Introduction to The Five Basic French Sauces with Recipe Chart

Béchamel, Velouté, Espagnole, Hollandaise, and Tomate are the five basic French sauces that are rich, velvety, easily made, and memorable.

You may find other texts refer to these sauces as "mother sauces," "key sauces," and "root sauces," since these are the basis for making other well-known variations.

A delicious sauce can elevate simply cooked meats, vegetables, eggs, and biscuits to a gourmet heights. That is the power of sauces, to make the ordinary, extraordinary.

A chart showing and comparing the recipes of the Five Basic French Sauces and their related sauces.

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Most of these sauces start with a roux, which is either a white roux or a toasty brown roux. Only Hollandaise, its related sauce, Bernaise, and the simplest French reduction sauce finished with butter, do not start with a roux.

Jump to:

How to Make a Roux
What are the basic ingredients for each of the Five Basic French Sauces?
What are the Five Mother French Sauces and their Relatives?
Overview of The Mother Sauces
1. Béchamel (White Sauce)
2. Velouté (Velvety)
3. Espagnole (Spanish)
4. Hollandaise (Dutch Sauce)
5. Tomate (Tomato)
Overview of The Related Sauces
6. Mornay (Related to Béchamel)
7. Ravigote (Related to Velouté)
8. Bordelaise (Related to Espagnole)
9. Bearnaise (Related to Hollandaise)
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How to Make a Roux

A roux is made by melting butter in a pan, adding an equal amount of flour, and then cooking the flour and butter mixture until it is bubbly and well combined.

Cooking butter and flour together in a small saucepan to make a roux.

A white roux is made when the butter and flour are cooked together but not browned. This roux makes a light-colored sauce.

A brown roux starts the same way as a white roux. Equal parts of butter and flour are cooked together. But the mixture is allowed to slowly toast to varying shades of light to darker brown depending on the sauce being made.

Fun Fact

Simple American homemade gravies like milk gravy and gravy for meats start with a white or brown roux.

What are the basic ingredients for each of the Five Basic French Sauces?

Bechamel - White Roux plus Milk and Cream

Veloute - White Roux plus Light Stock like Chicken, Veal, or Seafood

Espagnole - Brown Roux plus Veal or Beef Stock

Hollandaise - Egg Yolks plus Clarified Melted Butter plus Acid (like lemon juice, white wine, or rice vinegar)

Tomate - Brown Roux with Mirepoix plus Tomatoes

What are the Five Mother French Sauces and their Relatives?

Mother Sauce	Related Sauce
Bechamel	Mornay
Veloute	Ravigote
Espagnole	Bordelaise
Hollandaise	Bearnaise
Tomate	-

Overview of The Mother Sauces

1. Béchamel (White Sauce)

Made of white roux, milk, humble salt and pepper, and sometimes cream for extra richness, Béchamel is the first sauce and perhaps the most versatile.

If you love soufflés, this is the sauce for you. A simple béchamel sauce is folded into egg yolks, which is folded into stiffly beaten egg whites. I once heard that a soufflé was a sauce that took a big, deep, breath of air.

Béchamel can also be a milk gravy, the basis for sausage gravy, puddings, and so much more! Do you love mac and cheese? Then this is the sauce for you since every great mac and cheese recipe contains its variation, Mornay.

2. Velouté (Velvety)

Velouté is the lighter sauce. Anytime you add chicken, vegetable, or fish stock to a white roux, you make a Velouté. Adding a bit of cream adds extra richness and makes a very rich and satisfying sauce.

3. Espagnole (Spanish)

Espagnole is a rich sauce that begins with a brown roux and is typically called "gravy." It is listed as the third sauce because it combines the technique and some ingredients from the first sauce, béchamel, and the second sauce, velouté.

4. Hollandaise (Dutch Sauce)

Hollandaise is an emulsion sauce that does not contain a roux and is delicious over vegetables and egg dishes. It is famous for being the sauce for Eggs Benedict.

Its base is beaten egg yolks. Melted butter is drizzled into the yolks while the sauce is vigorously whisked or blended with an immersion blender. The sauce is flavored with lemon juice, simple salt, and black pepper which are added after making the egg and butter emulsion.

5. Tomate (Tomato)

The name says it all, as this tomato sauce is rich with tomatoes. Flour is added to a cooked, basic mirepoix. After peeled tomatoes are added and cooked down, the sauce is strained to make it smooth.

When cheese is added to a béchamel sauce, it is called a Mornay sauce. Delicious over steamed or baked vegetables, this is also how you make macaroni and cheese from scratch.

The flavor of a velouté sauce is brightened with shallots and mustard to create a sauce that pairs well with fish, chicken, and eggs. Modern interpretations of the Ravigote include the additions of chopped capers, pickles, and/or fresh herbs and some versions more closely resemble an enriched emulsion sauce.

Bordelaise sauce is a complex, work-intensive red wine sauce named after the Bordeaux region of France. The sauce is essentially a brown gravy made with red wine, sauteed onions or shallots, and espagnole sauce blended with brown or beef stock.

Essential Bearnaise sauce is a herbal Hollandaise sauce. In addition to egg yolks and melted butter, it also contains a reduction of white wine and white vinegar infused with shallots, and fresh herbs. Lastly, some fresh herbs like tarragon and chervil are blended into the sauce.