Classic French Fish Sauces

Although today’s chefs have abandoned many of these classic sauces, the sauces still provide valuable models and flavor combinations. Most of these sauces begin with an infusion of flavor components, such as white wine, shallots, various herbs, and mushroom essence. Fish velouté is added to the infusion, and the sauce is then enriched with any number of elements, such as egg yolks, cream, butter, compound butters, and crustacean butters.

In nouvelle cuisine versions of these classics, the fish velouté is replaced with a much smaller quantity of fish glaze and the sauce finished with butter or cream.