Sauce Bordelaise
Delmonico
Put a tablespoonful of finely chopped shallots (small green onions), two tablespoonfuls of bruised cloves, and two pieces of garlic into a saucepan with a little butter. Fry a little. Add two glasses of claret wine, a pint of Spanish sauce, and a pinch of red pepper. Reduce to the consistency of a sauce. Finish off with lemon juice, chopped parsley and four ounces of beef marrow cut in rounds, and hardly heated in salted boiling water. Use immediately.
A deep red-wine sauce in the Bordeaux manner, crowned with the classic garnish of poached beef marrow.
- “Claret” = dry red BordeauxTwo wineglasses is roughly ½ cup (4 fl oz); use a dry red Bordeaux or similar.
- “Spanish sauce” = espagnoleSauce espagnole, the brown mother sauce; a “pint” is 2 cups. A good demi-glace or rich brown gravy substitutes.
- Go easy on the cloves“Two tablespoonfuls of bruised cloves” is enormous by modern taste — a few whole cloves or a pinch of ground is plenty; scale to your liking.
- Beef marrow, the true crownAsk a butcher for marrow bones; scoop the marrow, cut in rounds, and poach briefly in salted water — this is the signature of a real bordelaise.
- Use immediatelyThe marrow and bright lemon go in at the very end and the sauce is served at once, before the marrow overcooks.
Bordelaise means simply “in the style of Bordeaux,” and like so much from that city it is defined by red wine — the region’s famous claret — reduced to a glossy depth. Its traditional finishing garnish is poached beef marrow, sliced into rounds, which melts luxuriously into the sauce. Served over grilled steak, a bordelaise is one of the enduring classics of French cooking; this Delmonico’s version, spiced with clove and garlic, shows how a great restaurant made the sauce its own.
From page 35 of the 1904 edition.
Original page from the book
