Brown Sauces

Until the seventeenth century, most brown sauces for meat were derived from the natural cooking juices of roasted and braised meats. In the homes of the wealthy, these natural integral sauces were often supplemented by adding a large slice of veal or ham to the bottom of the pot if the meat was braised, the idea being that these would caramelize and release syrupy, sapid juices. Roast meats were sometimes coated with a layer of matignon containing ham and aromatic vegetables and wrapped with fat before being put on the spit.