At the heart of a great many dishes is a delectable sauce that brings together every flavor and texture on the plate. You already knew this—but did you know that the French considered five sauces to be so integral to the cuisine, that they designated these recipes as the all-important “mother sauces”?
Read on to learn more about these specials sauces—and how they’ve led to the creation of the modern, innovative dishes you love today!
A historical distinction
Who decided what five sauces should earn the honor of being “mother sauces”? While the idea has largely been accepted throughout French and international cuisine, it was all started by chefs Marie-Antoine Carême and Auguste Escoffier. Carême had set aside four major sauces, while Escoffier later replace one of the sauces with two more choices in the early 1900s, arriving at the five we know today—béchamel, velouté, espagnole, sauce tomate, and hollandaise.
Room to grow
Minus the famous hollandaise (which is made with butter and egg yolk), each of the mother sauces is made by combining ingredients such as tomatoes or stock with roux, a thickening agent. Thanks to their classically simple components, these sauces serve as the foundation for hundreds of variants to follow.
Still not familiar with these sauces? Think again—if you’ve ever prepared macaroni and cheese from scratch, then the flour, milk and butter you used before adding the cheese was technically a béchamel without you even realizing it!
Stonewood’s take on sauce
Even if you don’t find one of the mother sauces on a menu, it doesn’t mean their influence is missing! Take Stonewood’s comfort food classic, our Chicken Pot Pie, for example. We fill ours with a Suprême Sauce that’s traditionally made with a stock-based velouté sauce and textured even further with heavy cream.
We don’t want to imagine a dinner table without the inclusion of these famous sauces… or their modern day descendants. Share your favorite sauce with us below!
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