The Secret to Great Sauces is Great Ingredients
If you ask my daughters what their favorite meal is, they will tell you, "Daddy's steak with sauce!"
I love that my little girls enjoy a good cut of beef like New York strip steak or a filet Mignon served with a rich brown sauce made with crushed peppercorns or wild mushrooms and a rich base to make it restaurant quality. Served with starch and a side vegetable dish, we can put it together in less than 30 minutes, and I know my wife and kids will be happy.
So What Is the Secret to Making Restaurant Quality Sauces at Home? -->> Demi Glace
What is Demi Glace?
Demi Glace is a rich brown sauce prepared by combining brown sauce and Espagnole sauce, one of the four mother sauces designated by the great 19th-century chef Antonin Carême. It is essentially the nucleus of all the great classic brown sauces and is used worldwide in restaurants to prepare them.
The problem for home cooks is it takes lots of bones, attention, and time to prepare demi-glace properly and most home cooks, including myself, don't have the time to prepare it from scratch.
Lucky for us there are now some great demi-glace products on the market including those listed below available through Amazon.
How to Elevate Your Own Sauces at Home
I would say if there is one ingredient that elevated the way I cook, it is this demi glace. I can't tell you how many meals I've cooked for friends and family and they can't believe how great the sauce is.
It doesn't matter if you spend hours working on all the other parts of the meal; the comments are always about the sauce, how I made it, and whether I can make this at home in my kitchen too.
The fact is, anyone with a little practice can grill or saute up a steak or a chicken breast. My real challenge is making an incredible homemade sauce that is good as one I may be served in a high-end restaurant.
If I can do that, the meal is a success. Most home cooks don't have the right ingredients like demi-glace because they are hard to find and even harder to make yourself.
Commercial Restaurant Quality Demi Glace Products Are Now Available to Home Cooks
Below you will find some of the best commercial demi glace products on the market in my opinion. Most of the ones listed are available with Amazon Prime so if you are a member, you can get them delivered in two days, some overnight for free delivery.
Some are packaged for home consumers, but some are often sold to restaurants and catering businesses.
The ingredients vary as do the prices. I highly recommend you read through the different products and find one or two that meet your ingredient requirements and fit your budget. Try them and compare them with other products on the market to determine which is best for you.
You may also be interested in my article, Making Sauces at Home which describes my 5 Step Method for Preparing Professional Quality Brown Sauces.
How to Make a Simple but Delicious Sauce for Steak That Even Your Kids Will Eat?
📖 Recipe
Simple Wine Sauce with Demi Glace
Ingredients
- 1 shallot minced
- 2 tablespoons butter unsalted
- ¼ cup red wine or Port
- freshly ground pepper
- 8 oz demi glace
Instructions
- Heat a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of the butter. When the butter is hot but not burning, add the minced shallot.
- Saute the shallot until translucent, about 2 minutes, depending on the pan and your stove. What I mean by this is everybody uses different quality pans and different types of stovetops. Both factors will significantly affect how quickly something will cook, so it isn't easy to give exact times.
- Remove the pan from the stove and add the wine or Port. Return the pan to the stove and add some freshly ground pepper. How much you add will depend on your individual tastes.
- Reduce the wine until there is just an essence left, practically nothing. If you are worried that I am giving alcohol to my girls, don't. It all burns off while you are reducing it. Most of it, anyway.
- When the wine is reduced, add the demi-glace to the pan.
- Simmer on low heat until the sauce is thick enough to coat a spoon or to your preferred consistency. Some people have told me they like it less thick.
- Add the remaining tablespoon of butter to finish the sauce and give it extra sheen and flavor. You may want to skip this step if you are watching your calories.
- Taste and adjust seasonings with salt & pepper.
- Serve over your favorite steaks.
That's that simple and you won't believe how great it is. It is a sure winner, and I know you will be pleased.
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.
Joyce Austin
I can't wait to try this out at home on my own. You mention the reduction of the wine, but how is is reduced? The longer it's simmering? Please help with that answer and also is Demi glacé sold in all supermarkets?
The Reluctant Gourmet
Hi Joyce, you reduce the wine by cooking it over medium heat. Demi Glace is hard to find in most supermarkets. I find the easiest place to find high end, all natural demi as well as highly regarded and less expensive demi glace online. This post offers a few ideas.
Kalishia
I hope I find more posts you've submitted. I loveeeeee to cook and know that is what I'm destined to do. I didn't have the delight of going to cooking school but realized it was a strong passion after I already drained my financial aid..lol. I want to learn and teach myself and although I am an awesome cook I feel there is always more to learn and this really helped me..I love sauces and I make many but now I feel like I just stepped to a whole new level because I make an awesome brown sauce for my meats, but nowwwwwww I know they can be better..there's a secret I always knew there was..thanks for helping me..I took notes and all..great site..I will be back..blessings:0))
Liza
Hi, you say that 1 ounce of DGG reconstitutes into 5 ounces of demi-glace. Do you mix the DGG with water or how does that work? Thanks.
G. Stephen Jones
Hi Liza, according to More Than Gourmet, the makers of Demi Glace Gold, the reconstitution is 4 ounces of water to 1 ounce of DGG. I have been reconstituting their 1 1/2 ounce pucks with 8 ounces of water which is about 5 to 1 ratio and finding it just as good. If I thought it was too thin, I can just reduce it down a little more.
Cory
I am not a chef but would love to cook a sirloin steak from the restaurant chain "Cactus Club Cafe" called "Peppercorn Sirloin – 9oz certified angus beef sirloin with pernod peppercorn demi-glace".
