# Master Sauces



## fakechef (Sep 30, 2004)

This should be an easy one for the pro's out there....What are the 5 Master sauces, and what are the basics of each?? Seems I only know two of them...
Thanks 
Bobby


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## deltadoc (Aug 15, 2004)

I think they are: bechamel, veloute, espagnole, tomato and hollandaise

bechamel is a milk sauce made with a roux.

Veloute is the same but made with a stock instead of milk.

Espagnole is a brown sauce, made with brown stock, a roux and mirepoix.

Tomato is tomato sauce.

hollandaise is a egg yolk/butter sauce made with a reduction of vinegar or lemon juice (or a little of both) and white wine.

Most of these sauces can be made in different ways. Many do not make espagnole sauce anymore, but just reduce a brown stock. I don't think bechamel is made as often as it used to either.

doc


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## deltadoc (Aug 15, 2004)

BTW: Sometimes a vinegrette is considered a sauce. There is debate as to whether there are 5 or 6 mother sauces. I tend to think of vinegrette as a dressing more than a sauce, and some think that the vinegrette is one of the 5 mother sauces and tomato is the 6th. Depends on who you talk to.

doc


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## katew (Feb 22, 2002)

Don't forget demiglace.


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

In order to make a quart demi glace you need to first make a quart of espagnole, add a quart of brown stock and reduce to 9/10 of a quart and finish with 1/10 of a quart of sherry, so demi glace is not actually a master sauce since a master sauce is required in order to make it.


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## suzanne (May 26, 2001)

We're not helping you out of a jam on an exam, are we?  

Just curious: why have you not been able to find this via, say, google?


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## t.haws (Feb 10, 2004)

Or any other freakin' classic french cookbook. If this refers to an exam, going to class would provide the answer, possibly reading the text, etc.....


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## greg (Dec 8, 1999)

Demi is sometimes included as a mother sauce by some because there are so many sauces which derive from it. Johnson and Wales (the culinary school that Kate and I both attended) teaches that there are 6 mother sauces: Bechamel, Espagnol, Tomato, Hollandaise, Veloute and Demi-Glace. So, it just depends who you ask. 

Doc has a good point regarding vinaigrettes. They are used more and more often now on entree's, have many derivatives and are an emulsion like hollandaise.


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## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

I don't agree with the vinaigrette being a mother sauce. You have to be able to derive other sauces from a mother sauce. Vinaigrettes have their own flavors, ie., raspberry, balsamic. You can't derive a balsamic from a raspberry or either from a plain white vinegar/oil vinaigrette, hence it's not a mother sauce.


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## deltadoc (Aug 15, 2004)

I've tried three times now to reply to this thread. I don't know why my posts keep not showing up! 

I read once that the French consider a sauce has to be so delectable that it can be eaten by itself. Now I can eat a bechamel, a veloute, an espagnole, a tomatoe, and a hollandaise by itself, But I stop short of being able to eat a vinegrette by itself. Therefore by this French perspective, I still tend to not think of vingrettes as sauces.

I also don't think of a demi-glace as a mother sauce, but then, one can contemplate Auguste Escoffier's definition of "demi-glace" as the "perfection of a brown sauce".

Now if "demi-glace" is the perfection of a "brown sauce", one must ask whether the perfection of any "mother sauce" is still a mother sauce or a derivative sauce! 


doc


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## pete (Oct 7, 2001)

I have also heard that some consider mayonnaise the 6th Mother Sauce since it is the base of a number of other sauces including remoulade, rouille, aioli, tartar sauce, etc.


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## ironchefatl (Dec 1, 2002)

not to create more havoc (ok thats my purpose odf this reply) but since Bearnaise is not a derivative of Hollandaise, what is it?....and dressing in my opinion doesnt count as a sauce unless you are also going to include all cold emulsions such as mayo. Demi...true demi and even more so to the point espagnole are dead. the use of roux in brown sauces is pointless in finer restaurants these days, and saying that espagnole and Demi are both mother sauces is redundant. The only thing you would make if you had espagnole would be demi, but since thats a bunch of pointless bother....if chewy is a whookie and lives with it ewoks..it makes no sense.


