Sauce Velouté: Does anyone still use it?

[Chris Hennes]

I was writing the WikiGullet Project article on Sauce Velouté this afternoon and reading through Peterson's Sauces, which got me thinking that I cannot recall the last time I was served a Velouté or Velouté-derivative in any form at a restaurant. I make it occasionally at home, but never out. I know the notion of "heavy French sauces" fell out of favor, but it must still be out there someplace, right? Do any of you still make it? Have you seen it "in the wild" anywhere?

[David A. Goldfarb]

I had a pumpkin velouté served as a soup at La Grenouille in New York a few months ago. If anyone is doing the classic French sauces, it's them.

I make velouté as a sauce occasionally.

Edited March 5, 2011 by David A. Goldfarb (log)

[Chef Jonny]

I've seen "Parmesan Veloute" a couple years back on Ramsay's 'Petrus' restaurant.... and I've made a corn veloute(chicken stock) for a couple banquets to go with crab cakes... it can be a heavy sauce but I still like the way it tastes.

[Mark Donnelly]

I make mine with fish stock, double creame and vermouth. I use it for fish pie and (more thinly) a seafood chowder. But I don't make it that often (5-6) times a year. I use a variation on Nico Ladenis' receipe.

[ScoopKW]

I make it at home often enough. It is an easy sauce that goes with so many dishes.

I've seen it at Andre's in Las Vegas, and that's about it. I agree, it should be on more menus. To paraphrase diva Ina, "Stock and roux, how good is that?"

[FrogPrincesse]

Chris - my mom always serves sauce veloute with white asparagus. It's a perfect pairing.

I believe she uses the cooking liquid from the asparagus for the sauce.

[janeer]

Yes. It is the sauce in my chicken pie.

[annabelle]

I make sauce veloute quite often. It is my eldest son's favorite sauce and he requests it when he is home on breaks from college.

[David Ross]

I've had Sauce Veloute served at Guy Savoy in Las Vegas. It was the sauce for a chicken dish where the whole bird had been studded with truffles just under the skin and then poached in a rich stock.

[Blether]

Does "veloute du jus", aka gravy, count ?

[Eastgate]

How about roux-thickened soups? Cream of broccoli, say, seems fairly common....

[Chef Jonny]

I think these soups have an advantage to a lot of other soups... cream of mushroom just isn't a soup unless you use a roux.... achieving the proper soup consistency and nutty flavour flour adds just can't be compromised by starchy vegetables or other thickeners.

[Paul Bacino]

I use it for my scallops..coquille st jacques ...unless I add an egg

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[Genkinaonna]

I use it as the base for the sauce for my white enchilada casserole, with the addition of a large (large enough that I can't tell my diet-concious husband how large) amount of sour cream. Good stuff. Heavy, like middle of winter just went out to chop wood for the homestead heavy, but good.

[jsmeeker]

Yes. It is the sauce in my chicken pie.

Mine too!

Do I make it as a sauce to dress a piece of meat? I have in the past. Mostly, just because I wanted to do it and play around with classic "mother sauces" after making a nice batch of chicken stock. Is that old school? Sure. But old school can still be pretty tasty.

[Chris Hennes]

Do any of you have photos of the velouté? Better yet, photos of it used as a sauce? This article could use one if you are willing.

[Paul Bacino]

Chris ...search my couquille st jacques for my pic

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[BeatriceB]

I use veloute for chicken hash (Pierre Franey's 60 Minute Gourmet recipe), chicken pie, and for my favorite sauce to accompany pot au feu, poule au pot, poached salmon, etc. (and to put over/with hot potatoes or other veg to accompany the leftover cold meat) -- Sauce Raifort: Sauce Supreme made with the relevant cooking liquid liberally seasoned with horseradish and a little lemon juice.

As Blether suggested, it is an interesting question whether, for instance, the traditional Thanksgiving turkey gravy is a veloute. It starts with a roux, but made with drippings rather than butter, and then the pan juices are generally augmented by stock to complete the gravy. It is not classic, but close.

Unfortunately, I can't remember where, but I know I've seen a few veloute sauces in restaurants over the past few years -- they have been plated in small quantities next to rather than over the meat, and in tandem with a more astringent sauce/compote/whathaveyou.

[Chef Jonny]

I'd have to say turkey gravy is NOT a veloute.... veloute should start with a roux, add liquids, finishing ingredients. Gravy as I've see over the years(at home, not restaurants), is pan drippings, sprinkled with flour, stirred and "corrected". I think the major difference is fat to stock.... veloute should be 100% liquid, about 10% fat. Gravy is running about 50-50.....

[Chris Hennes]

Certainly in the classical French sense I think Chef Jonny is right: Escoffier had a completely separate category for integral meat sauces (as opposed to stock-based sauces like velouté). So with this kind of gravy what you really have is a thickened natural jus, which traditionally would have been thickened with arrowroot, but the "roux" is serving the same purpose.

[Blether]

I'd have to say turkey gravy is NOT a veloute.... veloute should be 100% liquid, about 10% fat. Gravy is running about 50-50.....

My gravies use about the same proportions as a veloute - I pour off (& save !) excess fat. Gravy's water-based, flour-thickened and flavoured with cooked meat & bone juices.