How much does brown Espanyol sauce cost (average price per pack)?
Moscow and Moscow region
Espanyol brown sauce is considered one of the four main or basic sauces in French cuisine. Along with sauces, allemands and Spanish sauce or la espagnole sauce have taken their rightful place in the ancient culinary tradition of France. The main highlight of the brown Espanyol sauce is the original composition of the ingredients and the way the product is made. Like other base sauces, Espagnol is made from roux, i.e. wheat flour fried in butter and fat.
Since the Middle Ages, roux has been used in France as a thickener for basic sauces. There are several types of flour base for sauces:
Espanyol brown sauce is made using dark roux and broth. In addition, pre-sautéed vegetables and greens are added to the brown Espanyol sauce. In order to make the taste of the sauce more piquant, add tomatoes in its own juice or tomato paste to Espanyol. Legend has it that the famous brown espanol sauce was invented by one of the court chefs, who was hired to host the ball in honor of the wedding of Anne of Austria and Louis XIII. The chef was Spanish and decided to change the classic French white sauce in his own way.
The cook cooked the base for the flour sauce longer than usual, so the roux became light brown. The culinary specialist mixed the wheat flour fried until golden brown with a rich veal broth. The finishing touch to a new masterpiece of world culinary art called Espanyol brown sauce are tender pieces of beef, vegetables, herbs and tomatoes. Gourmets claim that the distinctive flavor and aroma of the Espanyol sauce is due to the tomatoes. It is noteworthy that the French housewives prepare the espaniol sauce for future use. Brown sauce was incredibly popular until the 17th century.
Then Espanyol was replaced by new varieties of sauces. At the beginning of the 19th century, chefs Auguste Escoffier and Antoine Karem decided to revive the former greatness of Espagnol sauce. Nowadays, French meat dishes are served with the classic brown espanol sauce. It is believed that Espanyol sauce goes well with pork, beef and lamb dishes. In addition, bacon or ham and meat fried over an open fire are seasoned with brown sauce. The Italians have adopted French sauce and use Espagnol in the famous ravioli.
Energy value of Espanyol brown sauce (Ratio of proteins, fats, carbohydrates - bju):
: 0.7 g (~ 3 kcal)
: 9.1 g. (~ 82 kcal)
Catherine of Aragon (years of life - 1485-1536), daughter of King of Aragon, Castile, Sicily and Naples Ferdinand II and Isabella I, was the first and last legal wife of King Henry VIII of England. She was as beautiful as she was smart, but, unfortunately, her appearance at the court of the British crown in 1509 a few years later was marked by the Reformation and the bloody events that followed it, stretching for decades. The fact is that long before the appearance of Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII was concerned about the absence of a male heir to the throne, and the Spaniard turned out to be not the best candidate for solving this problem. To her deep regret and the growing disappointment of the king, Catherine's six pregnancies ended in either miscarriages or the death of babies shortly after birth. The only surviving scion of royal blood, whom Catherine gave to Henry, was a girl named Mary in honor of the Virgin Mary. In 1553, Mary rose to the title of Queen regnant of England. And she is also known to the world under the gloomy name "Bloody Mary" - for her bad habit of burning heretics at the stake, but this is a completely different story.
In women's problems (such as those observed in Catherine of Aragon) in the Middle Ages, if they did not see the intrigues of the devil or the wrath of God, then the woman herself was unambiguously blamed for this. Therefore, Henry VIII and his wife did not stand on ceremony for too long and demanded an immediate divorce from Pope Clement VII. To which he was refused. The king, already head over heels in love with Anne Boleyn by that time, broke with the Catholic Church, created the English Church and initiated the process of its separation, which in history was called the Reformation. Catherine was sent into exile, and until the end of her days she considered herself the legitimate queen of England. Well, perhaps she was more fortunate than Anne Boleyn, or, for example, Catherine Howard, who were accused of high treason and beheaded.
There is one piquant detail in this whole dark story with Catherine and Heinrich: when she arrived at the court, as the king's wife, she brought with her to England a whole escort of Spanish cooks. But this is already directly related to the goal and, at the same time, the subject of my post - the sauce, named in the French manner "Espagnol". According to one of the versions, it was the Spanish chefs who were the first to introduce the English royal court to this method of making meat sauce - the so-called “brown sauce”, which then migrated from England to France, where it received a permanent residence along with its modern name “Espanyol”.
However, from the "Oxford Guide to Food" it follows that the Spanish name of the sauce has nothing to do with its origin or with Catherine of Aragon.
The method of making such a meat sauce has been known to the inhabitants of Europe since time immemorial. One of the earliest extant brown sauce recipes dates back to 1600. As can be seen from the recipe, the preparation of the sauce required a lot of effort, time and ... funds, so a considerable amount of meat was consumed - it was boiled in water for a long time, then the old meat was replaced with new one in the same broth and continued to boil slowly. The procedure was repeated several times until a very thick, dark brown and rich sauce was obtained. Moreover, during the preparation of the sauce, other ingredients were often added to the broth: partridges, liver, truffles, and so on.
Of course, over time, this method of making Espanyol sauce has been greatly simplified and modernized. Now it is much more democratic, accessible to many (both in terms of means and complexity). Gradually, some cooks began to replace the natural thickening of the sauce with the addition of flour and butter, and vegetables began to be used as ingredients for its preparation.
