FOOD NEWS
Espagnole: The French Mother Sauce You May Not Be Familiar With
By C.A. Pinkham
If you've ever had a beef-based sauce like a demi-glace, you've likely experienced espagnole sauce. It's a savory, brown, French mother sauce with a deep, rich, beefy flavor.
Espagnole starts with cooking carrots and onions in butter, followed by making a brown roux with flour, then adding beef or veal stock, tomato puree, celery, garlic, and herbs.
The sauce is whisked continuously, reduced until it coats the back of a spoon, and then strained to remove the solids. It's typically served with dark meat, specifically red meat.
While it's considered a French mother sauce, it may actually originate from Spain — hence the name: "espagnole," which is the French word for "Spanish."
Sources diverge significantly here, as the sauce may have been created in Spain or simply be named after Spain due to the inclusion of tomato sauce.
One theory suggests that French chefs added tomato to a brown sauce, thus making it "Spanish," for Louis XIII's wedding to Anne of Austria, but there's no definitive answer.