The 5 Mother Sauces: A Professional Guide

The System Developed by Escoffier

Auguste Escoffier categorized the French sauce system in the early 20th century. A mother sauce is a leading, base sauce that is rarely served on its own. By adding specific ingredients (reductions, herbs, wines), a mother sauce becomes a "small sauce" or derivative.

Diagram showing the 5 Mother Sauces and their bases: White Stock to Veloute, Brown Stock to Espagnole, Milk to Bechamel, Tomatoes to Tomate, Butter to Hollandaise. — The relationship between bases and leading sauces.

If you're studying at Escoffier or the CIA, this is the very first thing you will memorize.

Common Mistakes

Burning the Roux: If a roux gets too dark for a Béchamel, the sauce will taste burnt and look dirty. Cook low and slow.
Breaking the Hollandaise: Adding clarified butter too fast, or keeping the egg yolks over heat for too long, will cause the emulsion to break. Ensure your prep list allows time for this.
Not skimming the stock: A cloudy stock makes a dirty Velouté. Skim the scum aggressively. See our meat fabrication guide on how to use bones for stock.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a roux?: A thickener made of equal parts fat (usually butter) and flour by weight. It is cooked before liquid is added. If you need to scale a roux, use our Recipe Scaler.
Why isn't mayonnaise a mother sauce?: While mayonnaise is a foundational cold emulsion (like Hollandaise is warm), the classic 5 sauces defined by Escoffier are hot leading sauces used primarily in hot service lines.

1. Béchamel

Base: Milk.

Thickener: White roux (equal parts flour and butter by weight, cooked briefly to remove raw flour taste but not browned).

Derivatives:

Mornay: Add Gruyère and Parmesan cheese (sometimes finished with butter). Great for food cost friendly pasta dishes.
Soubise: Add sweated, puréed onions.

2. Velouté

Base: White stock (usually veal, chicken, or fish).

Thickener: Blond roux (cooked slightly longer than white roux until it takes on an ivory color).

Derivatives:

Allemande: Veal velouté thickened with a liaison (egg yolks and heavy cream) and seasoned with lemon juice.
Suprême: Chicken velouté reduced with heavy cream.

3. Espagnole (Brown Sauce)

Base: Brown veal stock.

Thickener: Brown roux (cooked until it smells nutty and looks like dark peanut butter).

The Demi-Glace Factor: Espagnole is heavy and strong. It is almost always refined into a Demi-Glace (equal parts Espagnole and brown stock, reduced by half) before being used to make small sauces.

Derivatives (from Demi-Glace):

Bordelaise: Red wine reduction, shallots, black pepper, finished with bone marrow.
Robert: White wine reduction, onions, finished with mustard.

4. Sauce Tomate

Base: Tomatoes (often plum or San Marzano style).

Thickener: Traditionally, a roux or a purée of the vegetables in the sauce itself. Modern kitchens often rely purely on reduction.

Derivatives:

Creole: Add diced onions, celery, green peppers (the Holy Trinity), and garlic.
Provençale: Add garlic, capers, olives, and Herbes de Provence.

5. Hollandaise

Base: Clarified butter.

Thickener: Egg yolks (it is an emulsion, not thickened by a starch like a roux).

Derivatives:

Béarnaise: Instead of a plain water/lemon juice base, use a reduction of white wine vinegar, shallots, tarragon, and cracked black pepper.
Choron: Béarnaise with tomato purée added.

Note: Hollandaise is highly unstable. It must be held at a specific temperature (warm, not hot) or the emulsion will break, separating the butter from the egg yolks.