ever more “elegant” and “exquisite”
preparations. So social revolution became a
new motivating force for culinary progress.
Sauce Families Carême made a number of
contributions to this progress, and perhaps the
most notable involved the sauces. His idea, set
forth in The Art of French Cooking in the 19th
Century, was to organize the infinity of
possibilities that Marin foresaw, and thereby
help cooks realize them. He classified the
sauces of the time into fourfamilies, each
headed by a basic or leading sauce, and each
expandable by playing variations on that basic
theme. Only one of the leading sauces,
espagnole, was based on expensive, highly
concentrated meat extract; both velouté and
allemande used unreduced stock, and
béchamel used milk. Many of these sauces
were thickened with flour, which is much
more economical than reduced meat bouillon.
This approach suited the limits and needs of