Demi-glace is a rich, meaty sauce that can be used as the foundation for other sauces.This preparation yields multiple, frozen demi-glace cubes that can be used like a stock cube to kick-start a pan sauce.

It traditionally uses veal which can be quite hard to find. This is a simpler version which produces pretty close results and can be done in way less time with the help of a pressure cooker. An added benefit of pressure cooking is that no skimming is required during cooking!

Ingredients & mise en place

Use ~3.5kg total meat/bones - whatever you can find is fine but the chicken wings are recommended for its gelatin content. Optionally, substitute the chicken wings for powdered gelatin and a different cut of meat. Depending on the size of your pressure cooker, you can use less/more water but I would recommend the same amount of total meat.

• Optional: powdered gelatin
• 2kg chicken wings if not using powdered gelatin
• 1.5kg beef shank or beef bones
• 2 onions, roughly chopped (optional: keep outer skin but remove any dirt on roots if dirty)
• 2 carrots, roughly chopped
• 2-3 tbsp tomato paste
• 4 garlic cloves, gently crushed
• thyme sprigs
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 litres water

Equipment

• Pressure cooker
• Large roasting tray
• Collander
• Sieve
• Ladle
• Ice cube trays

Timeline

• Chop vegetables.
• Prep roasting tray with oil, tomato paste, vegetables and meat/bones. Start pressure cooker.
• Add vegetables and bones to pressure cooker.
• Pressure cook on high for 90 minutes.
• Skim and strain the solids out.
• Cool stock and refrigerate overnight.
• Skim solidified fat.
• Reduce to half of the original volume.
• Pour into ice cube trays and freeze overnight.
• Pop demi-glace out of ice cube trays into a freezer friendly bag and keep frozen.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 240°C (220°C convection).
2. Liberally oil a large roasting pan with vegetable oil. Place chopped onions and carrots into pan. Drizzle tomato paste over the vegetables and mix well. Place meat/bones on top of vegetables. The tomato paste adds umami and it is crucial to not let the paste burn, as its burned taste is potent.
3. Roast in oven for ~45 minutes, before turning the meat/bones and exposing lighter coloured parts. Continue roasting until a deeply browned, approximately 30-40 more minutes.
4. While the bones are roasting, pour in the water, garlic gloves, thyme sprigs and bay leaf into the pressure cooker and start heating until it reaches a simmer.
5. Take the roasting pan out of the oven and carefully transfer all of its contents into the pressure cooker. If there is any fond stuck, deglaze with water and use a wooden spoon to scrape up as much as possible, then transfer to the pressure cooker.
6. Pressure cook for 90 minutes on high pressure. Allow the pressure to be released naturally.
7. Remove the pressure cooker lid and discard all of the solids, optionally using a collander. Strain the contents through a sieve back into a heat-resistant container.
8. Place the container into a cold water bath to help cool the stock down quickly, or leave the container outside if it’s cold, before refrigerating.
9. When fully cooled, skim off the fat with a spatula and discard, while preserving as much stock as possible.
10. Heat the stock in a pan to reduce its volume by about half.
11. Pour the stock carefully into ice cube trays with a ladle. Once the stock is at ambient temperature, place the trays into the freezer.
12. When the demi-glace stock cubes are frozen, pop them out into a freezer bag and keep in the freezer.

Usage

For one portion of sauce, melt 2 cubes of demi-glace in a saucepan on a low-medium heat - ideally one that has some fond to deglaze. Reduce the sauce to a thicker consistency, flavour with any other components, season with salt, and optionally, finish with butter.