Velouté sauce

A velouté sauce, along with Allemande, Béchamel, and Espagnole, is one of the original 4 mother sauces of French cuisine created by Antonin Carême in the 19th century. (French chef August Escoffier would later classify tomato, mayonnaise, and hollandaise as mother sauces.) The term is from the French adjectival form of "velour" meaning velvet.

In preparing a velouté sauce, a light stock (one in which the bones used have not been roasted), such as chicken, veal or fish stock, is thickened with a blond roux.

Thus the ingredients of a velouté are butter and flour to form the roux, a light chicken, veal, or fish stock, salt and pepper for seasoning. Commonly the sauce produced will be referred to by the type of stock used e.g. chicken velouté.

It 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 glace de viande
*Allemande sauce By adding a few drops of lemon juice, egg yolks, and cream
*Bercy: Shallots, white wine, lemon juice and parsley added to a fish velouté
*Poulette: Mushrooms finished with chopped parsley and lemon juice
*Aurora: Tomato puree
*Hungarian: Onion, paprika, white wine
*Normandy: Mushroom cooking liquid and oyster liquid/fish fumet added to fish velouté, finished with a liaison of egg yolks and cream
*Suprême sauce By adding a reduction of mushroom liquor and cream to a chicken velouté
*Venetian sauce: Tarragon, shallots, chervil