Sauce Robert Recipe

A Classic Mustard - Wine Sauce to Serve with Pork

Robert Sauce is another fantastic sauce with demi glace as a base ingredient. Actually it is derived from the classic French Espagnole sauce, also called brown sauce and is one of the 5 Mother Sauces.

I have seen various pronunciations for Sauce Robert but I like to use [ROH-bare]. It is made with onions, mustard, white wine and brown sauce or demi glace. It is especially good when served with pork but also works well with beef and chicken.

Making this sauce at home can take a long time if you have to prepare the brown sauce from scratch but as you have seen from my other classic French sauce recipes, I prefer to use commercial products now available on the market rather than take the hours to prepare my own.

Who Is the Robert in Sauce Robert?

A great question and still a mystery today. No one knows for sure who this sauce is named for. From my limited research on the Internet, Sauce Robert is one of the earliest “compound” sauces ever made. It has been seen in French cookbooks dating all the way back to the 1600’s .

Some sources credit Robert Vinot, a cook from late 16th century but then other sources discredit this idea. For a much more detailed history of this sauce, I suggest you read my friend Peter Hertzmann's post called Of Unknown Origin: Sauce Robert.

Print Recipe

Robert Sauce Recipe

Prep Time5 mins

Cook Time15 mins

Total Time20 mins

Course: Sauces

Cuisine: French

Servings: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion finely diced
• 2 tablespoons butter
• ½ cup dry white wine
• 1 cup demi glace
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• freshly ground pepper to taste

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

• Heat a saucepan over medium heat until hot.
• Add 1 tablespoon of butter to the pan. As soon as the butter melts and starts to foam, add the onions.

  Be careful not to let the butter burn. Cook the onions until they become translucent.
• Remove the pan from the stove and carefully add the wine to the pan. Return the pan to the stove and reduce until most of the wine is cooked off.
• Add the demi glace along with a little salt and pepper, stir and reduce until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
• Add the mustard and finish by adding the remaining tablespoon of butter to the sauce and stir. This is called mounting.
• Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper if needed.
• Serve with your favorite pork dishes or beef and chicken recipes.