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## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

What do you mean Bearnaise is not a derivative of Hollandaise? You make a gastrique of pepper, tarragon, shallots, vinegar, white wine and add that to Hollandaise to make a Bearnaise.

I'm with Pete. If there ever were a sixth mother sauce it would be Mayonnaise. Hellman's for me, not that Kraft stuff!


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## katew (Feb 22, 2002)

I think when I asked this question-- I believe it was here, a couple years ago-- I could not find it in Google either. The answers vary. My problem was, the chef asked us as sort of a take-home question, so I could not ask him, either!
The answer does depend on what they want you to know. Each school, even each chef, will tell you something different. Find out the answer your particular chef wants to know.


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## headless chicken (Apr 28, 2003)

Actually, I was just told in class today about bearnaise and whether its a mother sauce or a derivative of hollandaise. Its made the same way as a hollandaise only flavored with terragon. But some people argue that bearnaise is a reduction with the terragon making it a totally different sauce from hollandaise. 

For my red seal test though, a bearnaise isn't a mother sauce.


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## hans.schallenbe (Oct 10, 2004)

interesting what i read; some 28 years ago when i became a culinary apprentice we learned;

brown sauces
demi glace
thickened veal jus 
game demi glace

white sauces [veloutes]
veal
chicken
fish
+ cream or liaison
= respective cream sauce
bechamel

tomato sauce
thickened with flour
concassee

butter sauces
hollandaise
bernaise

oil sauce
vinaigrette
mayonnaise

pureed sauces [coulis]

warm and cold specialty sauces

hans


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## hans.schallenbe (Oct 10, 2004)

to put an end to the confusion, hollandaise and bernaise are categorized as butter sauces. they are made the same way, except we all know that bernaise includes tarragon. further i would not advice just to add hollandaise sauce into a bernaise reduction, as the the poaching of egg yolk and reduction is important to develop the flavor. 

bernaise has a stronger flavor, is traditionally served to grilled items, hollandaise is milder and served with vegetables at times blended into sauces and possibly also gratinated

hans


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## hans.schallenbe (Oct 10, 2004)

doc,

went into some old book, a menu dated 1809, 28 november in the restaurant of the Very brothers in Paris they served 'des escalopes de saumon a l'espagnole'. in that period of Antonin Carême, the official brown sauce must have been the espagnole was also cheaper. however it was him who started to classify sauces like basic and great brown sauces, basic i believe they refered to the base stocks. the espagnole i agree is a fore runner to the demi glace, an could be considered as a mother sauce. howevver i will try to gather more historical facts from my retired teacher and let you all know, however, i am still surprised, that we use espagnole still today in the US, in europe that sauce is not used anymore. we always refer to the demi glace or a brown veal stock, when preparing brown sauces. maybe the french still cook it.

hans


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## fakechef (Sep 30, 2004)

Thanks to all who answered---It has been great fun, and educational as well. It turns out I had made all of them before, I just didn't know what they were!! It seems like few people get tired of talking about sauces ( I especially liked the thread on "demi" that I found elsewhere on this site), and I really appreciate the input.

I was a bit surprised by the apparent sarcastic nature of a couple of responses...This was an honest question, and it was not for a test!! I am a 50 year old commodity broker who loves to cook, and I didn't have a freaking classic french cook book handy.

Thanks again to all---I have to limit myself to 60 minutes a day to reading all the older threads, or I seem to not get anything done at work!!
Bobby


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## wildorchidcooks (Sep 17, 2006)

actually, demi-glace, is an espangole, with madiera or sherry wine added, usually reduced by about half, which makes it a direct derivative or espangole. remember: mother sauces are MOTHER sauces; ie: they are the theoretical parents of all other sauces.


