Brown Sauce
Put into a saucepan a tablespoon of chopped onion and one of butter. When both are brown, add a tablespoon of flour and allow that to become brown also. Stir constantly. Pour in a cup of brown stock and cook until the sauce has thickened sufficiently. Strain to remove the particles of onion and season with pepper and salt.
BROWN SAUCE (Espagnole) - Put one-quarter cup of butter into a saucepan, add one slice of carrot, one of onion, a sprig of parsley, one of thyme and six peppercorns and cook until the butter is brown but not burned. Stir in five tablespoons of flour, and, when well browned, add gradually two cups of brown stock. When at the boiling point, remove, strain and season with pepper and salt.
Two versions of the same idea: a quick brown onion sauce, and a scaled-up espagnole built on a browned roux and aromatics. Both live or die by the colour of the flour and fat.
- The hinge: brown the roux, don't scorch itThe flour needs to go the colour of a hazelnut shell over medium-low heat, stirred without pause, which takes 8-12 minutes. A single black fleck turns the whole sauce bitter, and burnt roux also loses thickening power, so start over rather than press on.
- Brown stockThis means stock from bones and trimmings roasted dark before simmering, typically beef or veal. Commercial "beef broth" is thinner and much saltier; use an unsalted roasted-bone stock or reduced homemade stock, and season only at the end as the recipe directs.
- Ratio in the second versionFive tablespoons of flour to two cups of stock works out at about two and a half tablespoons per cup, thicker than a usual pouring sauce. If you want something to spoon over meat, cut the flour to three tablespoons, or plan to thin the finished sauce with more stock.
- "Cook until thickened sufficiently"This instruction belongs to the first sauce; the espagnole is taken off as soon as it boils. For the first, give it a bare simmer for several minutes after the stock goes in so the flour loses its pasty taste, and skim any film that rises.
- Add the stock graduallyWarm stock whisked in a ladle at a time gives a smooth sauce; a whole cup dumped into hot roux at once will lump. Whisk each addition to a paste before adding the next.
- Straining is not optionalBoth versions rely on the strainer to remove onion, carrot, herbs and peppercorns. A fine mesh sieve, and press the solids to get the liquid out of them.
- YieldThe first sauce makes about three-quarters of a cup, enough for two to three servings. The espagnole makes close to two cups; refrigerate and use within three or four days, or freeze in portions.
Espagnole is one of the mother sauces codified in nineteenth-century French professional cooking, and the name — "Spanish" — is traditionally explained by a story that Spanish cooks brought the darker, richer style to the French court, though the etymology has never been firmly documented. In classical practice it was made in large quantity over hours, with tomato and veal stock, then reduced further with more stock to become demi-glace. What is telling about the version printed here is how thoroughly it has been shrunk for a household: a quarter cup of butter, two cups of stock, one slice of carrot, and no mention of the long simmering a restaurant kitchen would have given it. The plain onion sauce printed first is even more domestic — essentially a good gravy.