Demi Glace - Restaurant Sauce

If you’ve wondered what that wonderful sticky and heavy sauce that gets “dripped” on your plate when you are at the restaurant. Then it’s probably a demi glace. It usually takes more than 24 hours to prepare, but the result … oh la la. Very little sauce goes a long way. Luckily, it’s excellent to make in advance and suitable for freezing. If you want to surprise your guests and really show who is “the king of food”, then this is the way. And the 24 hours? For the most part it just takes care of itself.

Ingredients

  • 4 tbsp chopped mushrooms
  • 2 tsp tomato puree
  • 4 tbsp madeira
  • 5 dl (2 cups) dark veal stock
  • 5 dl (2 cups) Espagnole or brown sauce
  • 30 grams (1 oz) of butter

Method

Mix everything except the butter.

Let it simmer until it is reduced to half the amount. About 5 dl (2 cups).

Remove the sauce from the heat and put in the butter, in small cubes, as you stir it well. It is called “mounting the sauce”. A method that can be used for many sauces.

Jus Lie

Many restaurants do not use demi glace as it is a bit cumbersome to make. So they just make a jus lie. Which is also an excellent sauce in a pinch.

It can generally be made in two ways:

  1. By thickening a strong stock with cornstarch, arrowroot or other starches, and then taste it with salt and pepper. Basically just a brown sauce.
  2. By reducing a dark foundation into the naturally becomes thick, and then salt to taste.

Notes

Generally, a demi glace is made of equal parts Espagnole and dark stock . Which is then reduced to one half the original volume. This recipe makes a sauce that is little more dark and powerful.

Makes 5 dl (2 cups) - Calculate 1/2 dl (1/4 cup) per serving. So this recipe is enough for approx. 10 people/servings.