As I have written more than once, Espagnol sauce is one of the five basic French sauces, or, as they are also called, "mother" sauces, and its main purpose is to accompany red meat dishes. Although today it can sometimes be found in vegetable dishes.
By and large, Espanyol is an intermediate state of another French sauce, "demi-glace", and in some recipes it is not much different from it.
If you want to make demi-glace sauce, which is, in fact, marching from Espanyol sauce, then doing it is as simple as flicking with two fingers:
To do this, you need to mix one part of the espaniol sauce and one part of the broth, and then boil the resulting mixture until it is at least halved. The demi-glace sauce should be similar in consistency to thick syrup and not drip from the back of the spoon. If this sauce is the end point of your cooking, then it needs to be seasoned with salt and pepper.
ProductsHow to make espaniol sauce
1. Prepare the base of the sauce - melt the butter in a skillet with a thick bottom, add flour.
2. Stirring constantly, fry the mixture for 2 minutes, until it starts to darken.
3. Dissolve tomato paste (ketchup) in the broth and pour into the mixture.
4. Pour the broth gently, in portions, so as not to splatter.
5. Put the future sauce to boil (in the same frying pan or saucepan) on a quiet fire.
6. Wash and peel carrots and onions. Finely chop the onion, grate the carrots on a coarse grater.
7. Saute vegetables in vegetable oil until soft, ready to transfer to sauce.
8. Cook the Espanyol for 4 hours over low heat, from time to time remove the foam and droplets of fat.
This article introduces 5 basic French sauces. Basic, ancestral. By adding this or that ingredient to the base, you can get countless sauces.
All French sauces (and there are more than 3000 types of them, which is not surprising, because parsley in mayonnaise is one sauce, and dill is a completely different one, the sly French) are divided into 5 main families, according to the classification Auguste Escoffier- bechamel, veliut, spanish, tomato and dutch sauces.
By adding various additives to these basic sauces, changing the consistency, adding ingredients familiar to a certain area, they get thousands of different names. But the basis remains one! I, as a very simple person, see this as a kind of trick, tk. Since I add pickles and capers to mayonnaise, then I get a mayonnaise sauce with cucumbers and capers. The French have its own name - Tatar.
Béchamel
Bechamel first mentioned in the famous treatise of the famous chef Francois La Varenne "French cuisine" ("Le Cuisinier François"), which was published in 1651. It is believed that this sauce is named in honor of the Marquis Louis de Bechamel, a wealthy and influential nobleman, who, however, had nothing to do with cooking. According to the classic Escoffier recipe, milk and a little salt are added to a lightly fried mixture of white flour and butter (in French cuisine this mixture is called roux). These days, béchamel is often used to make lasagna and is also served with pasta.
Velut or Velute
A distant "relative" of Béchamel tell(or "white sauce") also boasts a venerable age - the first mention of it dates back to 1553. It is a sauce based on a light broth (chicken, veal, or even fish) that is thickened with a mixture of white flour and fat - usually butter (in fact, this is roux, which appears in the bechamel recipe). In American cuisine, bacon fat is sometimes used instead of butter. All this is seasoned with salt and pepper. Velut (or sauces based on it) is usually served with poultry and seafood.
Espagnole
Spanish sauce- This is the main "brown" sauce of French cuisine. According to legend, a certain Spanish chef, who came to the wedding of Louis XIII with Anna of Austria (remember the movie "The Three Musketeers" - "Am I Spanish or Not?"), Had a hand in its creation. It is based on the same mixture of flour and butter, however, fried to a dark brown hue. The mixture is added to a strong veal broth, where bones, beef cuts, vegetables and seasonings are also added. All this is cooked for a long time over low heat so that the sauce thickens and its volume decreases significantly. At the end, tomato sauce is added (this is supposedly the innovation proposed by the Spanish chef). Espanyol is usually prepared in large quantities and then frozen for use when needed. As a rule, it is not used in its pure form, but in combination with other components (especially with spices).
Tomato sauce
Variations of this well-known family of sauces are usually served with pasta, meat dishes and vegetables. The Europeans adopted tomato sauce from the Aztecs when they realized that tomatoes, despite their suspiciously bright color, are not at all poisonous. The simplest tomato sauce is prepared as follows: chopped tomatoes are boiled over low heat in a pan with olive oil. Onions and garlic are often pre-fried. Basil, parsley, oregano and other herbs are added to the sauce. There are variations of tomato sauce with garlic, olives, chili peppers, anchovies and so on.
Hollandaise
Hollandaise sauce is, in physical terms, an emulsion of egg yolks and melted butter. Its modern recipe dates from the 19th century. The butter is filtered through a strainer and gradually added to the carefully beaten yolks. In this case, it is recommended to keep the sauce over boiling water (what is called a water bath). Usually the sauce is seasoned with lemon juice, salt and black, white, or cayenne pepper (there are also options with grated nutmeg). This smooth creamy sauce is served with fish, seafood, vegetables, and also eggs.
Follow the classics and create your own based on proven sauces - a real pleasure. Provided that this sauce can be taken by mouth, of course.
:) If this article was useful to you, click "I like", so you express your gratitude to the author. (article author: Protchenko Arthur