The Mother Sauces Trivia Quiz

Answer: Hollandaise

In total there are five mother sauces but the initial four were: Bechamel, Espagnole, Veloute, and Allemande, which is very similar to Veloute but had egg yolks, lemon juice and heavy cream. However, in the 20th century, French chef Escoffier redefined the list by dropping Allemande, renaming it as Sauce Parisienne (a sauce derivative of Veloute), and adding Sauce Tomate and Hollandaise, which became the final mother sauces.

These five sauces have acted as the matriarchs for hundreds of other sauces found in cuisine across the globe.

Answer: roux

Roux is generally white or brown and is made with a mixture of wheat flour and some form of fat, usually butter or lard. The roux for each of the sauces vary in cooking time, which causes the color to be lighter or darker. Roux is the thickening agent for Veloute, Bechamel, and Espagnole sauces. Historically a roux should be used for Sauce Tomate as well, but many contemporary chefs do not use roux in their Tomate.

Answer: Lyonnaise

The Lyonnaise sauce is derived from the Espagnole mother sauce, while the other three are derivative of Bechamel. A Soubise sauce involves adding pureed sauteed onions to a Bechamel, while Mornay sauce adds Gruyere and Parmesan cheese and the Nantua sauce blends shrimp/crayfish butter and cream with the Bechamel.

Answer: False

It is actually the other way around. A Veloute is made with white stock, such as vegetable, veal, chicken, or herb stock with blanched bones, if any. On the other hand, the Espagnole sauce uses a brown roux which is achieved by roasting the animal bones to bring out the dark color and a richer flavor.

Answer: sachet

Sachets can be handcrafted using cheesecloth, but many people can just as easily find disposable cloth bags at kitchen supply stores; they are frequently tied together with kitchen or kite string. The typical combination of herbs inside the sachet consists of bay leaves, parsley, thyme and peppercorns; it is not advised to use dried spices if it can be prevented.

Answer: Eggs Hussarde

Eggs Benedict is the basic English muffin, ham or bacon and poached eggs, while Eggs Florentine takes out the meat and replaces it with spinach. Eggs Neptune involves Hollandaise sauce, English muffin, poached eggs, and crab meat.

Eggs Hussarde, on the other hand, uses Holland rusks, dry biscuits or twice-baked bread instead of an English muffin, eggs, Canadian bacon or ham, and a Marchand de Vin or Bordelaise sauce.

Answer: tomato

Sauce Tomate is the classic tomato sauce flavored with garlic, veal stock, salt pork and mirepoix, which consists of a mixture of braised carrots, onions, and celery. While the classic French preparation uses roux, as previously mentioned, many contemporary chefs do not use a roux in their tomato sauce.

Answer: wine

The derivative child sauces of Espagnole generally contain either white or red wine. For example, Sauce Robert uses white wine, pepper, demi-glace and mustard, while Chasseur sauce has mushroom, shallot, tomato, and white wine. The same goes for Sauce Bercy, which uses white wine, and Madeira sauce, which uses red wine of the same name.

Answer: False

While the Bernaise sauce is an extension of the Hollandaise sauce, the Bordelaise sauce is derived from the Espagnole sauce. Hollandaise and Bernaise differ in flavoring only, as hollandaise uses lemon juice and white wine while Bernaise uses shallot, peppercorn, tarragon, and chervil/French parsley.

While the traditional French Bourdelaise has strong overtones of red wine, butter and bone marrow, the New Orleans version's basic flavor is garlic rather than red wine and bone marrow.

Answer: liaison

The liaison technique of thickening sauces and soups is similar to most other mother sauce preparations, but varies only in its proportions and ingredients. When preparing liaison, it is important to stir in a hot liquid to temper the thickening agent or you run the risk of the egg becoming stringy and appearing curdled in whatever sauce or stew you add it to.