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## wildorchidcooks (Sep 17, 2006)

wow, thank you for not being dumb...altho, to my knowledge, bearnaise IS a widely considered a derivative of hollandaise...and demi IS NOT DEAD. come to my restaurant...we use it on a handful of dishes with fantastic results...

The Wild Orchid Grille,
Raleigh, NC


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## mikeb (Jun 29, 2004)

5 mother sauces are:

- Espagnole - of which demi-glace is a derivative
- Velouté - most cream sauces are based off this, though not necessarily
- Hollandaise - of which Bearnaise sauce is a derivative, as well as Choron sauce, etc...
- Béchamel - of which Mornay sauce is a derivative
- Tomato sauce

Nowadays however, we really don't use any mother sauces. We make glace de viande, many different emulsions, foams, purées, etc... In my entire career I've only cooked in 1 restaurant that used mother sauces, the rest used modern sauces and techniques.


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## greyeaglem (Apr 17, 2006)

When I was in school (years ago), the teaching chef said there were people who believed there were seven what we called mother sauces, the 6th and 7th being butter and mayo. I still think of the number of mother sauces as being seven. The derivivitave sauces were referred to as small sauces. Butter especially makes sense as a major sauce when you consider all the compound butters made from it.


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## bigdog (Nov 20, 2005)

Hee hee hee, take it with a grain of salt, my friend. 

Often questions posed in a similar manner as yours are students looking for a quick out in finding answers versus "paying the piper" by reading or researching. This is a common occurance in various professions. I participate at a law enforcement forum, and we get people doing this all the time.

Not to say your question is invalid, or the manner presented inappropriate. You just chose a presentation style similar to that used by students asking short cut questions versus studying.


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## chefdrizzle (Dec 23, 2007)

my line cook went to JWU and he tought me a nice way to remember them all.. BETH has VD

B echemel
E spangol
T omato
H ollandaise

has

V eloute
D emi-glace

i think its quite clever and ever since he told me about his teacher at JWU telling him this acronym ive allways been able to remember it.


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## doubleofosiris (Apr 2, 2014)

Kuan- that is not a gastrique
Gastrique is something very sweet like sugar or apple juice reduced with something highly acidic like vinegar or lemon juice..

Bernaise is certainly not a derivitive because you start out with two different REDUCTIONS, hollandaise is peppercorn, shallot, wine wine vinegar, white wine reduced to sec then added to egg yolk and emulsified with butter, bernaise is teragon, shallot, peppercorn, white wine vinegar and white wine reduced to sec then same as hollandaise. If it were a derivative sauce you would make hollandaise then add teragon to the hollandaise thuse deriving the sauce. That's not the case. Also same with sauce nantua, foyot etc;

The five mother sauces are
Tomato or red
Espagnole or brown
Bechamel or white
Hollandaise or yellow (arguable as mother, I think being that it is the only emulsification and has no true derivitives it shouldn't be on the list, but that's just me and it is on the list of FIVE and only FIVE mother sauces)
Veloute or blonde

Wildorchidcooks you are wrong about demi glaze, what you described as demi glaze isnt really anything other then a sherry or madeira sauce i guess, beside sherry and madeira are two totally different things and are not interchangable. 
Demi glaze is not a mother but a derivative of espanole, to make demi glaze(demi meaning half) you simply take 1/2 espanole and 1/2 veal stock then reduce by half, thus DEMI glaze
Referring demi glaze as a mother is kind of stupid being that it is already a derivative of espanole, and calling it a sauce is stupid because its half way between a glaze and half way between a sauce... Demi... No sherry, no nothing other than brown sauce, veal stock and reduce by half, check with the ACF.
Ironchefatl what about sauce Robert, sauce charcuterie, sauce bigarade, sauce chasseur? There are plenty of derivative sauces of espagnole you "iron chef", shouldn't you know that... And why wouldn't you thicken a sauce with roux?

