Velouté sauce (French: [vəluˈte]) is a savory sauce made from a roux and white stock. It is one of the five "mother sauces" in French cuisine and is used as the base for other sauces (known as "small sauces"), such as allemande, suprême, and crème.
Velouté sauce is a light-bodied sauce for its velvety texture; the thickener is a blond roux. The roux is cooked pale blond, and then white stock (chicken, veal, or fish) is whisked in. The mixture is brought to a boil and simmered for about 15 minutes to cook out the raw flour taste.
Blond roux adds flavor but does not thicken as much as a brown roux.
The classic small sauces made from velouté are all named for their flavoring ingredients: white wine (fricassee), mushrooms (champignon), tomatoes (tomato), cayenne pepper, or chili powder (piquant) and tarragon (Estragon).
Use of Veloute Sauce
The velouté sauce is one of the five basic mother sauces in French cuisine. Its defining characteristics are white stock and a roux as its thickener.
The name velouté comes from the French word for velvet. This sauce can be further differentiated into subcategories such as chicken velouté, depending on the type of stock used. It is commonly served with meats, fish, and poultry.
The veloute sauce is a mother sauce made from white stock and a light roux. It is one of the five French mother sauces and the basis for many different sauces.
The veloute sauce is the first sauce in Auguste Escoffier's list of the five grandes sauces. The word veloute means "velvety" in French, referring to the smooth texture of this sauce.
- Like all mother sauces, Veloute sauce can be made with a variety of stocks depending on the final sauce you intend to make. The classic version uses chicken stock, but other light stocks will also work. Veloute is also commonly made with fish stock or vegetable stock when those flavors are desired in the final dish.
- Most cooks will make a small amount of roux when first starting, just enough to thicken their stock into a veloute sauce. This process is called making a liaison, and it is used to thicken soups and stews and form the base for some cream sauces.
Taste of Velouté Sauce
What does velouté sauce taste like?
Velouté sauce is a mother sauce, a basic sauce that starts with a roux and then adds either stock or milk. A veloute sauce made with chicken stock is sometimes referred to as a white sauce. A veloute sauce made with fish stock is a blonde sauce. It can be made with other stocks, such as veal and beef.
There is a fundamental difference between a sauce and a velouté: sauces are thickened by starches such as flour, while the roux thickens veloutés.
What is a Roux?
A roux is made by combining equal parts of fat and flour and cooking them overheating. The more you cook your roux, the less it will thicken your liquid. That's because the starch in the flour becomes gelatinized with heat, which means it swells up with moisture and takes up space in the mixture. So if you cook your roux for longer, there will be less starch available to thicken your dish so that it won't thicken as much.
- That's why white sauces (such as béchamel) are cooked very gently over low heat for a long time—the longer you cook it, the more starch will be gelatinized so that it will become thicker. However, if you cook it too long and all the starch granules have burst open from too much heat, then your sauce won't thicken at all!
- That's not to say that roux-thickened sauces can't be reheated—they can—but they shouldn't be brought to a boil after they've been thickened.
Is Velouté the same as like Gravy?
Both sauces are made with roux and stock, but they're different.
- Gravies are made with meat stock. Velouté is a French word meaning velvet, and it's the name for a sauce made with chicken or fish stock. (It may also refer to wealthy custard.)
- Gravy can be made in many ways. You can make it from pan drippings, or you can make it from the juices of roasted meat or poultry. This is called jus, which has been reduced to concentrate its flavor. It's usually enriched by whisking in butter and sometimes cream. Jus is also an excellent partner for vegetables.
- In French cooking, velouté is usually enriched with egg yolks and butter to produce a sauce called Allemande (German sauce). Velouté combined with heavy cream has what we often call cream gravy.
Steps to follow in Velouté Sauce
Velouté sauce is one of the five mother sauces in French cuisine. It's made with a blond roux and a light-colored stock, usually chicken or fish stock. A velouté sauce is much easier to make than it sounds, and it makes for an excellent foundation for many other sauces.
- Gather your ingredients and heat the stock on the stovetop until bubbling.
- Make the roux by melting the butter in a pan over medium-low heat and whisking in the flour.
- Let it cook for about two minutes, constantly stirring so nothing burns.
- Remove from the heat and slowly add your stock to the roux, constantly whisking to prevent lumps.
- Return to low heat and stir until thickened—season with salt and pepper before serving.
Velouté and Soup
- "Velouté" is a French word that means "velvety," which applies to a wide range of soups. These are based on stock, typically made from chicken bones, but can also be made from fish or veal. The critical distinction between velouté and soup is that the latter isn't limited by the ingredients used in its base.
You don't have to make your stock for velouté — you can buy it ready-made, especially if you're in France. However, if you're making it at home, the first step is to make your stock.
