What's your favorite reduction sauce?

[misstenacity]

One of the most popular dishes at the Montreal bistro Le P'tit Plateau is venison grilled rare and served with a zingy reduction sauce. The chef, Alain Loivel, once described it to me in vague terms. Here's my adaptation; measurements are approximate because I've always played it by ear. Can vouch for its compatability with venison, caribou and duck and snow goose breasts; don't see why it wouldn't work with beef.

Pour a bottle of fruity, not highly acidic and preferably unoaked red wine into a sauté pan. Add whole "warm" spices of your choosing; I typically use a few cloves, a star anise, a cinnamon stick and a few cardamon pods and sometimes throw in a dried chile pepper or two. Bring to a boil and reduce until thick (i.e. by 3/4 to 7/8). Strain and set aside. Put 2 or 3 tablespoons of sugar in a saucepan, add 3 tablespoons each of sherry vinegar and water and bring to a boil. Boil off the liquid over medium heat. Watching constantly and tilting the pan occasionally, allow the sugar to caramelize. As soon as the caramel turns golden, remove the pan from the heat and pour in the red wine reduction. Stir to dissolve. Although Chef Loivel doesn't, you can mount the sauce with butter if you find it too sharp; otherwise, it's fat free.

←

I used this sauce tonight on some venison steaks and it was fabulous.... Unfortunately the steaks were cut too thin (by my dad) and I succeeded in over cooking them in a matter of 3 minutes, so they were a bit chewy. Hmph.

But thanks for the sauce - it really is a winner! I've got leftovers that are destined for some other meaty dish.

Andrea

http://tenacity.net

[Shalmanese]

I made a mushroom reduction sauce tonight for a rack of lamb which involves squeezing the liquid out of finely chopped mushrooms and then simmering with bay leaves, thyme, rosemary and cracked peppercorns. Mushrooms have no natural thickening agent so you can reduce them as far as you want and then thicken at the end to get your desired texture. You can use any thickening agent you want to get different textures. This time, I added just a touch of gelatine to simulate the texture of a meat jus, except completely vegetarian.

[pastrygirl]

On 3/15/2005 at 5:38 AM, Wolfert said:

There is a type of reduction sauce called stratification. It is a simple way to make sauces by a series of rapid reductions. You start off with an acid, then you add a protein rich stock and then heavy cream, and, with whisking, allow the sauce to boil vigorously until many bubbles appear on its surface. From time time you stir this bubbling mixture with a wooden spoon until you catch a glimpse of the bottom of the pan. When you see the bottom, your sauce is finished and will adhere lightly to meat or fish.

The idea is the cream has evaporated, allowing the remaining butterfat, in the presence of protein and acid, to bind the sauce and make it silky. “The faster the

evaporation, the better the coagulation” is the rule for creating a sauce by

stratification. It takes less than 10 minutes to complete the entire process in

a heavy-bottomed pan, and the sauce will hold for quite a while.

 

Does it actually form layers, or is it layers of flavor from the different ingredients?  I'm curious why this is called "stratified" - I had never heard the term relating to cream sauce, but just saw it used in a social media post so I'm curious.  This chef says his is reduced then chilled and whipped with aromatics.  Anyone more familiar with this technique and how it got named?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

On ‎1‎/‎9‎/‎2006 at 6:02 AM, Shalmanese said:

This time, I added just a touch of gelatine to simulate the texture of a meat jus, except completely vegetarian.

 

Vegetarian?

 

I've used a mushroom reduction for sauce Allemande.