How to Make Reduction Sauces
Last night my wife and I had the privilege to attend the first Lemon Ball to support the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation at the Bellevue in downtown Philadelphia. It was a terrific “yellow-tie” event that raised a lot of money to be used for childhood cancer research.
It was a very moving night with speeches from Jay and Liz Scott, Alex’s parents who spoke on Alex’s fight with cancer and dream to raise millions of dollars so doctors could find a cure by selling lemonade starting with a stand in her front yard.
If you don’t know Alex’s story, I highly recommend you visit the Alex’s Lemonade Stand web site, read all about this incredible little girl who raised over $1 million dollars during her short lifetime and inspired her parents to start the foundation to continue her dream. It is truly amazing and heart warming.
The foundation honored Billy King, President and General Manager of the Philadelphia 76ers who became a close friend to Alex when she just started and was one of her biggest supporters. Then there was a visit and speech from the Gov, Edward G. Rendell.
The Bellevue put out a fine dinner for what looked to be over 500 people. The menu started with Belgian endive and baby mixed greens served with honey-roasted pecans, grapes and crumbled Roquefort cheese and finished with a citrus vinaigrette.
The entrée was filet mignon and Chilean sea bass, leek and mushrooms accompanied by Wasabi potato puree. The waiter came by with a gravy boat filled with a reduction sauce, the subject I would like to talk about.
Before Reduction Sauces
Before everyone was concerned about diets and eating healthier, most sauces were thickened with the help of liaisons, a fancy name for thickening agents. The most popular is a classic roux consisting of a fat (usually butter) and flour although some people will use simple flour and water.
Another popular thickener is cornstarch mixed with a little water or stock. Egg yolks are also used to create a silky texture but if you’re not careful, they can end up as scrambled eggs.
And one of my favorite thickening agents that my doctor tells me I should eliminate from my diet is cream or half and half (half milk/half cream). I have read you can use evaporated milk combined with a starch thickener as a substitute but I really don’t think it would taste the same.
Reduction Sauces
With restaurant goers demanding lower calorie and less fat in their food but still wanting it to taste special, chefs turned to reduction sauces to give them what they want. A reduction is the result of boiling or cooking down a liquid until it reduces to the consistency of a sauce. The liquid can be just about anything but is usually a wine or a stock that has been used to deglaze a pan where meat, chicken or fish have just been sautéed. (See my article on Pan Sauces)
What’s great about reduction sauces is they are easy to prepare at home and because you are evaporating the water from whatever liquid you are using, you are instantly intensifying the overall flavor of the sauce.
A Basic Reduction Sauce
You can make reductions sauces from all sorts of liquids. One of my favorites is a balsamic reduction sauce where you slowly cook down a cup of balsamic vinegar until it reduces by half or if you like, even further until it becomes syrupy. This is great to drizzle over fish, chicken or pork chops.
Another basic reduction sauce I make a lot at home is a simple pan sauce. Here’s where you sauté, lets say a chicken breast, in a sauté pan, remove it from the pan, deglaze the pan with some wine, let it cook down to an essence and then add some chicken stock or beef stock.
How much stock should you add?
If you are looking for a cup of sauce, start with two cups of stock. Basically you are going to reduce whatever liquid you are using in half. If you think the sauce should be thicker, continue cooking it down until it reaches your desired consistency.
You will often hear chefs say or cookbooks describe reducing a sauce until it is “thick enough to coat a spoon.” All this means is you dip a spoon in the sauce, and if the sauces sticks, it’s ready. If you reduce the sauce too much, just add a little more stock.
You can read my full description on making pan sauces on my web site but here’s a simple recipe for making a quick reduction sauce at home.
Pan Reduction Sauce
This sauce is made right after you finish cooking the meat, chicken, fish, etc. You remove it from the pan and keep it warm until the sauce is done. Some chefs will undercook the meat and finish cooking it in the sauce.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons fat - butter, oil or some combination. If there is leftover fat from what you just cooked, use that.
1 shallot, minced
¼ cup wine (red, white or port depending on what you are cooking)
1-cup chicken, beef or vegetable stock (again depending on what you are cooking)
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh herbs (again depending on what you are cooking)
How to Prepare at Home
Remove the meat from the sauté pan; pour off all but 2 tablespoons of fat (add fat if you need to). Remove the pan from the heat; add wine to deglaze the pan while scraping any bits stuck to the pan when cooking the meat.
Place the pan back on the heat and immediately add the shallots letting them cook while the wine reduces to an essence. Be sure to keep stirring so the shallots don’t burn and the bottom of the pan is clean.
Once the wine is almost completely cooked off, add the stock. Reduce the stock by at least half and more if you want the sauce thicker.
