**Testing the French mother sauce that fell out of grace — Transcript & Summary | SozAI**
Source: https://sozai.app/transcript/testing-french-mother-sauce-fell-out-grace/

A French Cooking Academy video revisits the classic French tomato mother sauce: a bacon, aromatic and blond-roux base turned into velouté, then finished with San Marzano tomatoes, thyme and bay.

## Key Takeaways

- The classic French tomato sauce is a velouté-based sauce with a roux and stock, distinct from fresh Italian tomato sauces.
- Slow cooking, bacon and a blond roux give it a deeper, less acidic flavor profile.
- Using San Marzano canned tomatoes provides a strong tomato flavor boost.
- A small pinch of sugar and generous thyme help balance and season the sauce.

## What the video covers

- The video revisits the classic French tomato sauce (sauce tomate), one of the five French mother sauces, which has fallen out of fashion.
- The sauce is contrasted with Italian-style passata: it is richer, less acidic, slow-cooked and built from multiple components.
- Key ingredients include butter, bacon, onion, carrot, garlic, chicken stock, tomato paste and canned San Marzano tomatoes.
- The base is a tomato-flavored roux: bacon and aromatics are cooked in butter, then flour is added and cooked on very low heat to a blond stage.
- Adding stock to the roux creates a velouté, which is then enhanced with tomatoes to become a sauce tomate.
- Thyme, bay leaves, a teaspoon of sugar to balance acidity, salt and black pepper are added for seasoning.
- The presenter notes the traditional version takes about an hour to reach proper consistency, while a quick home version is demonstrated in roughly 30 minutes.
- The sauce is used mainly in dishes other than pasta, which the video says it will cover with usage examples.

## Chapters

1. 00:00 Introduction: Why Classic French Tomato Sauce
2. 00:40 Overview of Ingredients
3. 02:30 Starting the Butter and Bacon Base
4. 06:00 Adding Aromatics and Making the Blond Roux
5. 10:00 Adding Tomato Paste to the Roux
6. 13:20 Turning the Roux into Velouté with Stock
7. 18:00 Adding San Marzano Tomatoes and Slow Cooking
8. 20:30 Final Seasoning and Conclusion

Answers

## Questions about this video

What makes this French tomato sauce different from Italian tomato sauce?

The French version is built on a roux and stock, making it a velouté-based sauce with bacon, aromatics and multiple components. It is slow cooked and less acidic, whereas Italian-style sauces are typically made from fresh tomatoes alone.

Which tomatoes does the presenter recommend?

The presenter recommends canned San Marzano tomatoes, which he describes as the best-tasting Italian tins and a major source of real tomato flavor in the sauce.

How long should the sauce cook?

The presenter says a traditional version typically needs about an hour of slow cooking to reach the right consistency, but he demonstrates a quicker home-style version of around 30 minutes.

## Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

00:01

Speaker A

Now, tomato sauce is a subject that's been covered to death on how to make the Italian style passata. And I thought in this video it would be a good idea not to talk about this, but instead to talk about the classic good old French tomato sauce.

00:12

Speaker A

Now, this is part of the five classic mother sauces, but the classic version has been totally out of fashion, like nobody's using it.

00:26

Speaker A

So, I thought perfect time.

00:39

Speaker A

This is the time to revisit that recipe.

00:51

Speaker A

And actually, it's kind of growing on me.

01:00

Speaker A

Because it is cooked with lots of ingredients you can see there.

01:11

Speaker A

Totally different flavor profile, not as acidic.

01:28

Speaker A

And there is uh carrots, onion, you got garlic, you got stock, you got bacon into it.

01:34

Speaker A

It is slow cooked.

01:44

Speaker A

And it is used in a totally different ways, mostly not for pastas, like used for that one.

01:50

Speaker A

So, in this video, I'm going to give you a recipe for a small batch on how to make that good old classic that's delicious.

01:59

Speaker A

And then a few examples on how you can use it at home because it's a really worth a try.

