The French codified five sauces in the nineteenth century and called them the mother sauces. Bechamel, veloute, espagnole, tomato, and hollandaise. Every classical sauce on a bistro menu descends from one of them, which means once you know the foundations, the variations become a question of flavor not technique.

Two of them are roux based. Bechamel is roux plus milk. Veloute is roux plus a light stock. Espagnole is a dark roux with brown stock. Tomato is its own family, built from a base of simmered tomato. Hollandaise is the outlier, an emulsion of warm egg yolks and butter.

A bechamel becomes mornay with cheese, soubise with caramelized onion, mustard sauce with a spoon of dijon. A veloute becomes supreme with cream and mushroom, allemande with egg yolk and lemon. The vocabulary is large but the grammar is small. Cook the five mothers a few times each and you will read menus differently for the rest of your life.

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