In the nineteenth century Antonin Carême organized French sauces into four foundational families, and Escoffier later refined the list to the five we use today. The idea was systematic: learn a small number of base sauces and every other sauce becomes a variation rather than a separate recipe.

It still works. Once you can make a velouté, chances are you can make a dozen classical sauces with one extra ingredient each. The system is the lesson, not the individual recipes.

Three of the five begin with roux: equal weights of flour and fat cooked together. How long you cook it determines both color and thickening power — the longer it cooks, the more flavor it develops and the less it thickens, because the starch breaks down.

White roux plus milk, seasoned with nutmeg, salt, white pepper, and traditionally an onion piqué (an onion studded with cloves and a bay leaf). Cook it long enough that the flour loses its raw taste — at least ten minutes of gentle simmering.

Derivatives: Mornay (add gruyère and parmesan), Soubise (add puréed onion), Nantua (add crayfish butter and cream), Crème (add cream), Mustard (add Dijon).

Blond roux plus a clear white stock — chicken, veal, or fish. Lighter and more savory than béchamel, and the base for some of the most elegant classical sauces.

Derivatives: Allemande (add egg yolk and cream), Suprême (add cream and mushroom trimmings), Bercy (shallots and white wine), Normande (fish velouté with cream and mushroom), Poulette (mushroom, parsley, lemon).

Brown roux plus brown stock, tomato purée, and browned mirepoix. It is the most labor-intensive of the five and is rarely served as-is — it is a stepping stone.

Reduce espagnole with equal parts brown stock and you get demi-glace, the backbone of classical meat cookery. Derivatives: Bordelaise (red wine, shallot, marrow), Chasseur (mushroom, shallot, white wine, tomato), Robert (onion, mustard, white wine), Madère (Madeira), Périgueux (truffle).

The classical French tomato sauce is thickened by reduction and traditionally built on salt pork and stock, which makes it heavier than the Italian sauces most people know. Escoffier included roux in his version; modern practice usually omits it.

Derivatives: Creole, Provençale, Portugaise, Spanish. In practice, most modern kitchens treat "tomato" broadly and let the Italian tradition fill in the rest.

The odd one out: no roux, no stock, no reduction. Egg yolks and a little acid whisked over gentle heat into a sabayon, then warm clarified butter streamed in to form a warm emulsion. It is the most technically demanding of the five and the fastest to make.

Derivatives: Béarnaise (tarragon and shallot reduction), Choron (béarnaise plus tomato), Maltaise (blood orange), Mousseline (fold in whipped cream), Foyot (add meat glaze).

Further reading

Escoffier, Le Guide Culinaire, 1903 — the definitive codification.

The On The Fly Kitchen · Updated 2026-07-29