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SPANISH SAUCE (called also Espagnole Sauce)
If a large quantity of sauce is required, butter a copper stewpan that is capable of holding three or four gallons of sauce, or, if preferred, lay flattened pieces of beef suet at the bottom of the stewpan. Place thick slices of onion upon the suet, or thin slices of lean ham on the butter, and on these put thick slices of beef or veal, and any bones and trimmings of meat or poultry that may be at hand. A little lean ham, a knuckle-bone of ham, some bacon-rind scalded and scraped, or the carcase of a cold roast rabbit or fowl, will very much improve the flavour of the sauce. Pour in as much stock made from bones, and water, as will barely cover the meat. Cover the saucepan, set it on a brisk fire, and let the stock boil quickly till it turns to glaze or thin gum. As soon as this point is reached, slacken the heat of the fire, and let the sauce remain gently simmering until it becomes thick and sticky, and, without being at all burnt, has acquired a bright brown colour. Fill up the stewpan with cold stock or water (allowing a quart of water for a pound and a half of meat and bones). Let it boil, skim carefully, and add two or three carrots, a bundle of outer sticks of celery, a small piece of mace, a handful of parsley, a sprig of thyme, a bay-leaf, an onion stuck with three or four cloves, a dozen peppercorns, and a little salt. Simmer all gently together for three hours. Keep skimming the sauce as required, and strain it off for use. Let it get cold, then remove every particle of fat from it. When wanted, boil the quantity needed, thicken with roux or brown thickening, and let it boil till it is of the consistency of cream, carefully removing the fat as it is thrown up. Pass the sauce through a fine sieve, and it will be ready for use. A glassful of sherry or Madeira may be added. When any quantity of brown sauce is wanted, it should be made the day before it is to be used. In cool weather it will keep for four or five days. It should be looked at every day, and boiled up if necessary. Time, four to five hours. Probable cost, 2s. per pint. (See also ESPAGNOLE SAUCE.)
This is the full brown mother sauce of the classical kitchen, written for a professional batch of three or four gallons. The method scales down without alteration; only the vessel and the quantities change.
- The hinge: build the glaze before you add liquidThe step that makes this sauce is boiling the first, barely-covering quantity of stock down until it turns to glaze and the meat sticks and browns in it. That caramelised fond is the entire colour and depth of the sauce. It must reach a bright brown, thick and sticky, without catching black, so drop the heat the moment it stops being liquid and watch it constantly.
- Scaling for a home kitchenWork from the ratio the recipe gives: 1 quart (imperial, about 1.1 litres) of water or stock per 1 1/2 lb (about 680 g) of meat and bones. Two pounds of shin of beef, veal bones and a chicken carcase in a 5-6 litre heavy pan will give a manageable batch.
- Copper stewpanAny heavy, wide, thick-based pan will do. Copper was specified because it conducts evenly and forgives the glazing stage; a heavy stainless or enamelled cast-iron pan is the modern equivalent. Avoid thin aluminium, which will scorch the glaze.
- Ingredients you may need to substituteBacon-rind "scalded and scraped" is the rind off a piece of dry-cured bacon, blanched to remove excess salt. A knuckle-bone of ham can be replaced by a smoked ham hock. Mace is the outer coating of nutmeg, sold as blades; a small blade or a scrape of nutmeg stands in.
- Brown thickening"Roux or brown thickening" means flour cooked in fat until it is the colour of a hazelnut. Brown thickening was generally flour browned dry or in butter and kept in a jar; this page names it but does not give the method. Allow roughly 1 oz each of butter and flour per pint of sauce and simmer at least fifteen minutes after adding, or the sauce tastes of raw flour.
- Skimming and degreasingThe overnight chill does most of the work: fat sets in a solid cap and lifts off. The instruction to keep skimming during the final boil is not fussiness -- the thickened sauce throws fat and scum up as it boils, and setting the pan slightly off-centre over the heat is a classical trick for gathering it on the cooler side, where it can be lifted away.
- StorageIgnore the advice about keeping it four or five days in cool weather and boiling it up daily; that is larder practice from before refrigeration. Chill it fast, refrigerate, and use within three days, or freeze it in ice-cube trays and keep it for three months.
- Time and yieldReckon on four to five hours as stated, most of it unattended simmering, plus overnight chilling. The scaled-down version above gives roughly 1 1/2 to 2 pints of finished sauce.
Espagnole is one of the sauces codified by Carême in the early nineteenth century and later fixed by Escoffier as one of the small group of "mother" sauces from which dozens of others are drawn — bordelaise, Robert, chasseur, and demi-glace among them. The Spanish name is old and its origin is disputed; it is often said to refer to Spanish ham, or to the dark colour, but no documented explanation survives. It is infrastructure, made in bulk when a large quantity of sauce is wanted and kept, in cool weather, for four or five days. The quantity assumed here — three or four gallons at a time, from bones and trimmings and the carcase of yesterday's roast rabbit — says a good deal about how a large household cooked, with nothing from the butcher wasted and the stockpot as the hinge between one day's dinner and the next.