No. 459

Deviled Sauce

Sauce a la Diable

Lay in a saucepan three tablespoonfuls of vinegar, two ounces of one-eighth inch squares of shallot, a few parsley leaves, one bay leaf, as much thyme, and a clove of garlic crushed and chopped; let the whole boil for a few minutes, then add a pint of espagnole (No. 414), a pinch of mignonette, a very little cayenne pepper, a gill of red wine, and two tablespoonfuls of diluted mustard, also two tablespoonfuls of tomato sauce.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A classic brown-sauce derivative from Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), written for a kitchen that already had a stockpot of espagnole standing by. The whole character of the sauce depends on that base, so read the notes on it first.

Espagnole is the whole recipeNo. 414 is a brown sauce built from browned mirepoix, roux and rich brown stock, reduced for hours. Without it you have vinegar and shallots. A well-reduced homemade brown stock thickened lightly with a brown roux, or a good demi-glace loosened with stock, is the practical substitute; commercial "brown gravy" will not carry the acidity.
MeasuresA gill is half a cup (4 fl oz). A pint here is the US pint, 16 fl oz. Two ounces of shallot is about two large or three small ones, weighed after peeling.
MignonetteMignonette (or mignonnette) pepper is coarsely cracked white peppercorns, sometimes a white-and-black mix. Crack it fresh in a mortar; pre-ground pepper gives heat without the aromatic bite the sauce is named for.
Diluted mustardHere this most likely means dry mustard powder slaked with a little water or vinegar and left to stand a few minutes; prepared jarred mustards did exist by 1894, so the reading is probable rather than certain. Two tablespoons of prepared Dijon works and is closer in strength than English mustard, which will dominate.
Reduce the vinegar properlyReduce the vinegar -- Ranhofer says only to boil the aromatics 'for a few minutes'; in that time most of the three tablespoons of vinegar will cook away, leaving the shallots glossy and the herb flavor behind. If a good deal of liquid remains, the finished sauce can taste sharp and thin rather than rounded.
Do not boil after the mustard goes inMustard turns bitter and loses its pungency when cooked hard. Add it, along with the wine and tomato sauce, off the heat or at a bare simmer, and hold the sauce warm rather than boiling.
Strain or leave itRanhofer does not say. Classical practice strains out the bay, thyme and parsley and often the shallot as well; leaving the shallot in gives a rustic sauce closer to a modern diable served with grilled meat.
Yield and useAbout 1 1/2 pints, enough for eight to twelve servings. It is meant for broiled or grilled meat and poultry, most traditionally spatchcocked chicken or pork, and reheats well for a couple of days.

A Little History

Sauce à la diable takes its name from the same idea as "deviled" ham or deviled kidneys: the devil stands for heat, in this case cayenne, cracked pepper and mustard sharpened with vinegar. In the nineteenth-century French repertoire it belonged to the family of small sauces spun off from espagnole, the great brown mother sauce, and Charles Ranhofer, chef of Delmonico's in New York, sets it here among dozens of such derivatives, each a page or two apart, precisely as a professional brigade would have used them: one base simmering all day, with the finished sauces drawn from it to order. The pairing with grilled chicken is old and durable, and the sauce survives in modern kitchens largely unchanged in principle, though usually built on demi-glace and made in far smaller batches than a pint of espagnole implies.