Si ce Petit traité des sauces aborde essentiellement les sauces en France, ce choix n'est pas innocent. En effet, ce pays a longtemps conservé, tout comme les autres royaumes d'Europe, l'héritage latin de son Antiquité. Plus tard, au XVIIe siècle, la France va développer une cuisine plus spécifique et raffinée qui fera et fait encore référence dans le monde entier.
L'Importance Historique des Sauces
Pour bien comprendre l'importance de la sauce, il faut d'abord considérer son histoire : l'auteur fait donc découvrir celle-ci, avec les techniques qui permettent de réaliser les sauces du passé. Expressions that refer to sauces are so numerous that they attest to just how important these are in the culinary art. And if the Little Treatise on Sauces essentially covers French sauces, it is with purpose.
Les Sauces Mères de la Cuisine Française
In French cuisine, a "Mother" sauce, also known as a a “Grand” or “Leading” sauce, is a sauce from which other sauces, often called “Daughter” sauces, are derived. Different classifications of French sauces into Mother and/or Daughter sauces have been established over the years by different chefs. They all aim at bringing clarity and sense to how sauces should be made, and how they should be used.
Voici les cinq sauces mères traditionnelles :
- Sauce Espagnole: Sauce brune à base d'une réduction de fond brun, épaissie avec un roux brun.
- Sauce Velouté: Sauce claire, faite en réduisant un fond clair (fait à partir d'os non rôtis) et épaissie avec un roux blanc.
- Sauce Tomate: Sauce rouge à base de tomates.
L'Évolution des Classifications
Despite common held belief, there have not always been 5 mother sauces in French cuisine. In fact, their number and selection have varied greatly from one chef / author to the other. The first Mother/Daughter sauce classifications date back from the 19th century.
In 1833, Marie Antoine Carême published a classification of French sauces in his reference cookbook : “The Art of French Cuisine in the 19th Century”. ( Original title : L’art de la cuisine française au XIXe siècle ). In "The Art of French Cuisine in the 19th Century”, Carême mentioned that his versions of Allemande sauce and Béchamel sauce recipes both use the Velouté sauce recipe as a starting point.
Auguste Escoffier et les Sauces Mères
Auguste Escoffier is considered by many French and international chefs as a pioneer when it comes to Kitchen organisation. Called the “Chef of Kings and King of Chefs”, he brought cleanliness, quiet and discipline to professional kitchens. In 1903, he published what would become afterwards a reference cookbook : “Le Guide Culinaire” (french for “The Culinary Guide”)[19].
This list is most of the time credited to Auguste Escoffier in his reference cookbook "Le Guide Culinaire". The main difference here is that Hollandaise sauce has been replaced with Mayonnaise sauce, following Escoffier's original classification. Mother sauces can be derived into many different smaller sauces, often referred to as Daughter sauces.
Chef Escoffier never treated Hollandaise sauce as a Mother sauce. Chef Escoffier considered Mayonnaise as a Mother sauce. Even though being placed in a “Daughter” sauce chapter in the book, mayonnaise sauce is introduced as a mother sauce. However, a closer look at Escoffier’s French cookbooks (not translations or adaptations) reveals that Hollandaise sauce never was considered a mother sauce.
In fact, that sauce is located in a small sauces chapter called “Petites Sauces Blanches et sauces Composées.” ( French for “Small white sauces and derived sauces”)[27]. Over the years, several translations of Escoffier’s cookbooks have been made. One translation in particular could be at the origin of this dilemma : “A guide to Modern Cookery by Escoffier, London, William Heinemann, 1907”[28]. In there, the “Leading Sauces” chapter includes 10 mother sauces. From an historical point of view Mayonnaise always was considered by Escoffier himself a true mother sauce.
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