In cooking, espagnole sauce (ɛspaɲɔl) is one of the mother sauces that are the basis of sauce-making in classic French cooking

French cuisine

French cuisine is a style of food preparation originating from France that has developed from centuries of social change. In the Middle Ages, Guillaume Tirel , a court chef, authored Le Viandier, one of the earliest recipe collections of Medieval France...

. In the late 19th century, Auguste Escoffier

Auguste Escoffier

Georges Auguste Escoffier was a French chef, restaurateur and culinary writer who popularized and updated traditional French cooking methods. He is a legendary figure among chefs and gourmands, and was one of the most important leaders in the development of modern French cuisine...

 codified the recipe, which is still followed today.

Espagnole has a strong taste and is rarely used directly on food. As a mother sauce, however, it serves as the starting point for many derivatives, such as Sauce Africaine

Sauce Africaine

Sauce Africaine is a "small" brown sauce, derived from Sauce Espagnole , one of the five "mother sauces" of French cooking. As its name suggests, sauce africaine gets its flavor from African/Creole seasonings...

, Sauce Bigarade

Bitter orange

The name "bitter orange", also known as Seville orange, sour orange, bigarade orange, and marmalade orange, refers to a citrus tree and its fruit. Many varieties of bitter orange are used for their essential oil, which is used in perfume and as a flavoring...

, Sauce Bourguignonne

Sauce Bourguignonne

Sauce bourguignonne , Bourguignonne sauce, is a French sauce with a base of red wine with onions or shallots, a bouquet garni , reduced, strained, and mixed with some Sauce espagnole. Just before serving it is mounted with butter and seasoned lightly with cayenne pepper...

, Sauce aux Champignons, Sauce Charcutière

Sauce charcutière

Charcutière sauce is a compound French sauce consisting of a base of espagnole sauce with a flavouring of chopped gherkins. Its literal translation is "sauce of the pork butcher." It is most frequently used with cuts of grilled or sautéed pork....

, Sauce Chasseur, Sauce Chevreuil and Demi-glace

Demi-glace

Demi-glace is a rich brown sauce in French cuisine used by itself or as a base for other sauces. The term comes from the French word glace, which used in reference to a sauce means icing or glaze...

. There are hundreds of other derivatives in the classical French repertoire.

Escoffier included a recipe for a Lent

Lent

In the Christian tradition, Lent is the period of the liturgical year from Ash Wednesday to Easter. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer – through prayer, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial – for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and...

en espagnole sauce, using fish stock and mushrooms, in Le Guide culinaire

Le Guide Culinaire

Georges Auguste Escoffier's Le Guide culinaire, pronounced , is a pivotal book in the history of European haute cuisine, being Escoffier's largely successful attempt to codify and streamline the common French restaurant food of the day. The first edition was printed in 1903 in French. It was...

but doubted its necessity.

Origin of the name

Although espagnole is the French word for Spanish, the sauce has little connection with Spanish cuisine. According to Louis Diat, the creator of vichyssoise

Vichyssoise

Vichyssoise is a thick soup made of puréed leeks, onions, potatoes, cream, and chicken stock. It is traditionally served cold, but can also be eaten hot.-Origin:...

 and the author of the classic Gourmet's Basic French Cookbook:

"There is a story that explains why the most important basic brown sauce in French cuisine is called sauce espagnole, or Spanish sauce. According to the story, the Spanish cooks of Louis XIII

Louis XIII of France

Louis XIII was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1610 to 1643.Louis was only eight years old when he succeeded his father. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during Louis' minority...

's bride, Anne, helped to prepare their wedding feast, and insisted upon improving the rich brown sauce of France with Spanish tomato

Tomato

The word "tomato" may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler...

es. This new sauce was an instant success, and was gratefully named in honor of its creators."

However, in Kettner's Book of the Table published in 1877, there is an entirely different explanation:
(The name Kettner in the title refers to Auguste Kettner, former chef to Napoleon III, who emigrated to England and in 1867 opened a restaurant in Soho

Soho

Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...

–Kettner's– one of the oldest restaurants in London.)

Preparation

The basic method of making espagnole is to prepare a very dark brown roux

Roux

Roux is a cooked mixture of wheat flour and fat, traditionally butter. It is the thickening agent of three of the mother sauces of classical French cooking: sauce béchamel, sauce velouté and sauce espagnole. Clarified butter, vegetable oils, or lard are commonly used fats. It is used as a...

, to which veal

Veal

Veal is the meat of young cattle , as opposed to meat from older cattle. Though veal can be produced from a calf of either sex and any breed, most veal comes from male calves of dairy cattle breeds...

 stock

Stock (food)

Stock is a flavoured water preparation. It forms the basis of many dishes, particularly soups and sauces.- Preparation :Stock is made by simmering various ingredients in water, including some or all of the following...

 or water is added, along with browned bones, pieces of beef

Beef

Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...

, vegetable

Vegetable

The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....

s, and various seasoning

Seasoning

Seasoning is the process of imparting flavor to, or improving the flavor of, food.- General meaning :Seasonings include herbs and spices, which are themselves frequently referred to as "seasonings"...

s. This blend is allowed to slowly reduce while being frequently skimmed. The classical recipe calls for additional veal stock to be added as the liquid gradually reduces but today water is generally used instead. Tomato paste

Tomato paste

Tomato paste is a thick paste that is made by cooking tomatoes for several hours to reduce moisture, straining them to remove the seeds and skin, and cooking them again to reduce them to a thick, rich concentrate...

or pureed tomatoes are added towards the end of the process, and the sauce is further reduced.

External links

• The Cook's Decameron from Project Gutenberg
• Emeril Lagasse's recipe at foodtv.com
• Free Culinary School Podcast Episode 12 A podcast episode that talks about how to make classical versions of Sauce Espagnole.