Which of the following is NOT one of the five mother sauces?

• A. Beurre Blanc.
• B. Béchamel.
• C. Velouté.
• D. Espagnole.

Answer: (A)

Five mother sauces are the baseline bases in classic French cuisine from which many other sauces are built: Béchamel, Velouté, Espagnole, Tomato, and Hollandaise. Beurre blanc isn’t one of them. It’s a derivative butter-based sauce made by emulsifying cold butter into a reduction of white wine (often with shallots). That makes it delicious and versatile, but it isn’t a foundational base for other sauces.

The other options are indeed mother sauces: Béchamel is milk thickened with a white roux; Velouté uses a light stock thickened with roux; Espagnole is the brown stock-based sauce enriched with mirepoix, a brown roux, and tomato purée. Recognizing which sauces serve as bases helps explain why Beurre blanc isn’t counted among the five.