Making Basic Sauces: Ingredients and Techniques

2025. 08. 19.

Making Basic Sauces: What and How in 2025?

Knowing the basics of sauces helps make your dishes more varied and professional. You may have already made a few, but in 2025 it’s worth combining classic recipes with modern kitchen techniques. We show how to prepare the most famous French sauces and how to adapt them to new, creative flavors.

The Role of Sauces in Modern Gastronomy

Sauces enrich the taste of food, provide moisture and texture, and add an aesthetic touch to plating. Modern cuisine pairs classic sauces with meats and pasta as well as salads and light dishes, often enhanced with fresh citrus or tangy notes.

Basic sauce ingredients include liquid, thickener, and seasonings. Liquids can be stock, milk, tomato juice, or butter; thickeners can be flour, breadcrumbs, or other natural agents. These classic ratios still form the foundation of professional kitchens.

The history of basic sauces is linked to Marie-Antoine Carême. Napoleon’s chef replaced heavy, bland sauces with lighter versions enriched with fresh vegetables and herbs—a principle that still guides culinary trends today.

What Is a Basic Sauce, and How Many Types Are There?

Traditionally, there are four classic sauces: velouté, béchamel, espagnole (brown sauce), and hollandaise. Modern trends have introduced new thickeners, techniques, and flavor combinations, so tomato sauce or vinaigrette are sometimes considered “basic” sauces.

Each sauce has its role: béchamel and velouté pair with vegetables and white meats, brown sauce with red meats, and hollandaise with light gourmet dishes. By varying water-based stocks, milk, or butter sauces, an endless number of derivatives can be created creatively in the kitchen.

How to Make Basic Sauces?

Béchamel: the Silky Milk Sauce

Béchamel, also called creamy milk sauce, is excellent for vegetables, pasta, lasagna, and poached fish. It subtly finishes the final flavor of a dish.

Preparation: stir milk into butter-roasted flour with salt, white pepper, and nutmeg. Authentic Italian lasagna layers with béchamel harmonize perfectly with tomato sauce. For larger quantities, use a hand grater when adding cheese, e.g., for mac and cheese. For salads, serve with vinaigrette.

Hollandaise Sauce

Made from butter and egg yolks, seasoned with lemon, salt, and pepper. Essential for Eggs Benedict. Excellent with asparagus, roasted salmon, or other fish. Can be creatively varied with tarragon, spinach puree (Florentine), or orange juice/zest (Maltese). Citrus flavors pair well with white meats.

Brown Sauce (Espagnole)

Perfect for red meats and roasts. Roast veal bones, sauté onion, carrot, and parsley root, caramelize sugar, then cook with tomato puree and spices for 3 hours. Strain with a manuall food mill and blend to smooth consistency with a hand blender. From 500 g bones and 300–400 g vegetables, yield 700–800 ml sauce.

Velouté (White Sauce)

Similar to béchamel, but uses stock instead of milk. Stir white stock (chicken, fish, or seafood) into butter-roasted flour. Use a professional whisk (hand or blender set) for a smooth texture.

Velouté’s lighter, silky texture makes it ideal for baked vegetables or pasta. Can be varied with white wine and seasonings for creative sauces.

Tomato Sauce

Tomato sauce became popular in Central European cuisine in the 18th century and remained a staple in 19th-century traditional celebrations. Made with stock and tomato purée, sautéed with butter, cooked carrot, onion, and celery. This classic flavor has been part of Hungarian and regional cuisines for over 200 years.

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