In the culinary world, Escoffier’s five mother sauces are used as the base of many “daughter” or “secondary” sauces and are defined by their base ingredient and thickening agent:
| Sauce | Base | Thickening agent | Secondary sauce |
| Bechamel | Milk | White roux | White sauces, cheese sauces, mornays, mustard sauce |
| Veloute | White stock (e.g. veal, fish or chicken) | White roux | Supreme sauce, Allemande sauce, white wine sauce |
| Tomat | Tomatoes | White roux | Provençale sauce, Creole sauce |
| Espagnole | Roasted veal stock | Brown roux | Demi-glace, red wine reduction, Lyonnaise sauce, Madeira sauce |
| Hollandaise | Egg yolks and butter | Emulsification | Bearnaise, Dijon sauce, Mousseline sauce |
But what about desserts? Are there a set of standard sauces for sweet dishes?
Well, there are a number of basic sauces that can be used to make secondary sauces or as bases for dishes like ice cream, souffles, caramels, etc.
Here’s my attempt at a dessert sauce hit list and some example recipes from previous posts:
Chocolate sauce
- Comprising chocolate as its base and thickening agent, and cream or melted butter as its liquid.
- Can be used to make different types of chocolate sauce (e.g. white choc vs dark) and then the base for ganache, truffles and fudge.
Fruit sauce
- Using the fruit purée as the base and thickening agent, and water or juice as a liquid.
- Can be used to make coulis and curds, or a base for sorbets and souffles.
- Using egg yolk as its base and thickening agent, and cream as its liquid.
- Can be used to make ice cream and crème pâtissière.
Sabayon
- Using egg yolk as its base and thickening agent, and white wine as a liquid.
Stock syrup
- Using sugar as the base, and water as the liquid – thickens through reduction.
- Can be used to make caramel sauce, sorbets and toffee.
What do you think? Have I missed any?
Project Pastry 