A velouté sauce, along with Allemande, Béchamel, and Espagnole, is one of the sauces of French cuisine that were designated the four "mother sauces" by Antonin Carême in the 19th century. The French chef Auguste Escoffier would later classify tomato, mayonnaise, and hollandaise among mother sauces as well. The term velouté is from the French adjectival form of velour, meaning velvety.

In preparing a velouté sauce, a light stock (one in which the bones used have not been previously roasted), such as chicken, veal 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, a light chicken, veal, or fish stock, and salt and pepper for seasoning. Commonly the sauce produced will be referred to by the type of stock used e.g. chicken velouté.

Sauce velouté is often served on poultry or seafood dishes, and is used as the base for other sauces. Sauces derived from a velouté sauce include:

• Albufera Sauce: Addition of meat glaze glace de viande.
• Allemande sauce By adding a few drops of lemon juice, egg yolks, and cream
• Bercy: Shallots, white wine, lemon juice and parsley added to a fish velouté
• Poulette: Mushrooms finished with chopped parsley and lemon juice
• Aurora: Tomato purée
• Hungarian: Onion, paprika, white wine
• Sauce ravigote: the addition of a little lemon or white wine vinegar creates a lightly acidic velouté that is traditionally flavored with onions and shallots, and more recently with mustard.
• Normandy: Mushroom cooking liquid and oyster liquid or fish fumet added to fish velouté, finished with a liaison of egg yolks and cream
• Suprême sauce By adding a reduction of mushroom liquor (produced in cooking) and cream to a chicken velouté
• Venetian sauce: Tarragon, shallots, chervil