Brown Sauce Recipes

Brown sauce is the 'little black dress' of the culinary world. It is the must have recipe that can be used alone or that can form the basis for other dishes, suitably dressed up with other ingredients.

A basic brown sauce is made by browning flour in oil or fat, then gradually adding a meat stock and other seasonings and cooking until the sauce is thick. This sauce can be used alone over mashed potatoes and meats.

Common additions to brown sauces are mushrooms, onions, peppercorns or ground pepper, and wine. If using wine in your sauce, reduce the amount of meat stock accordingly.

Many of these sauce recipes begin with a roux, a mixture of butter and flour that is cooked over high heat until the flour browns, leaving no taste of the flour. A roux can be light or dark, depending on how long the flour is browned in the butter. Care is needed - there is a fine line between a dark roux and a burnt roux.

Roux can be made in advance and stored in the refrigerator until ready for use. Make sure to cover it tightly (use empty, clean butter tubs) to keep it from absorbing flavors of other items.

Be careful when purchasing brown sauce online or in stores; make sure you know what you are getting. In the UK, brown sauce refers to a condiment for meat, which in America would be called 'steak sauce.'

In Asian cookery, brown sauce is also a fundamental foundational sauce, but is made from soy sauce in combination with oyster sauce or other flavorings and thickened with corn starch.

What's the difference between 'brown sauce' and 'brown gravy'? There isn't any, really.