No. 2818

Sorrel with Gravy

Oseille au Jus

Pick some clean, tender sorrel leaves; wash well, changing the water. Put them into a saucepan with a little salt and water; dissolve while stirring with a spoon; throw the sorrel into a colander and when cold press it through a sieve. Put this puree with a little prepared white roux (No. 163), and cook it for a few moments while stirring; moisten with a small quantity of gravy (No. 404); reduce the puree, mixing well all the time; season and finish with a little half-glaze (No. 400).

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade that already has stock, roux and demi-glace standing by, so the recipe is really three lines of technique with the pantry assumed. The hinge is the first step: sorrel collapses to almost nothing, and what you do with it after that decides whether the dish is a sauce or a puddle.

"Dissolve" means melt downSorrel wilts and breaks apart in a couple of minutes over moderate heat. Ranhofer calls for a little salt and water; the leaves themselves also release plenty. Stirring is to keep it from catching, not to cook it longer.
Buy far more than looks reasonableSorrel loses roughly nine tenths of its bulk. Two pounds of untrimmed leaves yields somewhere near a cup and a half of puree, enough to accompany four to six portions of veal, fish or eggs. Strip out the tough central stems before washing.
Non-reactive pans onlySorrel is high in oxalic acid, which is what gives it the sharp green-apple taste. It will pick up a metallic edge and turn grey in bare cast iron, untinned copper or aluminium. Use stainless or enamel, and a nylon or wooden sieve rather than a metal one if you have the choice.
The cross-referencesNo. 163 is Ranhofer's white roux, No. 404 his gravy, and No. 400 his half-glaze, that is, demi-glace: a reduced brown sauce. Look those entries up for their proportions. Good jarred demi-glace or a hard-reduced brown stock stands in for both of the last two.
Proportions, since none are givenFor a cup and a half of puree, about two tablespoons of roux, then a quarter cup of gravy added in stages. Finish with a tablespoon or two of half-glaze. The puree should mound softly on a spoon, not run.
Reduce, do not boil hard"Reduce the puree, mixing well all the time" is a few minutes of gentle simmering to cook out the flour and tighten the body. A rolling boil drives the colour from olive to brown and dulls the acidity that is the whole point of sorrel.
Season at the endThe gravy and half-glaze both carry salt, and the sorrel was already salted in the pan. Taste only once the reduction is finished. A knob of cold butter beaten in off the heat, or a spoonful of cream, will blunt the sharpness if it needs it.
What it goes withThe entry sits among the vegetable preparations, between salsify and sauerkraut, and names no accompaniment. Sorrel puree is classically served with veal, poached eggs, calf's liver, shad or salmon. Serve it hot in a small mound, not spread across the plate.

A Little History

Sorrel puree is a long-established French kitchen garden preparation, and Charles Ranhofer, who ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York across two spells with a break in the later 1870s, put it in The Epicurean (1894) exactly as he would have learned it in France: a base puree that gets finished differently depending on what it is serving. The name is plain description, oseille au jus, sorrel with meat gravy, distinguishing it from the version bound with cream or with egg yolks. Sorrel was a staple of American and European kitchen gardens through the nineteenth century, valued because it comes up early and tastes sharply of lemon at a season when little else does; the sourness is oxalic acid, one of the acids that also contributes to rhubarb's bite. It largely disappeared from commercial produce in the twentieth century because the leaves bruise and wilt within days of cutting, which is why the classic sauces built on it, most famously the sorrel sauce served with shad and later with salmon, are now more often read about than eaten.