Taste and season with salt and pepper. Many professional chefs will add pats of butter at this point to give the sauce more flavor and that velvety shine and smooth texture. This is great but it sort of defeats the purpose of making a reduction to reduce fat and calories.
Add the finely chopped herbs and serve. That simple and delicious.
on January 22nd, 2007 at 2:14 pm
What an excellent article! Informative, and in the context of a wonderful event. Nice job!
I just recently started culinary school (with hopes of making a career-change from the IT work I currently do) and have been following along with your blog. It is an excellent resource, with a good balance between technical proficiency and the home cooking. Keep up the good work!
on January 23rd, 2007 at 11:58 am
While sometimes it does matter which stock you use based on the protien, I do experiment with variations. I might mix a balsamic vinegar and chicken stock reduction with roasted asparagus over a filet mignon for an interesting combo. Or vegetable stock anytime you want to include veggies with the protien when serving. I use beef stock when using brandy or port and chicken or vegetable when using vermouth or sherry. Although I love the butter at the end, I rarely use it anymore and make sure that the herbs are sufficient to heighten the flavors.
on January 25th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Brand new reader! Don’t even know what a blog is…so bear with me! (Bare or bear -? ha-ha).
I keep reading recipes with Stock. How is that different from Broth? I found a can of “Stock” in the grocery store and it was like 4 times as much as broth.
on January 26th, 2007 at 9:08 am
Here is a no brainer that is great:
Port, beef, & Shallot sauce
Ingredients:
¼ cup olive oil
4 cans beef broth
2 cups tawny Port
2 tablespoon tomato paste
3 teaspoons dried thyme
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2-3 tablespoons all purpose flour
½ mushrooms, sliced.
Preparation:
Toss shallots with oil to coat and season with salt and pepper.
Save remaining oil to toss mushroom before sautéing.
Roast shallots until they are deep brown and very tender, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.
Sauté mushrooms.
Meanwhile boil broth and Port in large saucepan until reduced to ~3 cups, about 30 minutes.
Whisk in tomato paste.
If preparing beef, add broth mixture to beef pan and bring to boil, scraping up any browned bits.
Transfer to medium saucepan; bring to simmer.
Mix 3 tablespoons butter and flour in small bowl to form smooth paste; whisk into broth mixture and simmer until sauce thickens, about 2 minutes.
Whisk in 3 tablespoons butter. Stir in roasted shallots and sautéed mushrooms. Season sauce with salt and pepper.
on February 3rd, 2007 at 12:45 am
I think it’s time too talk about everyones feelings about the cloning of meat that is going too hit the main stream american soon.
on February 7th, 2007 at 8:58 am
Thanks so much for the tips. I’ll be making a balsamic reduction to drizzle over an appetizer next week and your advice has been very helpful.
on February 10th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
A FLAVOURFUL LIQUID REDUCTION!!!
This website is fabulous. I never fully understood the power and art of reduction sauces until now. Thank you so much for the tips!!!
on February 19th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Excellent article on reduction sauces. My wife was wondering if you have had success with lemon or blueberry reduction sauces or wine reduction sauces and what other ingredients you used to make them? Thank you!
Mike Kazmark
http://www.bestpastarecipes.com
on March 2nd, 2007 at 6:04 pm
I’ve only recently started cooking. I found your site and used it as my primary source for any techniques that I was interested in, as well as any information in this area.
The bottom of my pan is black when I saute something making my reductions too dark/burnt. They taste pretty good, but they do not look as nice as the ones that I see on TV. I wil continue to try. I have even considered taking a saute, reduction, pan sauce class sometime in the future. In the mean time I will keep reading your site and keep on trying. At 52, I wish that I would’ve discovered cooking a long time ago. Thank you for all that you do.
Sincerely.
Ray
on August 14th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
As I write this my white wine reduction is reducing. I’m baking my chicken with a rub of rosemary, garlic, butter and paprika so I sacrificed a piece of chicken for the reduction! I have book marked this site. It’s great!
on November 29th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
i am looking for an actual book,..not an e-book (i want something to wrap up) on reductions….how to make , what goes with what etc for my husband for xmas..any suggestions?
on March 10th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
right on man. that was straight to the point i will book mark this page…thanks
on September 15th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
I am looking to make a sauce out of Jagermeister - a cordial liquer. I know that it might sound strange to anyone that is familiar with the drink..but I own a restaurant/bar and we are the biggest retailer of Jager in the state and I truly believe that something delicious can be derived from it in a cooking sense. Can anyone suggest any other herbal/spice that would compliment this reduction? Would be using it for a sauce for steak or wings!
Thanks for any positive input!
on September 16th, 2009 at 6:15 am
Cindy, I’m pretty sure you can make a decent sauce with most cordial liqueurs if you use them to deglaze your sauce pan. What are the flavors associated with Jager? Knowing that will help decide what other ingredients would work with it.