Glace De viande isn't really a sauce its actually what it says, a glaze or glace of meat usually veal, to make a glaze out of any stock the correct ratio is 16:1. So reduce one gallon of stock by 16.
Glace De viande- glaze of meat
Glace De volaill- glaze of chicken
Glaze De gibier- glaze of game
Glazes aren't really used for sauces they are used to glaze something like carrots or add depth to anything. Add roux and stock to any glaze and you have a demi glaze flavor of your choice...

Pete ailoi is not mayonaise , ugggghhhh such a naive ignorant mistake for a foodie/chef/anyone with a computer that loves food..... This is the one thing that pisses me off because I've had real aioli and I recognize the pain it is to make it.....
Aioli is a CONDIMENT not sauce, not derived from mayo. It is from Provence France it is done in a mortar and pestle, it is an emulsification of exactly what the name says(once again names do not lye) garlic, oil, sometimes lemon is added and egg yolk is added for a permanent emulsion. This is never perverted by adding anything else to it other then mustard and is only eaten with bread, nothing else.
Mayonaisse or correctly worded mahonaisse is a sauce or condiment created on an island off of Spain in a city called, get ready for this, MAHON, this is just a simple emulsification of egg yolk and oil and was created because the shortage of Milk on the island (too hilly or mountainous to raise cattle)
Tartar sauce is named after the tribe of called the tartars of the Ukraine west of the Mongolian tribes, steak tar tar is also named after them and they would eat the 2 together. They were a tribe that traveled on horseback they would put raw beef under their sattles with salt and oil, onions and wild herb in a pouch that hung off the side of the horse, as they traveled the beef was tenderized and the liquid in the pouch became emulsified. So that isnt really a "derivative" of mayo either..

But I'm not saying with today's technology all these sauces cant be made similarly to one another, so i can see where confution begins.... Hopefully I have cleared up some heads...


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## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

I don't know if we are disagreeing on technique, history, or names.

I make my Hollandaise with eggyolk, little water to start, add butter, lemon juice, salt and pepper, touch of cayenne.  That is the way I do it.  Tastes great.


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## genemachine (Sep 26, 2012)

Doubleofosiris said:


> Hollandaise or yellow (arguable as mother, I think being that it is the only emulsification and has no true derivitives it shouldn't be on the list, but that's just me and it is on the list of FIVE and only FIVE mother sauces)


Arguable, sure. But one could at least count sauce chantilly, sauce aux câpres and sauce maltaise as daughters of hollandaise. Although maltaise makes substitutions in the master recipe already, thus probably not a pure daughter.


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## petalsandcoco (Aug 25, 2009)

Doubleofosiris said:


> Pete ailoi is not mayonaise , ugggghhhh such a naive ignorant mistake for a foodie/chef/anyone with a computer that loves food..... This is the one thing that pisses me off because I've had real aioli and I recognize the pain it is to make it.....
> Aioli is a CONDIMENT not sauce, not derived from mayo. It is from Provence France it is done in a mortar and pestle, it is an emulsification of exactly what the name says(once again names do not lye) garlic, oil, sometimes lemon is added and egg yolk is added for a permanent emulsion. This is never perverted by adding anything else to it other then mustard and is only eaten with bread, nothing else.


I think we all understood what Pete said.

Aioli is like mayonnaise. It is a sauce as far as I am concerned.

Only eaten with bread ? I could never limit my palate to just bread . What about a dipping sauce for seafood ? What about Le Grand Aioli, served with fish and vegetables, potatoes, eggs and some mullusks ?

As for the bread, yup, to wipe the dish and pop in mouth.

Labor intensive ? Hardly . Like any other sauce, technique.


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## kokopuffs (Aug 4, 2000)

I always used my aioli as a dip for carrots and celery.


