White Sauces for Meat and Vegetables

Traditional white sauces are prepared with milk or white stock, thickened with white roux, and finished with heavy cream, egg yolks, or butter. Sauce béchamel is essentially milk thickened with roux; sauce velouté is identical to sauce béchamel except that the milk is replaced with white stock. When sauce béchamel is finished with cheese, it becomes a mornay sauce; when finished with cream, a cream sauce; finished with onions, a sauce soubise; finished with crustacean butters, a sauce nantua (crayfish) or sauce cardinal (lobster). When sauce velouté is enriched with cream, it becomes a sauce suprême; when finished with egg yolks, it becomes a sauce allemande.