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Sauces

The five mother sauces, demystified

In the early 1900s the chef Auguste Escoffier organized the entire French sauce repertoire — hundreds of variations — under just five "mother" sauces. Learn those five and their thickening logic, and you can decode almost any sauce on a menu, plus invent your own without a recipe. It is the closest thing cooking has to a unifying theory.

By Josh Strauss, Mise Kitchen Team · Published

The five mothers

Béchamel is milk thickened with a white roux — the base of mac and cheese and creamed dishes. Velouté is a light stock thickened with a blond roux. Espagnole is a brown stock thickened with brown roux, the ancestor of rich demi-glace. Tomato sauce is, well, tomatoes simmered down. And hollandaise is an emulsion of egg yolk and butter, the warm cousin of mayonnaise.

Three of the five (béchamel, velouté, espagnole) are roux-thickened; tomato thickens by reduction; hollandaise thickens by emulsion. That tells you most of what you need to know about how to make and fix each one.

Why the categories help

Almost every "small sauce" is a mother plus a few additions. Mornay is béchamel plus cheese. A mushroom sauce is velouté plus sautéed mushrooms and cream. Béarnaise is hollandaise plus tarragon and shallot. Once you see the family tree, a long sauce list stops being intimidating.

The everyday takeaway

You will not make espagnole on a Tuesday — but the logic of roux (fat plus flour cooked together to thicken liquid) shows up everywhere from gravy to chowder. And for fast weeknight flavor, the quick pan sauce is the un-classical cousin that gets you 80% of the result in five minutes.