02:07

Speaker A

Let's go.

02:21

Speaker A

Let's begin with the ingredients with a quick overview.

02:28

Speaker A

You'll find everything in the video description, but some uh key ingredients here.

02:39

Speaker A

You're going to need uh some stock, ideally a chicken stock.

02:48

Speaker A

You can buy it uh from a store from a good quality or make your own.

03:02

Speaker A

And we're going to be using simply tomatoes in tins.

03:10

Speaker A

Now, these are the San Marzano tomatoes.

03:19

Speaker A

By far, in the world of tin tomato, the best tasting Italian tomatoes uh there is.

03:25

Speaker A

It's absolutely a brilliant from the rest.

03:38

Speaker A

Simple ingredients, a simple pan.

03:46

Speaker A

Now, let's jump on the stove.

03:52

Speaker A

So, let's begin the sauce.

04:04

Speaker A

Very simple.

04:10

Speaker A

You can use a saucepan.

04:18

Speaker A

I'm using a conical sauté pan on here.

04:39

Speaker A

And we're going to start with a medium to high heat.

04:51

Speaker A

I'll show you the the kind of heat that I've got here.

05:04

Speaker A

And uh what we do first is, of course, to use butter.

05:08

Speaker A

So, we're going to start to melt all the butter in here.

05:19

Speaker A

So, a bit of a better view on here.

05:26

Speaker A

The butter is melting, and we're going to start uh to make what we call a roux tomate.

05:34

Speaker A

Uh so, it's a special roux a bit flavored uh with first bacon.

05:44

Speaker A

So, we adding the bacon in here and we're not really coloring.

05:59

Speaker A

We're just going to leave this in the butter to to cook slightly for a minute or so.

06:08

Speaker A

We're not kind of searing anything.

06:18

Speaker A

And then we're going to add the rest of the aromatics.

06:23

Speaker A

So, as I said, very different than the classic Italian tomato sauce.

06:33

Speaker A

We've got you know the the bacon in here is is getting a bit pale and I'm taking all my aromatics.

06:39

Speaker A

So, onion, carrot, and a bit of garlic.

06:51

Speaker A

And then same thing.

07:01

Speaker A

Now, I'm just maybe 2 minutes or something like that.

07:14

Speaker A

I'm going to mix everything in there.

07:24

Speaker A

So, a very light coloration.

07:38

Speaker A

You can see at the bottom of the pan here there's some color.

07:50

Speaker A

And now we're making the roux.

08:04

Speaker A

So, the roux is what?

08:12

Speaker A

Is the It's basically butter and flour, but now we've got aromatics, the butter, and the flour.

08:16

Speaker A

So, same concept.

08:27

Speaker A

I'm reducing my heat slightly.

08:41

Speaker A

So, this is what I've got here.

08:52

Speaker A

Okay.

09:03

Speaker A

I'm going to mix everything in here.

09:17

Speaker A

And reducing to a low heat to make sure I don't burn anything.

09:27

Speaker A

We want a blonde roux.

09:42

Speaker A

So, blonde roux you can spend a good 3 minutes cooking on very low heat.

09:47

Speaker A

And we're not adding the tomato paste now because if you were to add this now, you would not see the color of your roux.

09:58

Speaker A

So, we need to judge by the color here.

10:07

Speaker A

But, if you want to use time, typically 3 minutes, you'll be fine.

10:15

Speaker A

So, the time is up.

10:26

Speaker A

Very low heat, remember.

10:39

Speaker A

Very very low.

10:52

Speaker A

Look at this.

11:00

Speaker A

And I I stir from time to time, not all the time.

11:08

Speaker A

And uh I leave really that flour and butter to to cook like this.

11:16

Speaker A

So, we get really that blonde effect.

11:27

Speaker A

So, now we're making a roux tomate.

11:38

Speaker A

Roux tomate means a tomato flavored roux.

11:49

Speaker A

So, roux is the flour and butter.

11:55

Speaker A

Well, we've got some aromatics.

