Sauce Bordelaise

Bordeaux red wine reduced on shallots and finished with poached marrow for grilled beef

Origin: Bordeaux, France

From the journey of Shallot.

Bordeaux gave its name to two things at once here: the wine that goes into the sauce, and the beef entrecôte grilled over vine cuttings that it is poured over. The structure is the classical one. A great deal of finely chopped shallot is reduced in red wine with thyme and bay until the liquid is nearly gone, then let down with a good brown stock or demi-glace and reduced again to a coating consistency. What makes it bordelaise rather than any other red wine sauce is the marrow: beef marrow poached gently out of the bone, diced, and folded in at the end, where it melts into the sauce and gives it a richness and a silkiness that butter alone does not. Shallots are used here in a quantity that surprises people meeting the recipe for the first time, six or eight to a modest amount of sauce, and the reason is the same as in every other French reduction. A shallot breaks down completely in acid and heat, contributing sweetness and body without ever needing to be strained out or noticed as pieces. Onion in the same role would need straining, and the sauce would be thinner for it. The wine should be a decent Bordeaux but need not be an expensive one; what matters is that it is dry, tannic, and unoaked enough not to turn bitter under reduction. A poor wine cannot be improved by boiling, but a great one is wasted. It is served with grilled steak above all, and with any roast beef, and a properly made one is a small test of whether a kitchen can be bothered.

Ingredients

Reduction

6 whole shallots, very finely chopped, about 180 g
30 g unsalted butter, for softening
500 ml dry red Bordeaux
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1 whole bay leaf
8 whole black peppercorns, crushed

Sauce

400 ml good brown beef stock or demi-glace

To Finish

120 g beef marrow, from about 3 marrow bones
40 g cold unsalted butter, cubed
1 tsp salt, or to taste
1 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped, optional

Method

Soak the marrow bones in cold salted water for two hours, changing the water once, then push the marrow out and dice it.
Melt the 30 g of butter in a heavy non-reactive pan and soften the chopped shallots over a low heat for six to eight minutes without colouring them.
Add the wine, thyme, bay, and peppercorns. Bring to the boil, then simmer briskly for 20 to 25 minutes until reduced to about 100 ml, thick and syrupy.
Add the stock and simmer for a further 15 to 20 minutes until the sauce coats the back of a spoon and leaves a clear line when you draw a finger through it.
Strain through a fine sieve, pressing hard on the shallots to extract everything, and return the sauce to a clean pan.
Poach the diced marrow in barely simmering salted water for two to three minutes until just translucent, then lift out with a slotted spoon and drain.
Warm the sauce gently, then whisk in the cold butter a cube at a time to give it gloss.
Fold in the drained marrow, season with salt, and add the parsley if using. Do not boil again.
Spoon over grilled steak and serve at once.

Notes

Ask a butcher to saw the marrow bones lengthways, which makes the marrow far easier to remove. Many will do it free. The stock is what separates a good bordelaise from a thin one. A genuine reduced brown stock or a bought demi-glace is worth the trouble; a stock cube is not, and the sauce will taste of salt rather than beef. Without the marrow this is a perfectly good sauce marchand de vin. It is not a bordelaise. It reheats gently and keeps three days refrigerated, though the marrow is best added fresh each time. Serve with grilled entrecôte or rib of beef, with roast beef, or over poached marrow bones on toast.

The Gastrographer

Name: Sauce Bordelaise
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: France
Ingredients: 6 whole shallots, very finely chopped, about 180 g; 30 g unsalted butter, for softening; 500 ml dry red Bordeaux; 3 sprigs fresh thyme; 1 whole bay leaf; 8 whole black peppercorns, crushed; 400 ml good brown beef stock or demi-glace; 120 g beef marrow, from about 3 marrow bones; 40 g cold unsalted butter, cubed; 1 tsp salt, or to taste; 1 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped, optional

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route

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