the pragmatic chef™

Traditionally, at least the way I was taught, demi-glace di viande starts from veal stock. Why veal and not beef? Collagen. Collagen, found mostly in bones, is what gives stock its flavor, and its thickness. Because veal bones have 3 or 4 times the collagen of a mature cow, serious sauciers use only veal bones in their brown stock.

So traditional demi-glace takes 3 steps. Creating a brown stock, creating a brown sauce from 1/2 of the stock called espagnole, then combining the stock and the sauce and reducing that by 50% to make a demi-glace. A good demi-glace will make a foodie weep, but reducing demi-glace until it's a syrup called glacé yields something so rich and decadent it'll make you cry. I think you all know how to make stock, so I'll skip that, and making espagnole just involves making a brown roux and adding some more of the mirepoix that you created the stock with.

There is also a nouvelle technique to making demi, as well. The nouvelle technique simply reduces the stock without any roux. Which is better? Subjectively, a well made nouvelle demi is a smoother sauce because it doesn't have any flour in it, which some connoisseurs find objectionable, but because it takes so much longer to reduce I find that a lot of them taste 'fried' to me. It's important to add aromatics again during the process to keep it tasting 'fresh', and patience is absolutely critical. I've had large quantities of demi reduce for the better part of two days until they were right.

You have to have veal bones to make nouvelle demi, whereas you can get away with using leftover beef and pork bones to make a traditional demi, which is what I did. I keep bones left from trimming out beef and pork in the freezer until I have enough of them to make stock. I also had some pork broth left over in there, so I used that as well. I roasted the bones with some onions, carrots, and celery and spread a little tomato paste on the bones once they were starting to brown. I made a brown roux while the stock was simmering away, then divided the stock in half once it was done to create my espagnole. I reduced the espagnole a bit, then combined them and reduced it by 50% or so.

How is "semi-glace" compared to a real demi? While it doesn't have quite the same mouth feel that it would with veal bones, it's quite good and the color was right. You can pay around $5.00 for a cup of demi, so if you have the time, it's well worth it. It took me about 8 or 9 hours to do this, but other than my time, it was free!