Wondering what to do with demi-glace? This guide covers how to pick it, cook it, store it, and swap it, plus 15 recipes to put it to work.

What is demi-glace?

Demi-glace is the most concentrated brown sauce base in the classic French kitchen. You take brown stock and espagnole sauce, combine them, then reduce the mix by half until it turns dark and glossy, thick enough to coat a spoon.

The name means "half glaze" in French. What you end up with is intense: a spoonful carries the flavor of liters of stock, with a deep, savory richness and a natural gloss from all the gelatin.

It is not a soup or a sauce you eat straight. It is a building block you stir into other sauces to give them body and depth in seconds.

How to Use It

A small spoonful of demi-glace turns a pan sauce dark and luxurious. Deglaze a seared pan with wine, stir in a tablespoon or two, and you have an instant rich sauce with no further reduction needed.

It is the backbone of countless classic sauces. It builds the wine sauce in Marchand De Vin and adds dark depth to the Sauteed Veal Scallops in Wild Mushroom Cream Sauce.

It also deepens braises, stews, and gravies. Even a spoon stirred into a beef stroganoff, as in this Amazingly Creamy Beef Stroganoff, pushes the flavor up a level.

A little goes a long way. Because it is so concentrated and gelatin-rich, too much can turn a sauce sticky and overpoweringly meaty, so start with a tablespoon and taste.

Substitutes

There is no exact swap, but you can get close. Reduce a good brown stock or store-bought beef stock by three-quarters until it is syrupy and coats a spoon, which mimics the concentration if not the full depth.

Store-bought demi-glace and concentrated beef base both exist and save hours. The bases are saltier and thinner in body, so dial back any added salt and do not expect the same glossy cling.

In a real pinch, a spoon of beef stock thickened with a little cornstarch fakes the body, though it misses the roasted depth that only long reduction gives.

Making and Storing It

Making it from scratch is a project. You reduce the combined stock and espagnole slowly over hours, skimming as you go, until it is dark and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

The payoff is that a little keeps a long time. Demi-glace lasts a week or more in the fridge because it is so concentrated, and it freezes beautifully.

The classic move is to freeze it in an ice-cube tray, then pop the frozen cubes into a bag. One cube dropped into a pan is a single-sauce portion, ready whenever you need it. Frozen, it keeps for several months.

The general stock rules live on the stock page.

Quick facts

In Chinese

糖渍

British (UK) term

Demi-glace

en français

demi-glace

en español

demi-glace

Recipes using demi-glace

There are 15 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 15 recipes