5 French Mother Sauces & Their Pairings

Here are the 5 fundamental French mother sauces and their perfect pairings!

1 Béchamel Sauce

This is a simple sauce to make, which is one of the only mother sauce that does not require a broth base.

Béchamel sauce base ingredients: 5 Tbsp butter 4 Tbsp all-purpose flour 4 c milk 2 tsp salt ½ tsp fresh nutmeg Béchamel sauce is a typical sauce used in white lasagna dishes, cream sauce pastas and white meat dishes.
Best Wine Pairing for Béchamel Sauce: Oak barreled white wines such as Chardonnay.

This mother sauce can come in many varieties if you differentiate the broth base. Depending on what dish you are using your sauce in, you may want to use a chicken, veal or fish broth.

Velouté sauce base ingredients: 3 Tbsp butter 3 Tbsp flour 2 c broth Salt White pepper Velouté sauce is very much like a Béchamel but differs in that it has no milk, but instead uses broth. It is slightly more versatile in dishes since various broths can cater to different dishes and can work very well with baked fish dishes.

Best Wine Pairing for Velouté Sauce: Dry Sparkling Wine

3 Hollandaise Sauce Hollandaise sauce may be one of the most well-known sauces by name. It is a tangy, buttery sauce which finds perfection in consistency.
Hollandaise sauce base ingredients: 3 egg yolks 1 Tbsp water 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice 8 oz unsalted butter Dash cayenne pepper or tobacco Salt White pepper Hollandaise sauce is perfect with eggs (i.e. Eggs Benedict) and seafood dishes.
Best Wine Pairing for Hollandaise Sauce: Sparkling wines or Chardonnay

4 Espagnole Sauce
The Espagnole sauce is a brown mother sauce which is similar to a velouté but is instead made with beef broth. Espagnole sauce base ingredients: 2½ liters of beef broth 2 cups mirepoix (chopped, caramelized onion, carrot, celery) 3½ oz clarified butter ½ c flour 1 Tbsp tomato paste ½ Tsp black peppercorns 4 sprigs thyme 1 c red wine Espagnole sauce goes well with meat dishes such as Beef Tenderloin.
Best Wine Pairing for Espagnole Sauce: Fruity white wine such as Gewürtztraminer

5 Sauce Tomat

This is similar to the tomato sauce we all know, but differs in that it is richer, contains pork fat and is blended with a roux.
Sauce Tomat base ingredients: 3 oz salted pork 2 cups mirepoix (chopped, caramelized onion, carrot, celery) 2 oz butter 3 oz flour 5 lbs fresh tomatoes 1 qt veal stock 1 clove garlic Salt Pepper Sauce Tomat is perfect with dishes such as Italian gnocchi and polenta.
Best Wine Pairing for Sauce Tomat: Depending on the acidity of the tomato and the dish it is accompanying, a Sangiovese based red could work well with this sauce.