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- Joined Aug 15, 2004
Escoffier said take 1 qt brown sauce and 1 qt brown stock, reduce it to .9 qt and add some nice sherry (depending on which version of his book you have) and there's your demi-glace.
To make the brown sauce, start with clarified butter, brown your mirepoix add flour to form the roux, brown it nicely, add 6 qts of brown stock, a sachet d'spice, reduce to 4 qts. Ok, so then I add 4 qts of brown stock and reduce to 3.6 qts of demi-glace.
Is there any reason that anyone knows that I can't just make the mirepoix/roux but add 10 qts of stock and reduce it all down to 3.6 qts instead of doing it in steps making the brown sauce first, then adding the stock and reducing further to get the demi-glace?
Not interested in hearing about the modern way of just reducing stock to demi-glace consistency. Wanna stay true to Escoffier, just wondering if there's anything to be gained by doing the brown sauce first then adding more stock and reducing to get the demi-glace, as opposed to adding all the stock to the browned mirepoix/roux and reducing.
The only down side that I can think of might be that I wouldn't get a nice distribution of the flour to thicken the brown sauce if I added all the stock at once, and/or maybe it would be harder to skim the butter and scum off the top if its too diluted with 10 qts of stock instead of 6 qts reduced to 4 qts of brown sauce and then adding the remaining 4 qts of stock.
tx,
doc
To make the brown sauce, start with clarified butter, brown your mirepoix add flour to form the roux, brown it nicely, add 6 qts of brown stock, a sachet d'spice, reduce to 4 qts. Ok, so then I add 4 qts of brown stock and reduce to 3.6 qts of demi-glace.
Is there any reason that anyone knows that I can't just make the mirepoix/roux but add 10 qts of stock and reduce it all down to 3.6 qts instead of doing it in steps making the brown sauce first, then adding the stock and reducing further to get the demi-glace?
Not interested in hearing about the modern way of just reducing stock to demi-glace consistency. Wanna stay true to Escoffier, just wondering if there's anything to be gained by doing the brown sauce first then adding more stock and reducing to get the demi-glace, as opposed to adding all the stock to the browned mirepoix/roux and reducing.
The only down side that I can think of might be that I wouldn't get a nice distribution of the flour to thicken the brown sauce if I added all the stock at once, and/or maybe it would be harder to skim the butter and scum off the top if its too diluted with 10 qts of stock instead of 6 qts reduced to 4 qts of brown sauce and then adding the remaining 4 qts of stock.
tx,
doc