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Sauce Bordelaise
Two shallots, ten tarragon leaves all chopped, are put into a very small saucepan. Add a large glass of claret, a dessert-spoonful of butter, and let it all reduce together. Add salt, pepper, three dessert-spoonfuls of demi-glaze, let it come to the boil, and stir in two dessert-spoonfuls of butter.
A short reduction sauce that depends almost entirely on how the final butter is handled. Everything before that step is straightforward.
- The hinge: finish off the heatOnce the demi-glace has boiled, pull the pan aside and swirl in the last butter in pieces so it emulsifies rather than melting into a greasy film. If the sauce is returned to a boil after the butter goes in it is liable to break.
- Dessert-spoonfulA dessert spoon is between a teaspoon and a tablespoon, about 2 teaspoons or 10 ml. So roughly 2 teaspoons butter to start, 2 tablespoons demi-glace, and about 4 teaspoons butter to finish.
- A large glass of claretClaret is English shorthand for red Bordeaux. Period cookery measures for a glass of wine vary, commonly somewhere between 2 and 4 fl oz, so a 'large glass' is best read as roughly 1/2 to 3/4 cup of a dry, medium-bodied red.
- Demi-glazeThis is demi-glace: brown veal stock reduced with espagnole until it coats a spoon. Good commercial demi-glace concentrate works; if you substitute plain stock, reduce it hard first or the sauce will stay thin and taste watery.
- Reduce further than feels comfortable'Let it all reduce together' is usually taken to mean reducing to a syrupy few tablespoons; the recipe gives no figure. Under-reducing is a common reason a red wine sauce tastes sharp and raw.
- Salt lastDemi-glace is already concentrated and often salted. Season after the reduction, not before, and taste again after the butter.
- Strain or notThe original leaves the shallots and tarragon in. Straining through a fine sieve before mounting the butter gives a glossier sauce; keeping them in gives more texture and a stronger tarragon note.
- YieldAbout 1/2 cup finished sauce, enough for two to four steaks or a plate of grilled beef. It does not hold well; make it while the meat rests.
Sauce bordelaise takes its name from Bordeaux and, by extension, from the red wine of that region, which is the one ingredient the many versions share. Classic French practice, codified in the Escoffier era, builds it on red wine, shallot, thyme and bay with demi-glace, and finishes it with poached beef marrow; the tarragon here is a departure from that pattern.