White Sauces

Traditional white sauces are based on either béchamel sauce or velouté sauce. A béchamel is essentially milk that’s been thickened with roux ( for more about béchamel) and a velouté is white broth—made from veal, chicken, or fish—that’s been thickened with roux. All of the classic French white sauces are made by adding various ingredients to one or the other of these two “mother” sauces. Modern white sauces, made without flour, are based on white veal stock that is reduced and given body with cream (which is usually reduced) and/or egg yolks (cooked gently, like a crème anglaise) or butter.