Stocks and Sauce Bases

Someone once said that “England has three sauces and sixty religions while France has three religions and sixty sauces.” In fact, there are far more sauces than that in the famous catalog of Austin de Croze.

Most of the sauces for the dishes in this book are included with the recipes. But I am adding a few base preparations here: an all-purpose chicken stock, an all-purpose demi-glace, a dark, rich duck stock, a duck and wine demi-glace, a fish stock, a fish fumet, and a few others.

I particularly like my all-purpose demi-glace; it keeps up to a year in the freezer, takes up hardly any room, and is available in an instant to enhance and sometimes even save a dish. You may notice that this version does not require browning the bones. The reason is that when you make most modern sauces, you are reducing to such an extent that there is the possibility of a bitter taste from well-browned meat and bones. On the other hand, I do caramelize the vegetables so that their flavor will be strong, and the sauce will have good color. Color is also the reason I suggest blackening an onion over flames or under the broiler, a process that will also offset any possible bitterness.