Demi-Glace is traditionally made by mixing espagnole sauce (brown sauce) and brown stock. But I used a short-cut method to make my Demi-Glace. Instead of making espagnole sauce and brown stock separately, I kind of combined both to achieve a similar outcome. This Demi-Glace is used in my other recipe, Hayashi Rice. Watch the video.
This recipe is based on the Japanese French chef, Hiroyuki Sakai. My process of making Demi-Glace is almost the same as his recipe, with some adjustment to the ingredients.
Total Time does not include the time to leave the Demi-Glace overnight.
- 1kg/2.2lb beef conical muscles (note 1)
- 500g/1.1lb chicken necks (note 2)
- 1 tbsp oil
- 2 cloves garlic , smashed
- 250g/0.6lb onion , diced into about 1.5cm/⅝" pieces
- 100g/3.5oz carrot , diced into about 1.5cm/⅝" pieces
- 100g/3.5oz celery , cut into about 1.5cm/⅝" long pieces
- 100g/3.5oz leek , cut into about 1.5cm/⅝" long pieces
- 2½ tbsp tomato paste
- 100g/3.5oz butter
- 70g/2.5oz flour
- 200ml/7.1fl oz red wine
- 5L/5.3qt water
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Pre-heat the oven to 170°C/338°F.
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Cut the beef into small thin pieces of about 1-1.5cm/⅜-⅝" thick.
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Place the beef pieces and the chicken necks on a large baking tray, without overlapping, and bake in the oven for 45 minutes (note 3).
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Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add garlic and onion pieces to the pan and sauté until the edges of the onion pieces start browning slightly.
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Add the rest of the vegetables to the pan and sauté for a few minutes.
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When there is no moisture on the bottom of the pan, add tomato paste and mix.
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Add butter to the pan and mix well until the butter melts completely.
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Add flour and mix well ensuring that there is no white flour left in the mixture.
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Add wine to the pan and mix well, scraping the bottom of the pan to remove the flour stuck to it. Then, transfer the mixture to a large stock pot (note 4).
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Transfer the cooked beef and chicken neck from the tray into the pot, including the juice in the tray.
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Add 5L water to the pot (note 4) and bring it to a boil.
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Reduce the heat to simmer and cook for 2-2.5 hours until the volume of the sauce reduces to about half (note 5).
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Put the sauce through a fine sieve into a smaller pot. You need to do it in batches. Using a ladle or a spatula, squeeze the meat and vegetables in the sieve to get the sauce out of them as much as possible.
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Bring the sauce in the pot to a boil, then reduce the heat to simmer. Cook for 40-60 minutes (note 6). You may occasionally stir the sauce using a spatula and scraping the bottom of the pot, in case the thickened sauce sticks to the bottom.
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When the volume of the sauce reduces to 0.9-1L/1-1.1qt (note 7), turn the heat off and leave it overnight to develop the depth of the flavour.
1. If you can’t find beef conical muscles, you can use other stewing beef meat. Osso buco is perhaps the closest to it.
2. I used chicken neck so that I didn't need to chop them to cook them. You can use chicken carcasses as alternatives. If you do, cut the carcasses into smaller pieces.
3. It is OK to place the meat very tightly on the tray as it shrinks when it is cooked. After 45 minutes of cooking, the surface of the meat should be browned.
4. I used a 7.5L/8qt stock pot, which could not fit in everything in, i.e., meat, vegetables, and 5L/5.3qt water. So, I filled it with as much water as I could, allowing for the room to bubble while cooking, then topped up the rest of the water when the water level lowered.
If your pot is much larger than mine, you can add all of the water at once.
5. The sauce thickens slightly. The volume of the sauce at this stage does not have to be accurate since you will be condensing the sauce further. It is more important to ensure that the sauce is not too thick, which makes it harder to put the sauce through a sieve.
6. Depending on the size of your pot and the strength of the heat, the time to halve the quantity of the sauce varies. If you are using a very wide pot, it will evaporate the water faster.
7. To measure the approximate volume of the sauce without tipping it into a measuring cup, I use a bamboo stick, or a wooden (not lacquered) chopstick as follows:
i) Prior to cooking the sauce, fill the pot that you will be using with 1L of water.
ii) Place the stick upright in the water, then remove it and check the depth of the water by measuring the length of the wet part of the stick.
iii) When the sauce in the pot reduces to nearly half, put the stick in the pot upright and see if the brown line reached the same line as the water mark.
8. Demi-Glace can be used as a sauce for a steak and Hamburg steak, as well as the base for beef stew.
Excess sauce can be frozen for about 6 months. It is better to store it in small containers for use individually and freeze them. I used an ice cube tray to freeze it. Each cube is just the right amount to pour over a steak.
9. Below is the generic nutrition information per 100ml of Demi-Glace, not calculated from my ingredients, because it was impossible for me to work out from my ingredients.
serving: 269g calories: 96kcal fat: 5.7g (7%) saturated fat: 3.5g (18%) trans fat: 0.0g polyunsaturated fat: 0.2g monounsaturated fat: 1.7g cholesterol: 14mg (5%) sodium: 504mg (22%) carbohydrates: 6.3g (2%) dietary fibre: 0.3g (1%) sugar: 1.7g protein: 5.5g vitamin D: 0mcg (0%) calcium: 28mg (2%) iron: 1.3mg (7%) potassium: 504mg (11%)