Sauce américaine (pronounced [sos ameʁikɛn]; French for 'American sauce') is a recipe from classic French cookery containing chopped onions, tomatoes, white wine, brandy, salt, cayenne pepper, butter and fish stock. It is sometimes incorrectly referred to as sauce armoricaine (pronounced [sos aʁmɔʁikɛn]), but in fact the sauce was invented by a cook from Sète, Hérault, who had worked in the United States.^[1]

Louis Saulnier gives the following recipe:

Américaine - Treat as for Lobster Américaine. Pound shells and meat in the mortar and incorporate equal quantity of fish velouté, add butter.^{[citation needed]}

As with many other classic dishes the original recipe has been adapted over time and almost every chef will prepare the sauce in a slightly different way. Modern recipes usually include tarragon and use lobster stock rather than pounded lobster, and often replace cayenne pepper with paprika.