Name: Steak with Bordelaise Sauce (Entrecôte à la Bordelaise)
Yield: Makes 4 Main-Course Servings
Cuisine: France
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons olive oil; 1 cup [250 ml] homemade beef broth or brown chicken broth, or 4 tablespoons concentrated broth), or 2 tablespoons concentrated demi-glace, softened in 2 tablespoons of water (see); 4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut in 4 pieces (optional); 2 porterhouse steaks (about 1 ½ pounds [675 g] each, about 1 inch [2.5 cm] thick), or 1 porterhouse steak (about 3 pounds [1.3 kg], about 2 inches [5 cm] thick), or 4 strip or rib steaks (8 to 12 ounces [225 to 340 g] each), or 4 shell steaks (strip steaks with the bone; 12 ounces to 1 pound [340 to 450 g] each); salt; 1 marrow bone, about 2 inches [5 cm] long (optional); 1 shallot, chopped fine; 10 black peppercorns; 1 cup [250 ml] full-bodied red wine (more information about cooking wines); ½ imported bay leaf

Preparation info

Makes
4
Main-Course Servings

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Glorious French Food

By James Peterson

Published 2002

About

For the last 100 years or so, bordelaise sauce has been made with red wine and has contained little cubes of marrow. In the first half of the nineteenth century, it was made with white wine—Carême called for Sauternes, tarragon, lemon, cloves, bay leaf, and veal broth—but here I give the “modern” version. The marrow is a nuisance if you’ve decided to do this at the last minute, since marrow is best if soaked overnight in salt water. So unless you’ve got a butcher on the corner and are think