Basic Sauces

The three basic white sauces - Béchamel, Velouté and Fish Velouté-and the basic brown sauce - Espagnole - are the foundation sauces for a host of glamorous side sauces, or sauces composées, as they are known in French kitchen terminology.

Names such as soubise, poulette, mornay, bordelaise and yonnaise lose their frightening complexity if we look at them as basic sauces with one or two simple additions.

Béchamel Sauce White roux plus milk, or milk and veal, or milk and ham.