10 oz Clarified butter
12 oz Fine white flour
13 qt Brown stock
5 oz Salt pork or unsmoked bacon;
-diced
9 oz Carrot; diced
5 oz Onion; diced
2 Thyme sprigs
2 sm Bay leaves
7 oz White wine
18 oz Tomato puree
Makes a lot - 2 gallons or so.
These are Escoffier's measurements. I would quarter them all except
for the salt pork, carrot, onion, and thyme, oh yes, the wine also.
I would also add a couple oz of diced celery if I had it around.
Some cooks add other ingredients, such as turnips (!) for a peppery
taste, calves' feet for a more unctuous texture, etc.
Make a brown roux out of the butter and flour, making sure that it
does not burn at all. Keep it warm.
Bring 9 qt of stock to the boil; add the roux, and return to the
boil, stirring well. Reduce the heat and let this simmer.
Try out the fat of the salt pork, and in this fat add the carrot,
onion, thyme, and bay leaves. Fry the vegetables golden and drain
off the fat (I use this then to cook more vegetables for something
like spaghetti sauce). Add the vegetables to the sauce in the pot.
Deglaze the pan with the wine, and reduce the volume to half. Add
this also to the sauce pot (M's note: the reduction is I believe
unnecessary here).
Strain the sauce using a food mill or a tamis (M used to use a
blender). Put the strained sauce into a clean pan and add 2 more qt
of stock. Bring this to the boil and let simmer on low for 2 more
hours. Strain it again and let it cool, stirring it occasionally.
If the weather is cool, you can leave this out overnight; otherwise
refrigerate it.
Next day, take the tomato puree and spread it thin over a nonreactive
oven dish; cook it over low heat until it browns a little.
Bring the sauce to the boil; add the final 2 qt of stock and the
tomato stuff. Bring the sauce to the boil one final time and simmer on
low 1 hour. Skim off any scum as it forms. Strain the sauce again
and let it cool, stirring it occasionally. This sauce is generally
not used by itself but as an ingredient in other sauces and dishes.
