Cooking-knowledge quiz
Sauces — the five mothers and beyond.
Béchamel, velouté, hollandaise — a pop quiz on the sauces every kitchen leans on.
Classical cooking pinned the whole sauce repertoire on five mother sauces, and a surprising amount of modern kitchen work still rests on them. Quizine's sauce questions cover the mothers and their many daughters — when a velouté becomes a suprême, what stops a hollandaise splitting, why a beurre blanc lives or dies on temperature, how a pan sauce gets its body. Short explanations after every answer, so each one teaches you a little more about how sauces actually behave.
Three sample questions
Have a think, then tap to reveal the answer. The real quiz adapts in difficulty as you go.
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How many classical 'mother sauces' are there in the Escoffier system?
Reveal answer
A. Five
Béchamel, Velouté, Espagnole, Tomate and Hollandaise. Most classical sauces are derivatives ('daughter sauces') of one of these.
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Pesto alla Genovese, traditionally, contains:
Reveal answer
A. Basil, pine nuts, garlic, Parmigiano, Pecorino and olive oil
Both cheeses are classical (Parmigiano-Reggiano and Pecorino Sardo or Fiore Sardo). Pounded in a marble mortar; the food processor is the modern compromise.
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The classical sauce Tomate (à la Escoffier) traditionally includes:
Reveal answer
A. Salt pork or pancetta and a roux
Escoffier's version is closer to a fortified, slow-cooked tomato base than a modern marinara — pork fat, mirepoix, stock and a roux.
Questions, asked
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Do I need to know French cookery?
It helps, but the quiz never assumes it. Anything obscure gets explained in plain English the first time it shows up.
How do the levels work?
Three levels of difficulty. You start at level one and the quiz nudges you up after a short run of correct answers; a couple of wrong ones drops you back down. The aim is to keep you on questions that are just hard enough to be interesting.
How long does a session take?
Five minutes is normal. Most people answer eight to twelve questions and come back the next day. The daily challenge is three questions on purpose — easy to keep up with.
What if I think an answer is wrong?
Tell us. There's a contact link in the footer and every report gets read. Mistakes get fixed quickly.
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Test the sauces?