Mother sauce a source of variety

This is a day when we should all ask ourselves, "Where would I be without my mother?" For many the answer is "Probably in the middle of traffic, without my jacket, and talking to some stranger." For professional chefs, however, the situation would be even more dire without their mothers -- their mother sauces, that is.

Mother sauces are the foundation of classic French cuisine, so called because they can give birth to a variety of derivatives, thereby creating a family of offspring sauces. Larousse Gastronomique, for example, suggests that there are at least 200 such sauces, though there are doubtless many more. (Talleyrand said the French have three religions and 360 sauces -- and the British three sauces and 360 religions.)

Sauces may have originally been used to disguise the taste of spoiled food, but by the Middle Ages, French cooks had begun making them a defining characteristic of their cuisine. As Julia Child remarked, "Sauces are the splendor and glory of French cooking."

Sauces weren't codified, however, until the creation of the modern restaurant. The person initially responsible was Marie-Antoine Carme, the father of French grand cuisine, known as the "king of chefs." Later, August Escoffier, known as the "chef of kings," would revise Carme's list creating the following classification of mother sauces.

Bchamel Sauce

Veloute sauce

Named after Louis XIV's steward, this is nothing more than a basic white sauce made of milk and thickened with a butter-flour mixture or roux. Add onions and you have Soubise Sauce, add mustard and you have Sauce Moutarde, add cheese and you have Mornay sauce, the basis of a souffl or mac and cheese. Bchamel is the simplest mother sauce because it doesn't require you to make a stock first.

Velout Sauce

This is a rich blond sauce made with chicken, veal or fish stock and thickened with a pale roux. For Normandy Sauce you use fish stock, cream and mushrooms; for Allemande Sauce veal stock, egg yolks and cream; and for Hungarian Sauce chicken stock, onions and paprika.

Espagnole Sauce

This is a brown sauce made of rich meat stock, flavored with vegetables and herbs and thickened with a dark or browned roux. Allegedly it was introduced to French cuisine by the chefs of the Spanish queen Katherine of Aragon, hence its name. Add more stock and reduce it and it becomes demi-glace, itself the basis of many progeny, including Bordelaise Sauce, Sauce Robert, Chasseur Sauce, Madeira Sauce and Lyonnaise Sauce.

Tomato sauce

Tomato Sauce

The classic red sauce, a relative newcomer to the taxonomy of mother sauces since tomatoes are a New World crop and were eyed with suspicion when first introduced to Europe. Ubiquitous today, it is the foundation of Bolognese Sauce (add meat), Creole Sauce (add green pepper and cayenne) and Sauce Provencal (add herbes de Provence).

Hollandaise Sauce

One of the few mother sauces typically used without further modification, this is an emulsion of egg yolks and butter, the classic adornment to eggs Benedict or fresh asparagus. It may get its name from Holland, home to rich butter. It can be transformed into Barnaise Sauce with the addition of tarragon, peppercorns, and shallots; into Dijon Sauce with the addition of Dijon mustard; or into Mousseline Sauce with the addition of whipped cream.

Add these sauces to your culinary repertoire and any time you fix them will be a happy Mother's Day.

Espagnole sauce

Blender Hollandaise

Even Julia Child was not above resorting to a gadget to increase the odds of success when making this finicky sauce. This recipe, adapted from her French Chef Cookbook, is practically foolproof.

3 egg yolks

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

Bechamel sauce

pinch of pepper

1 stick butter

Melt butter until bubbling hot. Place egg yolks, lemon juice, salt and pepper in blender jar, cover, and blend on high speed for 30 seconds. With blender still running gradually add melted butter in a slow, steady stream through hole in blender cover until sauce becomes thick and creamy.

Tom Harte's book, "Stirring Words," is available at local bookstores. A Harte Appetite airs Fridays 8:49 a.m. on KRCU, 90.9 FM. Contact Tom at semissourian.com or at the Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699.