Chapter 7: Sauces
- Roux: molten lard to which flour is added and subsequently heated (1650).
- Sauce hollandaise: based on butter, vinegar and salt, thickened by egg-yolk (+- 1650).
• There was a decline in the formation of new sauces after the French revolution (1789),
because cooks had to deal with less money and less material to prepare their food.
o Restaurants were opened, since the cooks now had to prepare food that was
also attractive for ‘’people from the street’’.
o Restaurant development led to the categorization into originally 4 basic
sauces, to which many different ingredients could be added.
• Sauce types of nowadays:
1. Flour based sauces:
o Espagnole: bouillon of (browned) vegetables and meat, thickened by a roux (based on
butter and flour), which is also browned by heating.
o Velouté: bouillon of non-browned vegetables and meat, thickened by a soft yellow roux
(based on butter and flour).
o Béchamel: milk thickened by a white roux (based on butter and flour).
2. Emulsion based sauces:
o Hollandaise: egg yolk based, to which a warm butter sauce (60% of total) is added and
emulsified.
o Béarnaise: egg yolk based, to which a warm butter sauce (30% of total) is added and
emulsified, containing air bubbles, which makes the sauce light.
o Mayonnaise: egg yolk based, to which a room temperature fluid vegetable oil is added
(70% of total) and emulsified.
1. Flour based sauces:
• The thickening in these sauces is caused by amylose and
amylopectin in the flour; upon heating they show high
solubility in the aqueous phase and thereby they form a semi-
dilute macromolecular solution, with gel like connected
structures (high viscosity). Heating of starch:
o Around 60-70oC, more and more water molecules
can enter the starch granules, since there’s less
interaction between amylose and amylopectin. → The granules become more
transparent.
o Around 80-90oC, the amylose molecules enter into the water phase, and
together with other amylose molecules they form long and stiff chains
(helices which are stabilized by hydrogen bonds). At this temperature the
actual thickening occurs. The whole system becomes more transparent.
o Amylopectin does not contribute to the thickening,
because it is so branched.
o It is the length of the long and stiff chains formed, that
makes the chain efficient in thickening. Because we
know that the volume occupied by a stiff chain is much
- Roux: molten lard to which flour is added and subsequently heated (1650).
- Sauce hollandaise: based on butter, vinegar and salt, thickened by egg-yolk (+- 1650).
• There was a decline in the formation of new sauces after the French revolution (1789),
because cooks had to deal with less money and less material to prepare their food.
o Restaurants were opened, since the cooks now had to prepare food that was
also attractive for ‘’people from the street’’.
o Restaurant development led to the categorization into originally 4 basic
sauces, to which many different ingredients could be added.
• Sauce types of nowadays:
1. Flour based sauces:
o Espagnole: bouillon of (browned) vegetables and meat, thickened by a roux (based on
butter and flour), which is also browned by heating.
o Velouté: bouillon of non-browned vegetables and meat, thickened by a soft yellow roux
(based on butter and flour).
o Béchamel: milk thickened by a white roux (based on butter and flour).
2. Emulsion based sauces:
o Hollandaise: egg yolk based, to which a warm butter sauce (60% of total) is added and
emulsified.
o Béarnaise: egg yolk based, to which a warm butter sauce (30% of total) is added and
emulsified, containing air bubbles, which makes the sauce light.
o Mayonnaise: egg yolk based, to which a room temperature fluid vegetable oil is added
(70% of total) and emulsified.
1. Flour based sauces:
• The thickening in these sauces is caused by amylose and
amylopectin in the flour; upon heating they show high
solubility in the aqueous phase and thereby they form a semi-
dilute macromolecular solution, with gel like connected
structures (high viscosity). Heating of starch:
o Around 60-70oC, more and more water molecules
can enter the starch granules, since there’s less
interaction between amylose and amylopectin. → The granules become more
transparent.
o Around 80-90oC, the amylose molecules enter into the water phase, and
together with other amylose molecules they form long and stiff chains
(helices which are stabilized by hydrogen bonds). At this temperature the
actual thickening occurs. The whole system becomes more transparent.
o Amylopectin does not contribute to the thickening,
because it is so branched.
o It is the length of the long and stiff chains formed, that
makes the chain efficient in thickening. Because we
know that the volume occupied by a stiff chain is much
