How To Make a Classic Madeira Wine Sauce in 20 Minutes or Less
“A good base lightly flavored with Madeira will produce one of the greatest of all sauces.” Raymond Sokolov, The Saucier’s Apprentice
Madeira sauce is one of the classic French brown sauces prepared with Madeira wine, peppercorns and a few other important ingredients.
Basically, it can be looked at as a pepper sauce with Madeira wine added to it. It is typically served with beef and chicken but in today’s kitchens, you can serve it with most anything.
A Little History On Madeira Wine and Madeira Sauce
Let’s start with Madeira, a wine from Portugal first made back in the 1400’s for export, especially to France where it was part of “their daily diet”. Madeira wine was prepared to hold up to the constant motion of the ship carrying it to its destination.
A little cane sugar as well as some distilled alcohol was added during the fermentation process resulting in sweet to dry wine with a tanish color.
The old way of making classic Madeira sauce took lots of steps and an extremely long time.
Starting with a roux of butter and vegetables like onions, carrots and celery; then adding beef stock and other vegetables including mushrooms and tomatoes; simmering, stirring and skimming for hours, then poured through a fine strainer only to have the whole process start over again with the addition of Madeira wine.
By the time you were done, you ended up with an intensely flavorful Madeira sauce but may have been frustrated by all time invested to make the sauce.
Good news – I have a recipe using a commercial demi-glace product that cuts down the time to prepare this sauce to 20 minutes or less.
Madeira Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 oz butter or 1/4 stick
- 3 tablespoons shallots finely chopped
- ½ pound mushrooms white or crimini, sliced
- ½ teaspoon black cracked peppercorns
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 sprig fresh thyme 1/4 teaspoon dried
- ¼ cup red wine
- ¾ cup Madeira wine
- 1 cup demi glace
- ¼ cup heavy cream optional
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat a medium sized sauce pan over medium heat. Once hot, add butter and then the shallots.
- Sauté the shallots until translucent, about 2 minutes.
- Add the mushrooms and cook until they release their moisture and become tender. This should take about 3 minutes.
- Add the peppercorns, thyme and bay leave to the sauce pan and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Now, add the red wine and reduce by half. This could take 3 - 5 minutes.
- Add the Madeira wine and bring the sauce to a boil. As soon as the wine comes to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer.
- Add the demi glace to the sauce and whisk until well blended together.
- Add the optional heavy cream if you are using it. Will add some extra richness as well as calories.
- Reduce this sauce until it is thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon.
- Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
- Serve over your favorite meats and poultry.
Demi Glace
When it comes to making great sauces at home, the kind that will wow your family and friends, stock reductions make all the difference. Whether it’s a pan sauce using chicken, beef or fish stock that’s reduced in the pan or starting with a prepared beef / chicken glaze, if you want to create a classic “restaurant quality” sauce, you need to start with a quality stock or glaze.
Making a great stock at home is not hard to do and I urge you all to start making your own stocks. Making a glaze like demi glace (veal/beef) or glace de poulet (chicken) is a lot more complicated and a job you may not want to tackle or at least not that often.
If you want to learn more about demi glace, what it is and how to make it at home, check out this demi glace link. There are also some links to a few commercial products I’ve tried and think are good alternatives to preparing it at home.
Alternative – Madeira Peppercorn Sauce
For those of you who love a nice “au poivre” sauce or peppercorn sauce in English, you can easily adapt the recipe above to make your own. Just substitute the 1/2 teaspoon black cracked peppercorns with 1 teaspoon drained green peppercorns in brine, coarsely chopped.
You can leave the mushrooms or exclude them depending on your preferences and now you have a delightful Madeira Peppercorn Sauce. This goes especially well with game meats like elk or venison.
My Top Choices for Demi Glace
Online Sources: Demi Glace
For those of you who do not want to make demi glace at home.
Demi glace is the most important ingredient for making classic "restaurant quality" brown sauces. All the great French brown sauces use demi glace. But it can also be used in soups, stews and braises. It's something you can make at home but it takes a long, long time to do it right and if you make one mistake, it can easily be ruined. Lucky for us, there are now some great sources for commercial grade demi glace and I want to share a few with you now. Everyone has their preferences so I suggest you give each a try to find out which product you like best.Savory Choice's Demi Glace
Ready in minutes, Savory Choice beef demi glace allows home chefs to deliver impressive restaurant-quality meals quickly and cost-effectively. Professional chefs typically take at least 24 hours to prepare this traditional reduction sauce by simmering stock, vegetables, wine and spices to a velvety consistency.More Than Gourmet's Demi Glace Gold
One of my first commercial demi glace products and still one of my favorites. For almost 25 years, More Than Gourmet has been the gold standard for flavor and quality when it comes to sauces, stock, and soup. This product comes in 1 pound tubs and 1.5 ounce pucks and even bigger sizes if you are a commercial establishment. I like buying 6 of the pucks at a time unless I'm doing a big party and need the pounder.
Excellent recipe! I de like to copy it when i get home.
J. Pepin made a coffee sauce with Madeira wine.
With a slotted spoon perhaps.
I know what I ask changes your recipe completely but will this work substituting the Madeira with Marsala and omitting the pepper? Thanks.
I’m sure it would work, but I wouldn’t call it Madeira Sauce.
Thank you! I am going to try this recipe at home. I tried the Pasta da Vinci @ Cheesecake Factory for the first time – LOVED the madeira sauce so I’ll enjoy trying to recreate at home.
Thanks for reaching out and please let me know how it works out for you.
Where is everyone finding Madeira wine? My mom is in love with the Pasta DaVinci from Cheescake factory and i cannot find the wine anywhere.
Megan, you should be able to find it in any liquor store or state store. It is readily available.
Megan :
Maderia is classified as a “ fortified “ wine – ie, one to which a distilled spirit is added ; in this case “ Poncha “ is used. ( it is the traditional alcoholic drink from the island of Madeira, distilled from sugar cane to which lemon juices & honey & sugar are added ). That said, your liquor store may display Maderia near Port, Sherry, Marsala or Vermouth, as they too are “ fortified “.
Kind Regards,
Brenda
PS: if you “ luck in “ to getting hold of the recipe from the Cheesecake Factory, go crazy & share it with us !
Hi my name is Keith and I would love to know how to order your book can you please help me?
Hi Keith, if you are referring to How to Make Restaurant Quality Sauces, the entire ebook is posted on my website. The directory is at https://www.reluctantgourmet.com/restaurant-quality-sauces/page/2/
I Loved This recipe And Want To Try It, But Busy Your Recipe Makes Me Hungry, I Want To Eat It