No. 537

Shallot Sauce and Shallot Gravy

Sauce a l'Echalote et Jus a l'Echalote

Blanch in boiling salted water three finely chopped shallots, placing them in the corner of a napkin; afterward cook them in a gill of consomme (No. 189); reduce this latter until dry, then add to it one gill of veloute (No. 415). Now pound four hard boiled egg-yolks with six ounces of butter; put the preparation into a saucepan, and stir it while heating till it becomes very hot, then season with salt, mignonette and lemon juice; if too thick add a little water and then strain it through a tammy (No. 159), and mix in a coffeespoonful of chopped parsley; stir it into the above prepared sauce.

Shallot Gravy.—Put eight minced shallots, a small bay leaf, some thyme and branches of parsley in a saucepan, moisten with two gills of clear gravy (No. 404) and let all cook for ten minutes on the corner of the range; strain through a napkin, and keep the sauce warm in a bain-marie until needed.

← No. 536 Salmis Sauce, with White Wine, with Champagn Hot Sauces No. 538 Sharp Sauce with Capers and Onion Puree →

For the Modern Kitchen

Two related preparations: a rich shallot butter sauce built on velouté, and a plain shallot-infused gravy. Both assume Ranhofer's numbered stock and sauce recipes are already on hand.

The hinge: the egg-yolk butterThe pounded yolks and butter form a rich paste that can turn oily or grainy if driven too hard over direct heat. Ranhofer says to stir it while heating "till it becomes very hot"; keep it short of a simmer, then strain as directed and stir it into the finished sauce.
GillsA gill is half a cup, 4 fl oz. So a gill of consommé and a gill of velouté for the sauce, and two gills (1 cup) of gravy for the second preparation.
MignonetteCoarsely cracked white pepper, sometimes a white-and-black mix. Crack peppercorns under a pan rather than using fine-ground pepper, which will muddy a pale sauce.
Napkin and tammyThe shallots are blanched tied in a cloth so they can be lifted out cleanly; a square of cheesecloth or a small mesh basket does the same. A tammy was a worsted straining cloth wrung between two people; a fine chinois with a ladle pressed through it is the modern equivalent.
"The corner of the range"On a coal range this was the cooler edge, used for a bare simmer. Read it as the lowest setting, with no more than an occasional bubble, for the ten minutes of shallot infusion.
Velouté and clear gravyNo. 415 is a white roux-thickened sauce made with veal or chicken stock; a light blond-roux velouté of good chicken stock stands in. No. 404 is a strong clear brown gravy from roast meat drippings and stock -- a reduced brown veal stock is the closest thing most kitchens have.
Yield and useThe shallot sauce comes to roughly a cup and a half, enough for four to six servings; Ranhofer gives no serving suggestion here. The gravy makes a little under a cup and is a thin, sharp infusion rather than a thickened sauce; the recipe says to hold it warm in a bain-marie until needed.
SaltConsomme, veloute and clear gravy are all seasoned already, and the consomme here is reduced until dry, concentrating what salt it carries. Season at the point Ranhofer says to, after the butter goes in.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) codified the kitchen of Delmonico's in New York, where he was chef for over thirty years, and it is organised the way a professional brigade worked: every sauce cross-references a stock or mother sauce made elsewhere in the book, so that nothing is built from scratch at service. That structure explains the terseness here. The two preparations also show the French distinction the book takes for granted -- a sauce, thickened and enriched with butter and egg yolk, against a jus, which is simply a good gravy given ten minutes of aromatic infusion and strained clear. Shallots are often said to have been the aromatic of choice for sauces served with grilled meat, preferred over onion for their milder, sweeter bite; blanching them first, as here, takes off the raw edge that would otherwise dominate a delicate velouté.