So I know I mentioned before that I have taught cooking classes. I have taught kids and adults, but I also taught myself. I am not a classically trained chef, I am a cook. Is there a difference? Yes and no.
To be a called a chef, some would say you must have graduated from culinary school. Others have worked their way up the honest way as they call it. By honest way, I mean they started as a dish washer, then did prep work, worked as a line cook, moved up to a sous chef, then chef de cuisine and finally as an executive chef. That could take years of training more than a couple quick years at culinary school.
Both of the ways I mentioned of becoming a chef take a lot of time and effort. One has a certificate the other has burn marks on their forearms. One paid for their education, the other was paid to learn.
What in the hell does this have to do with the title of this post? Both of these chefs have been trained or learned what the “Mother Sauces” are, how to make them and make them well. So can I and millions of other “cooks”.
Why am I telling you this? Because yesterday when I posted my Chicken Croquettes with Gravy recipe….I am whispering this…it wasn’t really a gravy it was a veloute.
WTF is a veloute? A veloute is one of the Mother Sauces. WTF is a mother sauce anyway? I’ll tell you.
The five French mother sauces are béchamel, velouté, espagnole, hollandaise, and tomato. Developed in the 19th century by French chef Auguste Escoffier, mother sauces serve as a starting point for a variety of delicious sauces used to complement countless dishes, including veggies, fish, meat, casseroles, and pastas.
Sauces were originally intended as a way for chefs to cover up the taste of food that was beginning to spoil. Yuck, thanks buddy for the solid! I’ll bet people blamed the richness of the sauces when they were shitting their brains out because they didn’t know they were eating spoiled food. 🤮
A velouté sauce is a savory sauce that is made from a roux and a light stock. It is one of the “mother sauces” of French cuisine listed by Chef Auguste Escoffier in the early twentieth century. The term velouté is the French word for velvety. Wikipedia
Any time I read or say the word veloute I can hear Julia Child’s voice saying Vuh-loo-tee. Speaking of Julia she’s one of my cooking teachers. I’ve been working on my French cooking skills using her book “The Art of French Cooking” for years. I have been rewatching the French Chef. Julia is my hero!
So what the heck is gravy then?
Gravy is like a sauce, often made from the juices of meats that run naturally during cooking and often thickened with wheat flour or corn starch for added texture. Wikipedia
So you see a veloute is made with a roux and broth. Gravy is made with pan drippings & juices. Wait what??? Another damn French word roux???
Roux is flour and fat cooked together and used to thicken sauces. Roux is typically made from equal parts of flour and fat by weight. The flour is added to the melted fat or oil on the stove top, blended until smooth, and cooked to the desired level of brownness. A roux can be white, blond or brown. Wikipedia
A roux made with potato starch and fat from the beef 
Braising liquid from beef 
After combining roux and liquid the gravy is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon 
Mississippi Roast with gravy
Gravy or veloute? No one is ever going to say mashed potatoes with veloute sauce. No one really knows there is a difference. Gravy is the word that covers both for the most part, unless you are in culinary school or a high end restaurant kitchen.
So now we have covered one of the mother sauces!!! Guess what? In my chicken croquette recipe there is also a thick white sauce, which is made from the béchamel family….another mother sauce, but that’s a lesson for another day!
Thank you! I’ve always heard about the “mother sauces” but didn’t know what they were. Looking forward to learning more!