Classic demi-glace is equal parts espagnole sauce and rich brown stock, simmered and skimmed until reduced by half, to a glossy sauce that coats a spoon. The home shortcut: reduce a quart of good beef stock by three-quarters with a spoonful of tomato paste and a bloomed packet of gelatin.
What is demi-glace?
Demi-glace is the destination of the old French brown-sauce road: espagnole, itself a day of roasted bones and roux, married to more brown stock and reduced by half into something between a sauce and a glaze. Restaurants treat it as an ingredient rather than a finished sauce, a spoonful deepens a pan sauce, a ladle becomes bordelaise or chasseur.
At home the classic route is a weekend project, and the shortcut deserves to be spoken out loud rather than whispered: strong stock, reduced hard, with gelatin restoring the body that commercial stock lacks and a little tomato paste and browned aromatics standing in for espagnole's depth. It is not identical. On a Tuesday it is more than close enough.
What goes in demi-glace?
- ·CLASSIC: 2 cups espagnole sauce
- ·2 cups brown veal or beef stock
- ·1 bay leaf, few thyme sprigs (optional bouquet)
- ·SHORTCUT: 4 cups best-quality beef stock
- ·1 tbsp tomato paste
- ·1 shallot, browned in a little butter
- ·1 packet (2.5 tsp) gelatin, bloomed in 2 tbsp cold water
- ·Splash of madeira or red wine (optional)
Classic: one to one, reduced by half. Shortcut: four cups of stock down to one, with gelatin because boxed stock has none of the collagen that gives real demi its lip-sticking body.
How do you make demi-glace?
- CLASSIC: combine espagnole and stock in a heavy pan with the bouquet.
- Simmer gently, never boiling, skimming the surface often, until reduced by half, 45 to 90 minutes.
- Strain through a fine sieve. It should coat a spoon and set to jelly when chilled.
- SHORTCUT: brown the shallot, add tomato paste for one minute, add stock and wine.
- Boil down to about one cup, 30 to 40 minutes, then whisk in the bloomed gelatin off the heat and strain.
- Either version keeps a week refrigerated and freezes perfectly in ice-cube trays.
What should you know before making demi-glace?
- Salt nothing until the end. Reduction concentrates salt faster than flavor.
- Frozen demi cubes are the point of the exercise: one cube plus a pan of fond is a two-minute restaurant sauce.
- If your chilled demi does not jiggle, it needed more gelatin or more reduction. Fixable next time, invisible in the pan tonight.
Where did demi-glace come from?
Escoffier's kitchen codified demi-glace as the refined summit of the espagnole family in 1903, the workhorse base of the grand hotel repertoire, kept warm at the back of every saucier's station.
Drawn from the public-domain text of Auguste Escoffier, Le Guide Culinaire (1903).
What can you make from demi-glace?
Common questions.
What can I substitute for demi-glace?
Reduce good beef stock by three-quarters with a spoonful of tomato paste and a bloomed packet of gelatin. Store-bought demi concentrate is also legitimate, thin it per the label and taste for salt.
Is demi-glace just reduced stock?
No, classically it is half espagnole, a roux-thickened, long-cooked brown sauce, and half stock, reduced together. Pure reduced stock is glace de viande, stronger and stickier. The home shortcut lands between the two.
How long does demi-glace keep?
A week refrigerated, where it should set solid like dark jelly, and six months frozen. Cube it before freezing so you never thaw more than a sauce needs.