To make bordelaise, simmer a cup of dry red wine with two minced shallots, thyme, and a bay leaf until reduced to a quarter cup of syrup, add a cup of demi-glace (or hard-reduced beef stock) and simmer ten minutes, then strain and finish with two tablespoons of cold butter.
What is bordelaise?
Bordelaise is Bordeaux arguing that its wine belongs on beef as well as beside it. The formula is a two-stage reduction: first the wine, cooked down with shallot and thyme until its alcohol is gone and its fruit has turned to syrup, then the demi-glace, lending the deep, roasted-bone gravity no quick sauce owns on its own. Strained, mounted with butter, it is glossy, dark, and just tart enough to cut a ribeye.
The old Bordeaux version was finished with poached marrow, which is worth doing exactly once to understand why butter became the accepted stand-in. What matters more is the wine rule: cook with something dry and decent you would drink, but never the good bottle, reduction concentrates flaws and destroys subtlety equally.
What goes in bordelaise?
- ·1 cup dry red wine
- ·2 shallots, minced
- ·2 sprigs thyme + 1 bay leaf
- ·1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
- ·1 cup demi-glace (or 2 cups beef stock reduced by half with 1 tsp gelatin)
- ·2 tbsp cold butter
- ·Salt to taste
A cup of wine reduces to a quarter cup of syrup before the demi goes in, one to one wine to demi at the start. Do not rush the wine stage, raw-wine sharpness is the number-one bordelaise failure.
How do you make bordelaise?
- Simmer the wine, shallots, thyme, bay, and pepper until reduced to about 1/4 cup of light syrup, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Add the demi-glace and simmer gently 10 minutes more, skimming once or twice.
- Strain through a fine sieve, pressing on the shallots.
- Off the heat, swirl in the cold butter until glossy.
- Salt to taste and hold warm. Spoon over rested steak, never under it.
What should you know before making bordelaise?
- Use the pan you seared the steak in and the fond joins the sauce for free.
- If all you have is stock, reduce it separately by half before it meets the wine, watery demi makes watery bordelaise.
- Leftover sauce turns tomorrow's mushrooms on toast into an event.
Where did bordelaise come from?
Named for Bordeaux and its claret, bordelaise entered the codified repertoire through the nineteenth century and Escoffier fixed its modern form, wine reduction, demi-glace, marrow, in 1903.
Drawn from the public-domain text of Auguste Escoffier, Le Guide Culinaire (1903).
What can you make from bordelaise?
Common questions.
What wine should I use for bordelaise?
A dry, medium-bodied red you would drink without apology, a basic cabernet, merlot, or cotes du rhone. Avoid anything sweet, oaky-cheap, or labeled cooking wine.
Can I make bordelaise without demi-glace?
Yes: reduce two cups of good beef stock by half with a teaspoon of bloomed gelatin and a half teaspoon of tomato paste, then proceed. It lacks the last floor of depth and remains an excellent steak sauce.
Why is my red wine sauce bitter or sharp?
Under-reduced wine, over-reduced tannins from boiling too hard, or a poor bottle. Gentle simmer, full reduction, decent wine, and the butter finish rounds off what remains.