Velouté sauce ... its history and a recipe from the Bard of Bat Yam Poet Laureate of Zion, Stepehen Darori

A velouté sauce (French pronunciation: ​[vəluˈte]) is a savoury sauce, made from a roux and a light stock. It is one of the five 'mother sauces' of French cuisine listed by Auguste Escoffier in the 19th century, along with espagnole, tomato, béchamel and hollandaise. The term velouté is the French word for velvety.

In preparing a velouté sauce, a light stock (one in which the bones used have not been previously roasted), such as chicken or fish stock, is thickened with a blond roux. Thus the ingredients of a velouté are equal parts (by mass) of butter and flour to form the roux and a light chicken or fish stock, with some salt and pepper to season as needed. The sauce produced is commonly referred to by the type of stock used (e.g. chicken velouté).

Derived sauces

Sauce velouté is often served on poultry or seafood dishes, and is used as the base for other sauces. Sauces derived from a velouté sauce include:

• Albufera sauce: Addition of meat glaze, or glace de viande.
• Allemande sauce: By adding a few drops of lemon juice, egg yolks, and cream
• Aurore: Tomato purée
• Bercy: Shallots, white wine, lemon juice and parsley added to a fish velouté
• Gravy: usually made with meat and/or vegetable drippings instead of a separate stock, but follows the same principle.
• Hungarian: Onion, paprika, white wine
• Normande sauce: prepared with velouté or fish velouté, cream, butter and egg yolk as primary ingredients. Some versions may use mushroom cooking liquid and oyster liquid or fish fumet added to fish velouté, finished with a liaison of egg yolks and cream
• Poulette: Mushrooms finished with chopped parsley and lemon juice
• Sauce a la Polonaise ("Polish style"): Sauce velouté mixed with horseradish, lemon juice and sour cream[4]. (Not to be confused with the topping garnish of breadcrumbs browned in butter and chopped hard-cooked egg, often with parsley.)
• Sauce ravigote: The addition of a little lemon or white wine vinegar creates a lightly acidic velouté that is traditionally flavored with onions and shallots, and more recently with mustard.
• Sauce Vin Blanc: Sauce Vin Blanc has the addition of fish trim, egg yolks and butter and is typically served with fish.
• Suprême sauce: By adding a reduction of mushroom liquor (produced in cooking) and cream to a chicken velouté.
• Venetian sauce: Tarragon, shallots, chervil
• Wine sauce: such as white wine sauce and champagne sauce

Veloute Sauce Recipe


Total:20 min
Prep: 20 min
Yield: 2 cups

Ingredients

3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups chicken stock
Salt
Freshly ground white pepper

Directions


In a saucepan, over medium heat, melt the butter. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes. Whisk in the stock, 1/2 cup at a time. Whisk until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Bring the liquid to a boil and reduce the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and serve.