
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.
Reply
post #23 of 25
9/25/06 at 9:26pm
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.
Reply
post #24 of 25
9/26/06 at 9:43am
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.
Reply
post #25 of 25
1/14/08 at 11:39pm
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.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home