How would one make this happen? It is amazingly good... I'm salivating like Pavlov's dog just thinking about it!
Leslie
Can I make a Demi glacé at home? I seen recipies that call for a rue? Is that comparable?
G. Stephen Jones
Hi Leslie, yes, you can make your own demi glace at home but I have to warn you, it is a long process to make it from scratch. You will find my recipe at http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/how-to-make-beef-stock-for-brown-sauce/
Good luck and please let me know how you do.
Bill N.
Hello, Leslie.
Step one in making a Demi glace from scratch is making a brown stock.
Step two is to make an Espagnole Sauce from the brown stock. One of the components is brown rue.
The third and final step is to use the Espagnole sauce and more brown stock as two of the components for making the Demi glace.
Mary
Of the commercially-available demi glaces you've linked to on Amazon -- which one would you use with fish (salmon, for instance)? It appears that they come as mainly either beef/veal-based or chicken-based, and wasn't sure if either was appropriate with fish....
The Reluctant Gourmet
Hi Mary, great question. Check out my Seafood Sauce for Pan Seared Fish where you'll find a commercial product for making sauces for seafood. I have a salmon sauce using this same product and some fresh dill that I'll post next week. The product I'm referring to is a shellfish reduction and the sauces you can make with it are incredible.
Mark O'Brien
Hi Stephen,
Thanks so much for recommending the Demi-glace Gold. I've made both white (Keller) and brown veal stocks before and I'm not fazed by long, slow reductions. But as festive as my Beef Wellington (Ramsay's recipe) will be for Christmas dinner, the thought of making, then reducing that much veal stock then making both brown and Espagnole sauces then the demi seems, well a bit overkill for one dinner.The product is obviously made to high standards and with Amazon prime It became a no-brainer. I will let you know how your Madeira sauce recipe is with the Welly and how it goes over with the family! I'm expecting fireworks.
Bob Reid
I can't find the list of commercial demi glaces.
G. Stephen Jones
They are at the bottom of the page above Related Posts
Aires Reis
Hi there, I tried your recipe for sauce Au Poivre using Demi Glace. While the taste was very good, the consistency of the sauce was very pasty! In reading the manufacturers recommendations, it list a ratio of 4:1, 4 parts water 1 part Demi Glace, you even mention a 5:1 ratio above. However, you’re recipe doesn’t mention anything about reconstituting before adding it to the butter/shallot/wine mixture.
Please advise.
Thanks!
G. Stephen Jones
Hi Aires, great question. Years ago, I only used the Demi Glace Gold that needed to be reconstituted 4 to 1 or 5 to 1 as I like to but since then I have found several other commercial brands of demi glace. Some of them do need reconstituting, others do not. Therefore, my recipes now say use some amount of demi glace, not Demi Glace Gold or one of the other products. In this recipe, I suggest you use 8 ounces of demi glace. If you are using Demi Glace Gold, that would mean reconstituting a 1 1/2 ounce puck with 8 ounces of water but that may not be the same if you are using a alternative brand. Sorry for the confusion and I hope this helps.
Aires Reis
Hello RG, unfortunately the only type I was able to find locally was the “Gold”, but it’s all good! You learn a great deal from making mistakes, and this is one of those times. Like I said, the sauce was very tasty just a little thick!
I do like your recipe and will continue to use it as the basis For my Au Poivre sauce, watered down a little of course ;o) I now understand why it’s so freaking expensive, it makes 4 times the volume. Great stuff! Thank you!
G. Stephen Jones
Thanks Aires for you kind words. And yes it is expensive because it makes "4 times the volume", but it also takes a long time to make the demi glace before reducing 4x.
JimmyB
Hello:
I just stumbled across your wonderful website by accident while looking up more information on fennel.
Then I ran across the demi glace section. I have recently bought some Minor's Demi Glace and used it with good results. I am however a bit confused by one thing in your recipe for demi glace sauce. You say to add 8 oz. of demi glace. Are you talking about using one of those 1.5 oz packages of demi-glace gold added to 6 oz. of water? I don't think you mean to use 5 of them to get 7.5 oz. of product.
Thank you for all the effort you have put into this website. It is a fountain of useful information and you should be commended for all of your hard work in putting it together!
G. Stephen Jones
Hi Jimmy B, thanks for your kind comments. Much appreciated. I am a big fan of More Than Gourmet's Demi Glace Gold but have been using other brands like your Minor's Demi Glace also with great success. Although the MTG 1.5 ounce containers say it is a 4 to 1 reduction, I always go 5 to 1 so the 1.5 ounce pucks reconstitutes to 8 ounces. Now, to answer your question, if a recipe says 8 ounces of demi glace, it means 8 ounces of reconstituted demi glace or if you make your own, 8 ounces.
If you do go with the MTG, try adding 8 ounces of water to a Pyrex measuring cup, get the water hot in a microwave and then add the 1 1/2 ounce puck and see if that concentration is strong enough for you. If not, try 6 ounces and decide which you like better. Hope this helps.
JimmyB
Thanks for such a detailed reply. You are incredible!
G. Stephen Jones
You are very welcome.
Liz
So with the simple wine sauce with Demi glacé.. you make the Demi glacé first per instructions on the package then you follow your instructions ?
G. Stephen Jones
Hi Liz, depends on what package you are speaking of. Some commercial demi glace is already fully constituted but others, like More Than Gourmet's Demi Glace Gold needs to be reconstituted. From there you make the recipe with the reconstituted demi glace. If you make your own demi glace from scratch, it will be at full strength.