Sauce Base

From America's Test Kitchen

Why this recipe works:

In our Sauce Base recipe for Pan-Seared Steaks, roughly chopping the aromatics increased their surface area, which offered more opportunity for flavorful browning when we sautéed them. Mushrooms ramped up the savory flavor, and browning ground beef with tomato paste gave our demi-glace meatiness. And to mimic the glossiness that real demi-glace gets from collagen-rich bones, we used powdered gelatin.

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Could we bring the ultra-rich flavor and glossy consistency of a classic French demi-glace to steak sauce without spending all day roasting bones and reducing stock?

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Makes 1/2 cup

The sauce base recipe yields more than called for in the steak recipe; leftovers can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to one month. Our preferred brands of beef broth are Rachael Ray Stock-in-a-Box and College Inn Bold Stock.

Ingredients

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