Espagnole Sauce or Brown Sauce

How to Make a Restaurant Quality Espagnole Sauce

Brown sauce is one of the five “Grand” or “Mother” sauces of French cuisine, the other four being béchamel, tomato, velouté and hollandaise. A Grand sauce is a base sauce from which a plethora of derivative sauces are then made.

Brown sauce, as the name implies, is a brown colored sauce, made from beef or veal stock, which is viscous and deeply flavored by meat and aromatic vegetables. Brown sauce is also known as Espagnole, the French word for Spanish. It is a hearty sauce best served with hearty fare and robust red wines.

📖 Recipe

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Espagnole Sauce or Brown Sauce

A wonderful soup for all your favorite meat dishes.

Prep Time5 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr 5 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Course: Sauces

Cuisine: French

Keyword: sauce

Ingredients

• 2 ounces butter
• 2 ounces all purpose flour
• 2 quarts veal/beef stock
• 4 ounces tomato puree
• 1 small carrot roughly chopped
• 1 stick celery roughly chopped
• 1 small onion roughly chopped
• 1 sachet d’epices

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

• Melt the butter over medium heat in a small stockpot. Add the flour and cook, stirring frequently until a golden color is achieved.
• Slowly add the stock, constantly whisking until it is incorporated.
• Add remaining ingredients.
• Bring the sauce to a gentle simmer and cook for at least one hour, skimming the surface as necessary.
• Strain through cheesecloth when finished.

Notes

Some chefs sauté the vegetables in the butter and then add the flour, or cook them separately in oil as opposed to adding them raw.