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## michaelga (Jan 30, 2012)

Doubleofosiris said:


> Pete ailoi is not mayonaise , ugggghhhh such a naive ignorant mistake for a foodie/chef/anyone with a computer that loves food..... This is the one thing that pisses me off because I've had real aioli and I recognize the pain it is to make it.....
> Aioli is a CONDIMENT not sauce, not derived from mayo. It is from Provence France it is done in a mortar and pestle, it is an emulsification of exactly what the name says(once again names do not lye) garlic, oil, sometimes lemon is added and egg yolk is added for a permanent emulsion. This is never perverted by adding anything else to it other then mustard and is only eaten with bread, nothing else.
> Mayonaisse or correctly worded mahonaisse is a sauce or condiment created on an island off of Spain in a city called, get ready for this, MAHON, this is just a simple emulsification of egg yolk and oil and was created because the shortage of Milk on the island (too hilly or mountainous to raise cattle)
> Tartar sauce is named after the tribe of called the tartars of the Ukraine west of the Mongolian tribes, steak tar tar is also named after them and they would eat the 2 together. They were a tribe that traveled on horseback they would put raw beef under their sattles with salt and oil, onions and wild herb in a pouch that hung off the side of the horse, as they traveled the beef was tenderized and the liquid in the pouch became emulsified. So that isnt really a "derivative" of mayo either..
> ...


Oh boy... where do we start...I'm going to simply say for now that your interpretation is one based upon a fairly late 1700's plus viewpoint. There are more and much earlier viewpoints.


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## ljokjel (Jul 1, 2009)

petalsandcoco said:


> I think we all understood what Pete said.
> 
> Aioli is like mayonnaise. It is a sauce as far as I am concerned.
> 
> ...


Id say you´re both right.

Here in Catalunya (part of Spain who claim inventing the alioli) people do separate between alioli made with and without egg. Alioli comes from the words for garlic and oil. A purist would say it should be without the eggyolk, but in most cases its made with.

Without your make a paste of garlic, and then emulsify with oil.

With its a garlic flavoured mayo.

Still havent been to a/worked in restaurant that does it without the egg, not even the Michelin rated ones.


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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

MichaelGA said:


> Oh boy... where do we start...I'm going to simply say for now that your interpretation is one based upon a fairly late 1700's plus viewpoint. There are more and much earlier viewpoints.


I wonder what you mean Michael? What earlier viewpoints?

In my experience in France, Aïoli is (and AFAIK always was) a garlic & oil emulsion, with or without emulsifiers such as mustard, yolk, potato or bread crumbs - while mayo with garlic added is just a garlic mayo. On the other hand, from what I've read on this forum, in the U.S. Aïoli is just mayo with added garlic.


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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

ljokjel said:


> Without your make a paste of garlic, and then emulsify with oil.
> 
> With its a garlic flavoured mayo.


Interesting distinction. To me, if you emulsify the garlic with the oil, the result is called Aïoli wether or not you used yolk. But if you emulsify yolks with oil and later add pureed garlic to it, then you're making a garlic flavored mayo.


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

Jacque Pepin is laboring under the misconception that "Mayonnaise can become sauce ...and, of course, the well-known aioli," in his book Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques.

Also I was under the impresssion that an emulsion is a mixture of two liquids that would ordinarily not mix together. Curious as to how this applies to oil and garlic.


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## ljokjel (Jul 1, 2009)

French Fries said:


> Interesting distinction. To me, if you emulsify the garlic with the oil, the result is called Aïoli wether or not you used yolk. But if you emulsify yolks with oil and later add pureed garlic to it, then you're making a garlic flavored mayo.


Sorry. Bad formulation. Things gets mixed up by a Norwegian living in Catalunya writing in English.

I agree.

My point was that even down here they are both called alioli. Im working for one of the most famous Michelinchefs in the country, and we make it by mixing garlic and egg, and emulsifying it. We even have another recipe containing milk.

