A small sauce (also called a derivative or compound sauce) is a mother sauce with something added. Escoffier's book lists dozens.
Key idea
A few you should know: from béchamel, Mornay (cheese) and soubise (onion purée); from velouté, suprême (chicken velouté with cream) and allemande (velouté thickened with yolks and cream); from espagnole/demi-glace, bordelaise (red wine and shallots), chasseur (mushrooms, shallots, white wine, tomato) and Robert (onion, white wine, mustard); from tomato, Creole and Portuguese; from hollandaise, béarnaise (tarragon and shallot reduction), maltaise (blood orange) and mousseline (whipped cream folded in).
Why it works
To guess a small sauce's mother, ask what liquid or base it is built on. Cheese sauce on milk? Béchamel. Wine and shallots on brown stock? Espagnole. Tarragon in a butter emulsion? Hollandaise.
Worked example: Whose child?
Béarnaise sauce.
- It is a warm butter emulsion with yolks, flavored with a tarragon and shallot reduction.
Answer: Hollandaise.
Common mistake
Thinking Mornay is a cheese soup. It's a béchamel with cheese (often Gruyère and Parmesan), thick enough to coat.
Practice at home
- Make béchamel, then split it: stir cheese into half for Mornay, and slowly cooked puréed onion into the other half for soubise.
In Meal Prep
- Eggs Benedict: hollandaise in action
- Hunter's Chicken: a chasseur sauce
- Fish Bonne Femme: a velouté-style sauce with mushrooms