Brown Sauces

Once you’ve made a sauce bordelaise, you’ll be able to prepare classic brown sauces and improvise your own variations. Though brown sauces are intimidating to beginning cooks, most of them are made in a somewhat formulaic way, so once you’ve mastered a few, you can make others (and improvise your own) by plugging in different ingredients. Often, a brown sauce is made by gently cooking aromatic ingredients such as mirepoix (onions, carrots, and celery), shallots, onions (alone), garlic, or prosciutto in a small amount of fat. A liquid is then added, often red or white wine or a fortified wine such as port or Madeira. In a classic poivrade sauce, vinegar is used at this stage. The sauce is then usually reduced and demi-glace (in traditional sauces) or glace de viande (in modem sauces) added for body and a meaty flavor. Some sauces are strained to take out the aromatic ingredients that have surrendered their flavor to the liquid. Cream is sometimes added and lightly reduced to thicken the sauce, unify its flavors, and give it body. Other, more delicate flavorings, such as finely chopped fines herbes (chervil, parsley, chives, and tarragon), alone or in combination; mustard (not so delicate, but it will separate if added earlier); chopped or sliced mushrooms; truffles; or delicate spirits like Cognac, are then often added. The sauce is finished with a swirl of butter to give it a satiny texture and, like cream, to unify the flavors. In more homespun red wine sauces, a paste of flour and butter (beurre manié) may be whisked in as a thickener. Traditional sauces, based on demi-glace, contain relatively little cream and butter compared to sauces made with glace de viande, because the flour in the demi-glace acts as a thickener. Here are some ideas for improvising your own brown sauces: