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Demi-glace is a French brown sauce made by combining veal stock and espagnole sauce, and is a cornerstone of French cooking. It can be made with alternative stocks and is used as a base for other sauces. The sauce has a rich, deep flavor and was codified by famous French chef Escoffier. It is sometimes referred to as “demi-glaze” and “brown sauce.”
Demi-glace is a rich brown sauce of French origin that is used on its own and as a base for other sauces. It’s one of the cornerstones of French cooking, and while it’s time-consuming, it has a distinctive flavor that some people find worth making. For people who want to enjoy demi-glace without working hours, many markets sell it in prepared form. The prepared products vary in quality; as a general rule, the ingredients list should be filled with identifiable ingredients, not an assortment of mystery chemicals.
This sauce combines equal parts veal stock with Spanish sauce, one of the “mother sauces” of French cuisine. The cook usually begins by preparing the veal stock, because it needs to simmer for an extended time, then works on the espagnole sauce, which starts with a dark roux that is mixed with vegetables such as carrots, celery, and onions, and cooked at slow fire broth with bones and pieces of meat. Both sauces require prolonged cooking before they can be drained and pureed to make demi-glace, and the sauce requires even more cooking, as the sauce must be cooked until it has been reduced by half.
Some cooks use alternatives to veal stock in their demi-glace. If chicken stock is used, it becomes chicken demi-glace, beef stock makes beef demi-glace, and so on. If the sauce is simply referred to as “demi-glace,” it assumes it was made with traditional veal stock.
The original recipe for this sauce dates back to Escoffier, a famous French chef. He may not have invented the recipe, but he certainly collected and codified it, along with numerous other French dishes. He also recommended an assortment of uses for the sauce, ranging from using it as a glaze on roasted meats to using it as a base for sauces, broths and soups. When well prepared, demi-glace has a very rich, deep, dark flavor that pairs well with a variety of roasted meats and vegetables.
Some people refer to demi-glace as “demi-glaze,” due to confusion over the original French spelling. While this is incorrect, it is not far from the truth, as “glace” means “frosting” or “icing”, referring to the fact that sauce behaves similarly to a glaze. This popular sauce may also be called “brown sauce,” which is a bit of a misnomer, as several French sauces are brown, and a brown sauce doesn’t necessarily have to involve demi-glace.
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