No. 539

Chopped Sauce

Sauce Hachee

Add one tablespoonful of chopped shallots to one gill of vinegar; put them in a saucepan with one chopped and crushed clove of garlic; let boil slowly until thoroughly reduced then moisten with a gill of broth, and one pint of espagnole sauce (No. 414); add two ounces of chopped mushrooms, one tablespoonful of parsley, one of pickles, and one of small capers, all chopped separately, and just when serving, incorporate into the sauce two ounces of butter, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A classic reduction-and-garnish sauce from Ranhofer's 1894 The Epicurean. It assumes you already have espagnole on hand; everything else is quick.

A gillHalf a cup, 4 fluid ounces. The recipe uses two of them: one of vinegar, one of broth.
Espagnole (No. 414)The classic brown sauce: brown roux, veal or beef stock, mirepoix and tomato, simmered and skimmed for hours. A good reduced brown stock thickened lightly with beurre manié stands in acceptably; a jarred demi-glace diluted to sauce consistency also works.
Reduce the vinegar properly"Until thoroughly reduced" means nearly dry — the shallot and garlic should be glazed, not swimming. Stop short of that and the finished sauce is sharp and thin rather than rounded.
PicklesIn this period that means cornichons or small sour gherkins in vinegar, not sweet pickle. About a tablespoon, chopped fine.
Chopped separatelyEach garnish is chopped on its own rather than all together, so the pieces stay distinct rather than turning into a uniform paste. The recipe adds mushrooms, parsley, pickle and capers together once the sauce has been moistened; only the butter goes in just when serving.
Mounting the butterThe two ounces of butter go in off the heat, cold and in pieces, swirled until absorbed. If the sauce boils after that it will break.
NutmegA scrape from a whole nutmeg, not a spoonful of the pre-ground. It is a background note in a brown sauce, not a flavour you should be able to name.
YieldRoughly a pint and a half of finished sauce — enough for eight to ten portions of grilled or roasted meat, tongue, or reheated boiled beef.

A Little History

Sauce hachée — literally "chopped sauce" — belongs to the family of sharp brown sauces built on espagnole and a vinegar-shallot reduction, the same foundation that gives sauce piquante, charcutière and Robert. The chopped garnish is what names it: mushrooms, parsley, gherkin and caper, each cut by hand and folded in late so the sauce arrives textured. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a working compendium of the French repertoire as it was practised in a great American restaurant kitchen, which is why the recipe cross-references No. 414 rather than repeating it — a matter of how the book is organised. Sauces of this type are often said to have been a treatment for boiled or leftover meats, the vinegar and pickle doing the work of making reheated beef worth serving.