Allemande sauce

Allemande sauce is a sauce in French cuisine that is based on velouté sauce, but thickened with egg yolks, heavy cream, and seasoned with lemon juice. Velouté is one of the four mother sauces of classic French cuisine as defined by Antoine Carême in his classic text "The Art of French Cooking in the 19th Century."

It was Escoffier who perfected the "sauce allemande" (named 'German sauce' because of its pale yellow color) at the turn of the 20th century; a few years later at the outbreak of World War I, he rescued the sauce by renaming it "Sauce blonde". Today, the sauce is generally known as "Sauce Parisienne". It is best used with eggs, poached fish, poultry, hot hors d'oeuvres, and dishes topped with a coating of bread crumbs.

Though allemande sauce is thickened with egg yolk, it can withstand high heat, even being boiled without scrambling the eggs. This is due to the sauce having first been thickened with flour during its initial velouté stage.

The following is the basic recipe for "Sauce Allemande": [Child, Julia, (1964), "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", Alfred A. Knopf]

* 1½ cups thick velouté
* 2 egg yolks
* ½ cup heavy whipping cream
* salt, pepper
* lemon juice
#Bring Velouté sauce to simmer in heavy bottomed sauce pan.
#Blend egg yolks and whipping cream in mixing bowl. In a very thin stream slowly beat in ½ cup of the hot velouté with a wire whisk.
#Pour the mixture into the sauce pan.
#With a wooden spoon, over moderately high heat, stir sauce until it come to a boil. Boil and stir 1 minute. Remove from heat.
#Strain sauce through fine sieve to remove any coagulated bits of egg white that may have clung to the yolks.
#Rinse pan. Return sauce.
#Simmer over low heat. Add salt, pepper, lemon juice to taste. If sauce is too thick add more cream.

Makes approx. 2 cups. Sauce may be frozen.

Notes