velouté sauce (French pronunciation: [vəluˈte]), along with tomato, Hollandaise, Béchamel and espagnole, is one of the sauces of French cuisine that were designated the five "mother sauces" by Auguste Escoffier in the 19th century, which was a simplification of the "Sauce Carême" list of Marie-Antoine Carême. The term velouté is from the French adjectival form of velour, meaning velvet.
In preparing a velouté sauce, a light stock (one in which the bones used have not been previously roasted), such as chicken or fish stock, is thickened with a blond roux. Thus the ingredients of a velouté are equal parts by mass butter and flour to form the roux and a light chicken or fish stock, with some salt and pepper to season as needed. The sauce produced is commonly referred to by the type of stock used e.g. chicken velouté