mother sauce

noun

plural mother sauces

: a simple sauce that is often used as the base for other sauces

Known as a mother sauce, béchamel can be modified by simply adding cheese, preferably a hard cheese like Gruyere or Swiss. With that and a pinch of nutmeg, you have a mornay sauce.—

David Campiche

Any chef worth her salt can write a lengthy book on the French mother sauces. (There are lots of other mother sauces cooked in countries that are not-France, but that's another book).—

Julie Cross

Examples of mother sauce in a Sentence

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In the red pizza section find the Pisa Lisa made with mother sauce, provolone-mozzarella, picante peppers, Calabrese sausage, soppressata salami, prosciutto di Parma and spicy coppa. —

Bahar Anooshahr, The Arizona Republic, 12 Feb. 2024