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The five mother sauces of classical French cuisine

Béchamel, velouté, espagnole, sauce tomate, hollandaise

What a 'mother sauce' is

A leading sauce that the small sauces are derived from — Escoffier's sauces mères

Carême's four grandes sauces, a generation before Escoffier

Espagnole, velouté, allemande, béchamel — no sauce tomate, no hollandaise

What Escoffier changed in the list of leading sauces

Allemande became a velouté daughter, and sauce tomate a leading sauce; hollandaise joined them in 1907.

Béchamel — what it is made of

White roux and milk, infused with onion and nutmeg (Escoffier also steeps lean veal in it)

Velouté — what it is made of

Pale (blond) roux and a white stock — veal, chicken or fish

Espagnole — what it is made of

Brown roux and brown stock, cleared slowly with mirepoix and tomato

Sauce tomate — what it is made of

Tomatoes with salt pork, mirepoix and flour, simmered down with white stock

Hollandaise — what it is made of

Egg yolks and butter emulsified over a vinegar reduction, finished with lemon

The one mother sauce with no roux in it

Hollandaise — an emulsion. Escoffier's tomate does use a roux, though modern versions often reduce instead

The three roux and what each is for

Brown roux for brown sauces, pale roux for veloutés, white roux for béchamel

Demi-glace (half glaze)

Espagnole reduced with brown stock — the base of the small brown sauces

Mornay

Béchamel daughter — Gruyère melted in (Escoffier uses Gruyère and Parmesan)

Soubise

Béchamel daughter — onions stewed in butter, sieved into the sauce

Nantua

Béchamel daughter — cream and crayfish butter, with crayfish tails

Suprême

Velouté daughter — poultry velouté reduced with mushroom liquor and cream

Allemande

Velouté daughter — velouté thickened with egg yolks, cream and lemon

Aurore

Velouté family — tomato purée stirred in; some charts build it on allemande

Bordelaise

Espagnole daughter — red wine, shallots, thyme and bay in demi-glace, with marrow

Robert

Espagnole daughter — onion and white wine in demi-glace, finished with mustard

Chasseur

Espagnole daughter — mushrooms, shallots and white wine, with tomato, in demi-glace

Béarnaise

Hollandaise daughter — the same yolk-and-butter emulsion over a tarragon-shallot reduction

Choron

Hollandaise family — béarnaise finished with tomato purée

Mousseline

Hollandaise daughter — whipped cream folded in just before serving

Maltaise

Hollandaise daughter — blood orange juice and grated orange rind

Why schools disagree about sauce tomate's daughters

There is no fixed classical set — charts name Creole, Milanaise, Neapolitan, Bolognese or Provençale