12:06

Speaker A

And now we add the tomato.

12:16

Speaker A

So, this is tomato paste.

12:23

Speaker A

Okay.

12:33

Speaker A

Good amount.

12:43

Speaker A

Don't worry, you'll find everything as I said in the video description for the ingredients.

12:56

Speaker A

And same thing here.

13:02

Speaker A

A good minute.

13:12

Speaker A

We're going to cook this very gently on low heat still.

13:22

Speaker A

So, my tomato flavored roux is ready.

13:31

Speaker A

And now there's something quite interesting that's going to happen.

13:42

Speaker A

As I said, that tomato sauce is totally different than a classic tomato sauce because here we have a roux with tomatoes.

13:51

Speaker A

But, what we're going to do as the next step is to add stock.

14:02

Speaker A

And if you know your mother sauces, so we start a little bit first.

14:07

Speaker A

When you mix a stock with a roux, you're making a velouté sauce.

14:14

Speaker A

I'm raising my heat now because we need to bring this to a boil.

14:25

Speaker A

Okay?

14:33

Speaker A

So, roux plus stock equal a velouté, which mean that this so-called tomato sauce is in fact a velouté sauce that is then further enhanced with fresh tomatoes and turned into a sauce tomate.

14:40

Speaker A

So, it is really different to make them so when you talk about a sauce, typically in French cooking, in classic French cuisine, it is actually something that has multiple components.

14:46

Speaker A

Compared to the when we say tomato sauce from an Italian perspective, it is usually all these fresh uh you know, these fresh tomatoes.

15:00

Speaker A

And that's about it.

15:07

Speaker A

Uh so, you can see first we're making that velouté and then we're going to add the tomatoes.

15:18

Speaker A

So, I'm adding my stock a bit by bit, raising my heat, and I'm going to bring this to a very light boil.

15:33

Speaker A

So, it's boiling.

15:38

Speaker A

And look what I've got.

16:02

Speaker A

All what I'm using here is a bit of tomato puree with the stock and roux to get almost like a velouté.

16:13

Speaker A

You see the consistency?

16:29

Speaker A

Kind of very thick, and I'm going to taste already.

16:36

Speaker A

Mhm.

16:47

Speaker A

And I can already feel the bacon, which is great.

16:53

Speaker A

But, we're going further.

17:01

Speaker A

When you got this base here, and now we're going to add all these tomatoes, the San Marzano.

17:13

Speaker A

Because this is the big boost of real flavor of tomato that you want in that sauce.

17:26

Speaker A

So, we're going to reduce this, and now it's a waiting game.

17:36

Speaker A

Okay?

17:49

Speaker A

When this is in, I'm going to add the final aromatics, and we're going to have to slow cook this for some time.

18:05

Speaker A

At least typically it's an hour to get it to consistency, but I'm going to try to make just a a quick home style version.

18:14

Speaker A

Maybe wait 30 minutes or something like that.

18:21

Speaker A

Okay.

18:29

Speaker A

So, let me add the aromatics in here first.

18:46

Speaker A

So, you see totally different than the classic Italian tomato sauce.

18:53

Speaker A

From here, it says you need quite a lot of thyme.

19:02

Speaker A

You need to have a really a prominence of thyme.

19:15

Speaker A

So, the thyme needs to be in there.

19:27

Speaker A

We've got a few bay leaves on here.

19:38

Speaker A

I'll just add a little bit.

19:47

Speaker A

A teaspoon of sugar to cut off the acidity.

20:01

Speaker A

And then the classic salt and pepper.

20:13

Speaker A

That's what we've got.

20:26

Speaker A

Don't start with too much salt because you can add some later if need be.

20:38

Speaker A

And of course, some you can use white pepper, but I like to use black pepper in here.

20:49

Speaker A

And that's it.

Topics: French tomato sauce sauce tomate mother sauces velouté roux San Marzano tomatoes classic French cooking bacon tomato sauce recipe French cuisine

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