Sauce Cardinal and Sauce Nantua

Sauce Cardinal and Sauce Nantua are crustacean-flavored white sauces. They are similar in that they are both based on Sauce Béchamel, but finished with lobster or crayfish butter for Cardinal and Nantua, respectively. Sauce Cardinal also contains fish stock and truffle essence, whereas Sauce Nantua contains a large proportion of heavy cream. Nouvelle cuisine versions never contain flour but are usually based on reduced cream flavored with reduced court-bouillon, reduced fish stock, or the cooking liquid from steamed or stewed crustaceans. Modernist chefs are likely to leave out much of the cream and achieve some of the thickening with hydrocolloids such as xanthan gum or lambda carrageenan.