Cooking Coversions CalculatorEquivalents and Substitutions Searchsauce robert

Sauce Robert (Brown Mustard Sauce)
Pronounced Sauce [ROH-bare], is a variation of a classic French brown sauce. It is used for roasts, braised pork, pork chops, boiled beef, broiled chicken, turkey or any hot meat leftovers. This sauce is derived from a basic brown sauce.  The recipe for the brown sauce is included on this page. This is not a "quick" recipe.  The basic brown sauce requires approximately two hours of simmer time. 

I N G R E D I E N T S
1/4 cup finely minced yellow onion
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vegetable oil or fat
1 cup dry white wine or 2/3 cup dry vermouth
2 cups brown sauce (see recipe below)
3 to 4 tablespoons Dijon-type prepared mustard creamed with 2 or 3 tablespoons butter and 1/8 teaspoon sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons fresh minced parsley

I N S T R U C T I O N S
Use a heavy bottomed, 6-cup saucepan or your meat cooking pan with its degreased juices.  Cook the onions slowly with butter and oil, or fat, for 10 to 15 minutes until they are tender and lightly browned.

Add the wine and boil it down rapidly until it has reduced to
3 to 4 tablespoons.

Add the brown sauce and simmer 10 minutes.  Correct seasoningRemove the sauce from the heat until just before serving, then continue with the recipe. 

Beat the mustard mixture into th
e sauce.  Beat in the parsley and serve.

Brown Sauce
This recipe makes 1 quart of Brown Sauce.  The sauce may be store in the refrigerator for several days or frozen for several weeks.  The longer the sauce simmers the more flavorful it will be.

I N G R E D I E N T S
1/3 cup each: finely diced carrots, onions, and celery
3 tablespoons dice boiled ham (or diced lean bacon simmered for 10 minutes in water, rinsed and drained)
6 tablespoons clarified butter
Rendered fresh pork fat or cooking oil
4 tablespoons flour

6 cups boiling fresh brown stock or canned beef bouillon
2 tablespoons tomato paste
A medium herb bouquet: 3 parsley sprigs, 1/2 bay leaf, and 1/4 teaspoon thyme tied in cheesecloth.

I N S T R U C T I O N S
Use a heavy bottomed, 2-quart saucepan.  Cook the vegetables and ham or bacon slowly in the butter, fat or oil for 10 minutes.

Blend the flour into the vegetables and stir continually over moderately low heat for 8 to 10 minutes, until the flour slowly turns a golden, nut brown. (This is called a Roux)

Remove from the heat.  With a wire whip, immediately blend in all the boiling liquid (stock) at once.  Beat in the tomato paste.  Add the herb bouquet. 

Simmer the sauce slowly, partially covered, for 2 hours or more, skimming off fat and scum as necessary.  Add more liquid if the sauce thickens too much.  You should end up with about 4 cups of sauce, thick enough to coat a spoon lightly. (see cooking tip).

Taste and correct the seasoning.   Strain the sauce, pressing the juice out of the vegetables.  Degrease it thoroughly.  The sauce is ready to use. 

If you will not be using the sauce immediately then clean the sides of the pan.   Float a film of stock over the top of the sauce to prevent a skin from forming.   When the sauce is cold, cover and refrigerate or freeze.


s o u r c e:  julia child, 1970
 
Brown Roux
Brown roux, pronounced [ROO] is used to thicken a sauce and provide a rich nutty flavor.   It is made of flour and fat cooked together until the flour turns an even, nut-brown color. For an ordinary sauce the flour should be cooked in rendered fresh pork fat, or in cooking oil.  If the sauce is to be used for a delicate flavored dish, such as foie gras then the flour should be cooked in clarified butter. Roux must be cooked slowly and evenly.  If the flour is burned it won't thicken the sauce and it will impart an unpleasant flavor.

Clarified Butter
This is simply the process of melting butter and allowing the solids to separate and be removed.  Clarified butter will not burn as easily as whole butter. As a matter of culinary interest, clarified butter which has been cooked a bit longer and allowed to brown is called Ghee, pronounced [GEE] and is commonly used in Indian cooking.

Instructions
Cut butter into pieces and place it in a saucepan over moderate heat.  When the butter has melted, skim off the foam, and strain the clear yellow liquid into a bowl, leaving the milk residue in the bottom of the pan.  You can discard the residue or use it in a soup or sauce to enrich the flavor.

Cooking Tip
Reducing Sauce - Frequently a sauce requires that it be reduced to a specified amount. It's hard to look at liquid in a pan and know how much is remaining without actually measuring. Here's a tip to make job easier.  Measure an amount of water in a liquid measuring cup equal to the amount you will be reducing your sauce to.  (Example: Your sauce will be reducd to 1 cup, measure out 1 cup of water).  Place the water in the empty pan you will be using to prepare the sauce.  Make a note of where the liquid is in relationship to the top of the pan.  Then simply boil  the sauce down to that level. You can also use something such as a popcicle stick to mark the level of the liquid from the bottom of the pan. Then dip the stick back into the sauce to re-measure.
 
Copyright ©2001 - 2007 GourmetSleuth.com All rights reserved