How you write it depends on being spanish, catalan, english or whatever, and i dont really care. 


cheflayne said:


> Jacque Pepin is laboring under the misconception that "Mayonnaise can become sauce ...and, of course, the well-known aioli," in his book Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques.
> 
> Also I was under the impresssion that an emulsion is a mixture of two liquids that would ordinarily not mix together. Curious as to how this applies to oil and garlic.


By making a garlic paste and then carefully adding oil, you are able to emulsify it. It is as Doubleofosiris says more difficult and timeconsuming than making it using eggyolk, but it is absolutely doable.


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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

cheflayne said:


> I was under the impresssion that an emulsion is a mixture of two liquids that would ordinarily not mix together. Curious as to how this applies to oil and garlic.


The juices from the crushed garlic subjected to the action of the mortar and pestle is emulsified with the olive oil.


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

I understand the process but am questioning it being an emulsion. Not a big deal, really, just semantics more than anything else.


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## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

French Fries said:


> The juices from the crushed garlic subjected to the action of the mortar and pestle is emulsified with the olive oil.


I could live with that interpretation.


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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

cheflayne said:


> I (...) am questioning it being an emulsion.


I'm not sure why you are questioning it. You said an emulsion is "a mixture of two liquids that would ordinarily not mix together". Garlic juice and oil wouldn't ordinarily mix together, and Aïoli is a mixture of both.

Anyway, even if you put science and technique aside, Aïoli tastes like a garlic infused sauce, whereas a garlic-mayo tastes like a sauce with pureed garlic added to it. Kinda like hot cocoa vs hot milk with bits of chocolate floating around in it.


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

Are olive oil mashed potatoes an emulsion?


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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

cheflayne said:


> Are olive oil mashed potatoes an emulsion?


I suppose that if you beat a bit of potato in a mortar and pestle with oil, you can emulsify the water from the potato along with the oil. I'm not sure the result would be very interesting since AFAIK the water from a potato doesn't have a very strong potato taste. But when making mashed potatoes, you don't use a mortar and pestle, and you use way more potatoes than you do oil. So I suppose _some_ of the potato water _may_ emulsify with the oil? Not sure.

I'm not claiming to be an expert at science, but what about taste: do you really feel that garlic mayo and Aïoli taste the same? They certainly don't taste the same to me. My understanding is that in the case of Aïoli the garlic taste is emulsified with the oil, which carries it throughout every single droplet of the sauce, whereas in a garlic mayo, the emulsification is already made when the pureed garlic is added, and therefore you have small amounts of garlic puree floating around in the sauce, but the sauce itself doesn't taste of garlic. I'm not sure if I'm explaining this clearly hence the previous example I shared of a broken cocoa mix (think powdered cocoa that is added to cold milk, and where you can still spot the little brown cocoa dots in the white milk) as opposed to a perfectly emulsified hot cocoa (where the liquid has a uniform light brown color).


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## doubleofosiris (Apr 2, 2014)

Please Michael, enlighten me....


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## doubleofosiris (Apr 2, 2014)

kuan said:


> I could live with that interpretation.


me too!


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## doubleofosiris (Apr 2, 2014)

French Fries said:


> I'm not sure why you are questioning it. You said an emulsion is "a mixture of two liquids that would ordinarily not mix together". Garlic juice and oil wouldn't ordinarily mix together, and Aïoli is a mixture of both.
> 
> Anyway, even if you put science and technique aside, Aïoli tastes like a garlic infused sauce, whereas a garlic-mayo tastes like a sauce with pureed garlic added to it. Kinda like hot cocoa vs hot milk with bits of chocolate floating around in it.


very true, once again nice interpretation ha ha..

basically the majority of garlic juice is water with other aromatic components inside, water and oil doe not mix(surprise, surprise) but can be emulsified like any 2 polar solvents, without an emulsifier this is called a temporary emulsification, add an emulsifier like mustard etc; it becomes a semi permanent emulsion, add lecithin(component in egg yolk) it become a permanent emulsion

if used right and you take your time working the garlic with in the mortar and pestle garlic juices "other components" break down and become emulsifiers so a permanent emulsion is reached...

