Field Notes / Technique
The Five Mother Sauces, Demystified
The classic French foundations and the dishes they unlock.
The five mother sauces -- bechamel, veloute, espagnole, tomato, and hollandaise -- are less a rulebook than a map. Learn the base and you can improvise dozens of dishes from each one.
Most of them start with a roux, equal parts fat and flour cooked together. How long you cook it sets the color and flavor, from a pale bechamel to a deep, nutty espagnole.
Hollandaise is the outlier, an emulsion of egg yolk and butter held together by technique and a little patience. Master it and brunch is yours; eggs Benedict is just hollandaise with a stage.
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