No. 460

Diana Sauce

Sauce a la Diane

Into a saucepan put a quarter of a pound of butter; when hot add to it one medium onion, two shallots, one ounce of celery, all cut up very finely, and a bay leaf, and when these ingredients are well fried, add to them one pound of raw game carcass, and let the whole color nicely, adding three tablespoonfuls of flour, to make a roux, brown it slightly and then moisten with one pint of veloute stock (No. 422) and pint of cream. Let the sauce cook and despumate for half an hour, seasoning it with salt, pepper, and nutmeg; then strain it through a sieve, and afterward through a tammy, return it to the saucepan, and reduce it properly, incorporating into it two ounces of butter.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A classic brown game sauce from Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), built on roasted game bones and a velouté base. Most of the work is in the straining and the reduction; the flavour comes from the carcass, so do not skip it.

The hinge: use real game bonesThe sauce takes its character entirely from the pound of raw game carcass — pheasant, partridge, venison, hare or duck frames. Chicken bones give you a pleasant cream velouté and nothing resembling Diane. Chop the bones small so they brown rather than steam.
Velouté stock (No. 422)Ranhofer's velouté is generally a white roux moistened with veal or chicken stock and simmered long. A well-made, unsalted light velouté or a strong reduced white stock stands in; if you substitute plain stock, expect a thinner finished sauce and reduce further.
The cream measurement is ambiguousThe text reads "one pint of veloute stock and pint of cream" — a fraction appears to have dropped out of the line. A half-pint (1 cup) against a pint of velouté is a proportion that behaves; a full pint of cream would mute the game.
DespumateThis means to skim. Hold the pan slightly off-centre over the burner so the sauce simmers on one side only; the fat and scum collect on the still side and are lifted off with a ladle. Half an hour of this is what makes the sauce clear.
TammyA tammy cloth is a fine worsted straining cloth, twisted at both ends to force the sauce through. A chinois lined with a double layer of rinsed muslin does the same job; press with a small ladle rather than wringing.
Roux and colourThree tablespoons of flour to a quarter pound of butter plus the fat rendered from the bones is a loose roux by modern eyes. Brown it only lightly — a dark roux thickens poorly and will fight the cream.
Mounting the butterThe final two ounces of butter go in off the heat, in cold pieces, swirled rather than whisked hard. Once it is in, the sauce must not boil again or it will break.
YieldRoughly a pint after reduction, enough to sauce eight to ten portions of roast game or game birds. It keeps a day under refrigeration; rewarm gently and remount with a little fresh butter.

A Little History

Sauce à la Diane is named for Diana, Roman goddess of the hunt, and belongs to the nineteenth-century French repertoire of garnishes and sauces built specifically for game — the same naming logic that gives us Saint-Hubert and grand veneur. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, published it in The Epicurean among the hot sauces indexed by number and cross-referenced to their mother sauces. The version here is the cream-finished one, thickened with a game-bone roux rather than an espagnole, and it belongs to an era when a restaurant kitchen received birds whole and had carcasses to spare. It should not be confused with the tableside steak Diane of mid-twentieth-century hotel dining rooms, a mustard-and-brandy pan sauce that borrowed only the name.