****ON THE OTHER NOTE, HUDSON VALLEY FIDDLEHEAD FERNS ALMOST HERE, YOU CAN PLACE YOUR ORDERS AND PM ME****


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## doubleofosiris (Apr 2, 2014)

cheflayne said:


> Are olive oil mashed potatoes an emulsion?


yes, it is a form of an emulsion.


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## doubleofosiris (Apr 2, 2014)

French Fries said:


> I'm not claiming to be an expert at science, but what about taste: do you really feel that garlic mayo and Aïoli taste the same? They certainly don't taste the same to me. My understanding is that in the case of Aïoli the garlic taste is emulsified with the oil, which carries it throughout every single droplet of the sauce, whereas in a garlic mayo, the emulsification is already made when the pureed garlic is added, and therefore you have small amounts of garlic puree floating around in the sauce, but the sauce itself doesn't taste of garlic. I'm not sure if I'm explaining this clearly hence the previous example I shared of a broken cocoa mix (think powdered cocoa that is added to cold milk, and where you can still spot the little brown cocoa dots in the white milk) as opposed to a perfectly emulsified hot cocoa (where the liquid has a uniform light brown color).


^ exactly how i feel!


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

> ~~It is from Provence France it is done in a mortar and pestle, it is an emulsification of exactly what the name says(once again names do not lye) garlic, oil, sometimes lemon is added and egg yolk is added for a permanent emulsion. This is never perverted by adding anything else to it other then mustard and is only eaten with bread, nothing else.


I've seen aïoli made in the France Provence on a number of occasions. It's indeed done in a (very large) mortar, but the pestle is only used to crush the (horribly abundant!) cloves of fresh garlic and turn that into a paste. From then on the pestle is no longer used but eggyolk and oil are added while digging one hand in the sauce and use the hand to beat. Eaten with bread only? I don't think so. It's served with raw vegetables, hardboiled eggs and potatoes etc. The mortar goes on the table and everyone dips their bites of food in it.

But, say I make my aioli just like I make a mayo; use a tall narrow mixing recipient, add garlic crushed into a paste using the side of a knife and some course salt, add 2 eggyolks, a tsp of mustard, a squeeze of lemon juice, 350 ml of neutral oil (you could use olive oil but I dont'), plunge a stick mixer in it and turn into what? I'm quite sure this is a perfect aioli. It's also more or less exactly like you described it in the quote above...

Now, leave the garlic out and you have a perfect... mayo. My point is; mayo and garlic or garlic and mayo both make a very good aioli. The concentration of garlic does the trick, not how you make it.

Maybe you need to understand that only some decades ago, when many people didn't have a fridge, that in hotter areas like the south of France and especially in Andalucia in Spain, eggs were not often used in these mayo-type preparations, simply for the fact that it was a health risk. So, the original aioli would most likely have been; garlic and oil, a very unstable concoction that many times split by the time it came to the table. In Andalucia there are still many recipes for making mayo without using eggs, but using milk.


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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

ChrisBelgium said:


> I've seen aïoli made in the France Provence on a number of occasions. It's indeed done in a (very large) mortar, but the pestle is only used to crush the (horribly abundant!) cloves of fresh garlic and turn that into a paste. From then on the pestle is no longer used but eggyolk and oil are added while digging one hand in the sauce and use the hand to beat.


Traditionally, the mortar and pestle is also used to "monter l'Aïoli" (meaning to beat the emulsion and give the sauce its body). In fact the tradition says that once the pestle can stay standing up in the mortar, then you've reached the proper consistency.


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## taliaskitchen (Sep 17, 2015)

Mother Sauces …. 

Just today I have learned about this acronym  its so useful  I have been always got confused about the sauces classification  so this acronym saved my life


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