Espagnole
The brown mother sauce — brown stock, brown roux and mirepoix
The most work of the five, and the one that pays it back: reduce Espagnole with more stock and you have Demi-Glace, which is the base of half the classical brown sauces.
The long simmer is not optional. This is an afternoon's cooking, so make the full quantity and freeze it in portions.
Ingredients
- 8 ounces (1 cup) unsalted butter
- 8 ounces (2 cups) all-purpose flour
- 3 quarts brown stock (roasted veal or beef bones)
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1 carrot, diced
- 2 celery stalks, diced
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 sprigs thyme
- 10 black peppercorns
- Kosher salt
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large heavy pot over medium heat, whisk in the flour, and cook — stirring almost constantly — for 20 to 30 minutes, until the roux is the colour of milk chocolate and smells toasted. This is the step that cannot be rushed; a scorched roux is bitter and must be thrown out.
- Add the diced onion, carrot and celery and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until softened and browned at the edges.
- Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes more, until it darkens from red to brick.
- Whisk in the brown stock a ladle at a time. Add the bay leaf, thyme and peppercorns.
- Bring to a bare simmer and cook, uncovered, for 3 hours, skimming the fat and foam from the surface every 20 minutes or so. It should reduce by about a third.
- Strain through a fine sieve, pressing gently on the solids. Season with salt.
Notes
- Freeze in 1-cup portions. It keeps 3 months and is worth having on hand.
- Skimming is the whole difference between a clean brown sauce and a muddy one.
- Derivatives: Demi-Glace, Bordelaise, Chasseur, Robert, Madère, Diable, Lyonnaise, Charcutière, Périgueux.