Brown Sauce - Basic Recipe

Brown sauce. © kvalifood.com

Classic brown sauce needs to be made with a good, dark stock and the right herbs. That is what makes it good. A couple of stock cubes and a spoonful of gravy browning just does not cut it.

The basic rule for thickening sauce is 3 tbsp flour per 500 ml (2 cups) of liquid. So if you know how much sauce you want to end up with, you can add the flour all at once from the start.

Ingredients

Yields 5 dl (2 cups) sauce. (Allow 70–100 ml per person)

  • 5 dl dark stock
  • 3 tbsp flour, or 1½ tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot as thickener
  • 4 tbsp Madeira (or water), to whisk the thickener into
  • 2–4 tbsp tomato puree. Optional.

Directions

Bring the stock to a boil.

Whisk the thickener and Madeira or water together.

Whisk the mixture into the stock. Whisk vigorously and pour in a thin stream to avoid lumps.

Add the tomato puree.

If you use cornstarch or arrowroot, it only needs to cook for about 3 minutes. If you use flour, let it simmer for 20–30 minutes to cook out the raw flour taste. I prefer flour thickening myself. It is a bit more work, but I am not keen on the transparent sauce you get with cornstarch.

Season with salt and pepper.

Notes

If you use cornstarch to thicken, you can reduce the transparency by adding a little milk or cream.