- Soups are categorized according to their preparation process and ingredients. For example, if you're following a recipe that calls for adding an egg yolk-and-flour mixture at the end of cooking, the chances are high that this will create a velouté soup.
Velouté soups are usually served hot as an appetizer, although they can be served cold in the summer months (in which case they are called "velouté glacé"). They can be made with various ingredients, such as chicken or fish with mushrooms, carrots, or leeks (depending on the base).
Velouté is served hot or cold;
A velouté is a roux, which means cooked flour and butter. In the case of a velouté, it is cooked for about five minutes to remove the raw flour taste. Velouté does not mean the same as creamy. It is made with stock added gradually and simmered until thickened, then strained.
It may be part of another sauce such as a sauce suprême, made by adding cream or crème Fraiche and butter to a velouté sauce made with chicken stock and white wine. The sauce is served with sautéed mushrooms, chicken, or fish. It can also be used as a base for other sauces, such as Allemande of Nantua.
French term for fish Velouté Soup
The French term for fish velouté soup is potage de poisson. Velouté refers to how this soup is prepared, as the milk and fish stock are added only after the fish has been removed from the broth.
- The velouté method of cooking is well known in French cuisine, with soups and sauces prepared in this manner being a staple of the style.
- The word velouté translates directly from French to English as "velvety" or "smooth," both describe the texture of this type of soup.
It should be noted that although potage de Poisson can refer to any fish in a soup, it is most commonly used when referring to salmon as an ingredient. Other types of fish are frequently used in soups, but they are not typically referred to as veloutés.
Difference between Béchamel and Velouté Sauce
- Béchamel and velouté are the two mother sauces of French cuisine. They're called the mother sauces because they are used as bases for numerous other sauces. A béchamel is a white sauce made by thickening milk with a roux, a cooked mixture of equal parts butter and flour. A velouté is a white sauce made by thickening stock with a roux.
- A velouté has an unmistakable taste from the stock, while a béchamel is more neutral in flavor.
The two sauces are creamy and smooth, but neither is rich; they provide a soft texture to whatever dish they're used in. By contrast, hollandaise and mayonnaise are rich sauces because they contain raw eggs.
The first difference is that the béchamel sauce is made with milk, while the velouté is made with meat or vegetable broth.
The second difference is that the béchamel is made with a roux (flour cooked in fat), while the velouté has a liaison (obtained by adding egg yolks and cream).
In conclusion, if you follow the classic recipes, it's easy to distinguish between the two sauces. The béchamel is creamier because of butter and milk, than but not as thick as the velouté containing more flour.
How to thicken Velouté?
A velouté is a sauce that combines a light stock (chicken, fish, or vegetable) with a white roux. Since the thickness of a sauce depends on the ratio of liquid to the roux, you can thicken it by reducing some of the liquid from the finished sauce or adding more roux to it.
- It's important to note that you're not trying to make a béchamel or a cream sauce here - those are both made with milk rather than stock and will have a very different flavor from a velouté.
- It depends on the ingredients you are using. If it is a poultry-based velouté, you can add some glace de volaille or a brown stock at the end. If it is a fish velouté, you can add some glace de Poisson (fish stock). If it's an egg velouté, you need to add more egg yolks.
If those options are not possibilities and you are using only vegetables, try adding some corn starch dissolved in water.
Can we freeze Velouté Sauce?
Yes, you can freeze velouté sauce.
- It would help if you did not freeze the sauce until it has been completed.
- It is better to prepare the sauce up to adding the butter and then cool it quickly before freezing.
- To do this, place a large ice cube in an ice bath and gradually pour the velouté into the bath, whisking constantly. This will chill the sauce quickly and prevent lumps from forming.
- Once the velouté is cold, transfer it to a freezer-proof container and freeze it for three months.
When Velouté Sauce is described as smooth and velvety
The only way to get a smooth velouté is to use a blender. I have a stick blender, so I make my veloutés in the saucepan.
- To get a smooth velouté by hand, you must strain it into another pan and then whisk it over the heat until it's reduced to the desired consistency. It's a fair amount of work.
- However, if you use a blender, you can blend the flour and butter in the pan with the liquid and then put it back on the heat.
- If you have time, though, I'd suggest not blending it at all and reducing it by hand. Then, it will have more body and will cling better to meat or vegetables.
So, we can say that a velouté is one of the five mother sauces in French cuisine. It is a white sauce thickened with a roux and enriched with a stock. The velvety smoothness of the sauce comes from the fact that it is not cooked after the addition of the stock, as some other sauces are.
The result is a delicately flavored sauce that can be served or used as a base to further flavor and thicken sauces, soups, and stews. A lighter version of this sauce may be made by substituting milk for all or part of the stock.
