Skip to content

Side · Beef

Espagnole and Demi-Glace (Brown Sauce)

Escoffier’s brown sauce: brown stock, a browned roux, vegetables, bacon and tomato, simmered and skimmed. Reduce it with more stock and it becomes demi-glace, the base of steak sauces.

⏱ 2 hr 15 min (15 min prep, 2 hr cooking) 🍽 Serves 8 · ¼ cup (makes 2 cups) make aheadfreezer friendly
📅 Add to my plan

ContainsMilk, Wheat. Check the labels on what you buy; brands differ.

Ingredients

Make 8 servings

  • Espagnole

  • 2 strip Bacon, diced
  • 1 Carrots, diced
  • ½ Yellow onion, diced
  • 1 stalk Celery, diced
  • 3 tbsp Butter, unsalted
  • ¼ cup All-purpose flour
  • 5 cup Beef broth, homemade brown stock is best, unsalted
  • 2 tbsp Tomato paste
  • 1 leaf Bay leaves
  • ¼ tsp Dried thyme
  • 1 pinch Ground black pepper (to taste)

  • For demi-glace (optional)

  • 1 cup Beef broth (optional)

Make it yourself

Make the butter yourself → Make the beef stock yourself →

In the planner, Make it on the shopping list swaps the store item for these ingredients and puts the work on your prep day.

Nutrition

Nutrition coming: the USDA numbers for these ingredients are being added.

📜 Where it comes from

Auguste Escoffier (1846–1935), the Savoy (1890–1898) and Carlton (1899–1919) hotels, London.

A Guide to Modern Cookery (London: William Heinemann, 1907; the English edition of Le Guide culinaire, Paris, 1903), No. 22, p. 18 (espagnole); No. 23, p. 19 (half glaze, or demi-glace): “Brown Sauce or Espagnole; Half Glaze”.

“This is the Espagnole sauce, having reached the limit of perfection by final despumation. It is obtained by reducing one quart of Espagnole and one quart of first-class brown stock until its volume is reduced to nine-tenths of a quart.”

The original text, quoted as printed; it is in the public domain.

Espagnole means “Spanish,” though nobody is sure why the French sauce got the name. Escoffier called demi-glace “the base of all the smaller brown sauces.”

What we changed: Escoffier made four quarts and skimmed it for up to six hours with a flour roux. We make 2 cups in 1½ hours, and leave out the sherry he added to the demi-glace.

Escoffier did this work in London before Michelin gave out its first stars (1926), so no star ratings apply.

Internet Archive scan (Cornell University Library)Project Gutenberg textLe Guide culinaire, 1903 (Internet Archive)Auguste EscoffierEspagnole sauceDemi-glaceMore from the great kitchens →

Steps

You’ll need: heavy 3-quart saucepan, whisk, ladle, fine strainer, small saucepan (for demi-glace).

  1. Cook the bacon in the saucepan over medium heat until it gives up its fat, about 4 minutes. Add the carrot, onion and celery and cook until golden, 8 to 10 minutes. This bacon-and-vegetable mix is Escoffier’s mirepoix.
  2. Add the butter. When it melts, stir in the flour and keep stirring over medium-low heat 6 to 8 minutes, until the roux turns the brown of a paper bag and smells toasty. Don’t let it scorch; burnt roux is bitter.
  3. Whisk in the stock a cup at a time, then the tomato paste, bay leaf, thyme and pepper. Bring to a boil, whisking.
  4. Turn it down so it bubbles gently on one side of the pan. Simmer 1½ hours, skimming the foam and fat from the quiet side every 15 minutes, until it has reduced to about 2 cups and coats a spoon.
  5. Strain, pressing on the vegetables. Taste; add salt only at the end, since it concentrates as it cooks. This is espagnole.
  6. For demi-glace: simmer 1 cup of the espagnole with 1 cup more stock in the small saucepan until it is reduced by about half, 20 to 25 minutes, and is glossy and thick enough to coat a spoon. Escoffier finished his with a little sherry; we leave it out.
Make aheadMake up to 4 days ahead; refrigerate in a covered container. It sets to a jelly when cold and melts back when warmed.
❄️ FreezerFreeze in ice-cube trays, then bag the cubes, up to 3 months; drop a cube or two into a pan sauce.
↺ LeftoversRefrigerate within 2 hours and use within 3 to 4 days. Bring to a boil before using.
Gluten-free swapSkip the roux; thicken the strained sauce with 2 tablespoons cornstarch stirred into ¼ cup cold stock and simmer 2 minutes.
No pork swapLeave out the bacon and brown the vegetables in 1 tablespoon more butter; Escoffier did the same for meatless days, using mushroom trimmings instead.

Good to know

Cooking Fats Compared Salted vs. unsalted butter All-purpose vs. bread flour (and friends) Stock vs. broth Fresh vs. dried herbs

Our own adaptation of a public-domain recipe, in our own words. Nutrition is estimated from USDA FoodData Central and changes with brands and portions.