Brown Sauce

Brown sauce is a mixture of butter and heated/browned flour with meat stock. It has a gravy like texture, since it is thickened by reduction. Brown sauce recipe is a classical French cuisine. There are many variants of this ingredient and it is prepared differently in different countries. It is quite commonly used in French and Scandinavian cuisine. This sauce comes in different base. The French prefer it in meat-stock base, whereas the Britishers like it with a vinegar base, fruit and spices. The British cuisine uses it with bacon. The Americans too prefer it like Britishers, but they have it with steak instead of bacon. The Danish cuisine uses meat stock base or broth condensed with cornstarch or flour roux. It may be tinted with food color for achieving a deep brown sauce color.

 

History of Brown Sauce Recipes

The earliest record of meat sauce comes from the 16th Century. This ingredient has its origins in France or Spain. There is no confirmed evidence of its origin. However, it is popular in the French cuisine. The traditional brown sauce  had a very complicated procedure. It was thickened and made into broth by cooking meat in water. This process was repeated several times until the sauce thickened and achieved an intense flavor. This procedure gave way to a different style of preparation that is not time consuming. Today, it is made of meat stock and flour roux for achieving thickness. Typically, sauces were invented for using them as a cooking medium. They also served as meat tenderizer and enhanced the flavor of food while cooking.

 

Ingredients and Preparation Method of the Sauce

The modern day sauce is made from flour, butter, meat stock, spices like pepper, salt and onion. The onions are sauteed in butter and cooked with flour until the color turns brown. Spices are added for flavoring the brown sauce.

 

Serving Style according to Brown Sauce Recipes

This sauce should be served hot or warm with vegetables or meat. It is best to make it at home instead of buying it over the counter. It is often used as condiment.

 

Trivia

This sauce is extremely versatile and can be used with a combination of ingredients like sautéed mushrooms, sautéed shallots, sautéed onions and so on. However, the Asian version of this sauce recipe is very different and should not be confused with the original brown sauce. The Asian version is made from molasses and soy sauce. It is often used as a flavoring while cooking meat and vegetable ingredientes. The authentic and original brown sauce is referred as one of the five “Mother Sauces”.