Bagna cauda
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Espagnole sauce
Sauce espagnole · Spanish sauce · brown sauce · demi-glace (derived)
Espagnole is a brown mother sauce built on a dark roux, brown veal or beef stock and tomato, the base from which demi-glace and many brown sauces are made.
A brown sauce and a mother sauce
Espagnole is a basic brown sauce and one of the French mother sauces. It is made from a dark brown roux and brown stock, usually veal or beef, with tomatoes or tomato paste. It is the base for many brown sauces and for demi-glace.
A Spanish sauce for pheasant appears in Vincent La Chapelle's cookbook of 1733. Marie-Antoine Careme printed a detailed recipe in 1815, and Auguste Escoffier included it in his 1903 classification of five mother sauces.
Sources for this section
Where the name comes from
The origin of the name is unclear. One theory links it to the reddish colour of the sauce, associated with Spain. Stories of Spanish cooks brought to the French court are baseless, because no records of such cooks exist.
Another theory holds that Spanish bacon and ham replaced beef in the stock in the seventeenth century, which would connect the sauce to its name through its ingredients rather than its place.
Sources for this section
Roux, stock and reduction
The roux is dark brown, cooked longer than the roux for a velouté. The brown stock is made from veal, beef and ham. Careme braised ham, veal and partridges in water for two hours before adding the roux.
Escoffier's 1903 version adds tomatoes and a mirepoix of onion, carrot and celery, with ham or lightly salted pork belly, and simmers the sauce for up to eight hours. La Chapelle added liver at the end of cooking. Browning bones or vegetables first, reduction and straining are not set out here.
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Derived sauces and reduced jus
Derivatives include africaine, bigarade, bordelaise, bourguignonne, chasseur, charcutiere, Robert and venaison. Demi-glace is named only as a see-also link and is not described.
A concentrated brown jus is a reduction of stock and is a different thing from a classical roux-thickened base. Concentration adds flavour; it does not by itself make a safe ambient storage product, so a reduction needs its own tested storage method.
Sources for this section
History
The name's origin is unclear. One theory links it to the sauce's reddish colour, which is associated with Spain. Stories about Spanish cooks at the French court are described as baseless. Another theory holds that Spanish bacon and ham replaced beef in the stock in the seventeenth century.
Ingredients
Scaling: source batch only
Fat (butter or other)Used with the flour for a dark brown roux.
Amount not stated
Quantity not given in the sources read.Plain flourCooked with the fat until dark brown.
Amount not stated
Quantity not given in the sources read.Brown veal or beef stockMade from browned bones; ham and veal are used in Carême's stock.
Amount not stated
Quantity not given in the sources read.TomatoTomatoes or tomato paste are added; Escoffier's 1903 recipe includes tomatoes.
Amount not stated
Onion, carrot and celery (mirepoix)Diced; Escoffier's recipe uses diced onion, carrot and celery with ham or lightly salted pork belly.
Amount not stated
Ham or lightly salted pork belly (optional)Diced, in Escoffier's recipe.
Amount not stated
Method
Risks and precautions · Standard risk
Stock-based sauce held warm or cooled slowly
A meat-stock sauce with ham or meat is a protein-rich liquid that supports bacterial growth if it is held warm or cooled slowly.
Hazard sourceUse a tested cooling and reheating method for any batch that will be stored
Control sourceLong reduction is a flavour method, not a preservation method. The sources give no holding, storage or reheating advice for espagnole, and this page does not supply any.
- Make a dark brown roux by cooking flour and fat together until they turn brown.
- Make a brown stock from veal or beef and, in some recipes, ham. Carême braised ham, veal and partridge in water for two hours before adding the roux.
- Add tomatoes or tomato paste and a mirepoix of onion, carrot and celery. Escoffier's version simmers the sauce for up to eight hours.
- Garnish at the end. La Chapelle added liver at the end of cooking, and Carême garnished with herbs and mushroom parings.
Conditions
Fermentationup to 8 h
Places
France
Historical attestation · Country evidenceA Spanish sauce is recorded in La Chapelle's 1733 cookbook; the name's origin is unclear.
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Sources
WikipediaHistory · Method · Variants
Espagnole sauceBrown roux and brown stock; La Chapelle 1733; Careme 1815; Escoffier 1903; tomato and mirepoix; eight-hour simmer; derivatives; no storage advice
Cited in: A brown sauce and a mother sauce; Where the name comes from; Roux, stock and reduction; Derived sauces and reduced jus