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Sauce Bordelaise
Take one onion, not too small, chopped very fine and browned in fat or butter; add to this a cup of strong gravy (beef) and a cup of claret or white wine. Season highly with pepper, salt, and a little parsley chopped very fine Allow this to simmer and then thicken with a little browned flour. This is very nice with boiled fish.
A short, workable brown wine sauce that leans on the quality of its beef gravy. Two details need translating for a modern stove.
- "Strong gravy (beef)"This means a reduced, well-flavoured beef stock, not thickened pan gravy from a roast. A cup of good homemade stock reduced by a third, or a concentrated commercial demi-glace diluted to about a cup, gives the body the recipe assumes.
- ClaretClaret is the British term for red Bordeaux. Any dry, medium-bodied red works; the recipe's alternative of white wine departs from the familiar red-wine version, though white-wine 'bordelaise' preparations for fish do appear in period and French sources, and it fits the fish pairing here.
- Browned flourFlour toasted dry in a pan until nut-brown, kept ready in a jar in some period kitchens. It thickens less strongly than raw flour, perhaps about half, so start with a rounded tablespoon whisked into a little cold stock for two cups of liquid and add more if it needs it. Toast your own in a dry skillet over medium heat, stirring, for five to eight minutes.
- Simmer timeNo time is given. Twelve to fifteen minutes of open simmering before thickening cooks the raw edge off the wine and concentrates the onion; another three or four minutes after the flour goes in removes any pastiness.
- The onionBrown it slowly and thoroughly, not just until translucent — much of the sweetness and colour of the finished sauce comes from this step, though the gravy, the wine and the browned flour contribute as well. Some cooks strain the sauce afterward for a smoother texture, though the recipe does not ask for it.
- FinishingOff the heat, a tablespoon of cold butter whisked in gives the gloss that a classic bordelaise gets from its marrow. Add the parsley at the very end rather than at the start so it stays green.
- YieldSomewhat under two cups once it has simmered down, enough to sauce four to six servings of fish or meat.
Sauce bordelaise takes its name from Bordeaux and its wine, and in the classical French repertoire it is a red-wine reduction with shallots, thyme and bay, thickened with demi-glace and traditionally garnished with poached beef marrow — served with grilled steak. This version is a plainly Anglo-American household adaptation: onion stands in for shallots, browned flour replaces the long-simmered espagnole that a professional kitchen would have on hand, and the whole thing is recommended for boiled fish rather than beef. American cookbooks of the period often borrowed the names of the French mother sauces and their derivatives while simplifying the method to something a single cook could manage, and the offer of "claret or white wine" shows how loosely the label was applied. Browned flour itself was widely used in the period, kept ready-toasted so that dark sauces and gravies could be thickened without the long cooking a proper brown roux demands.