Learn how to make rich, velvety Demi-Glace at home with this foolproof recipe! My shortcut method yields amazing flavor while saving time. Use this glossy brown sauce as a base for delicious sauces or to make Hayashi Rice, the popular Japanese beef stew.
Demi-glace is a rich brown sauce in French cuisine that can be used as a sauce itself or as a base for other sauces. In Japan, we use demi-glace sauce for many western-style dishes, and we can find it sold in a can or a premade jar. Since it’s not easy to find premade demi-glace sauce in the U.S., I have decided to make it at home.
Making a demi-glace sauce from scratch can be a daunting process, but I’ve used store-bought beef stock to speed things up in this shortcut recipe.
What is Demi-Glace?
Demi-glace is a rich brown sauce in French cuisine, traditionally made by combining one part brown stock and one part Espagnole sauce (or sometimes called brown sauce) and slowly reducing by half. It is used as a sauce itself or as a base for other sauces. In Japan, we use demi-glace (デミグラスソース) to make popular yoshoku, western-style Japanese dishes, including Hayashi Rice, Beef Stew, and Omurice.
How Japanese-Style Demi-Glace Sauce is Made
A basic brown stock is made by roasting a lot of veal and beef bones, which can take hours and hours to simmer and reduce. To make demi-glace, you need to make a lot of brown stock so that you can keep some as it is and then use the remaining stock to make Espagnole sauce. Espagnole sauce is a classic brown sauce, typically made from the brown stock, mirepoix (onion, celery, and carrot) and tomato paste, and thickened with roux. Finally, when you combine brown stock and Espagnole sauce, you get demi-glace! Sounds complicated? Check out my so-called “Shortcut” Demi-Glace recipe below.
4 Easy Steps to Make Shortcut Demi-Glace Sauce
Step 1: Use Store-Bought Stock
This shortcut demi-glace sauce uses store-bought beef stock (not sponsored) which cut down on the cooking time immediately. If you have some quality bones on hands and don’t mind spending the time, you can, of course, make your veal or beef stock for a richer and flavorful result. Otherwise, store-bought stock would do the trick.
Step 2: Make Shortcut Espagnole Sauce
To add more flavor to the sauce, I like roasting mirepoix (onion, celery, and carrot) in the oven after lightly sauteing them on the stovetop. Then, combine the vegetable mixtures with tomato paste, wine, beef stock, and a bouquet garni (read below) to simmer and reduce. Be patient and cook for 1 to 1.5 hours to reduce the sauce. It’s an inactive period, so you can spend the time on other food preparation.
Step 3: Make Broun Roux
Making brown roux is an important step for the demi-glace sauce. Pay close attention so you won’t burn the roux. Be patient and continue to stir until the roux is brown, almost like a chocolate color. At this stage, the flour needs to be cooked through so the demi-glace sauce won’t taste “floury.”
Once you master making the roux, you can make Japanese curry roux or bechamel sauce (white sauce) to make Cream Stew from scratch.
Step 4: Combine Espagnole Sauce and Brown Roux, and You’ll have Demi-Glace Sauce!
The last step is easy. Just combine the Espagnole sauce and brown roux together. Now your Shortcut Demi-Glace is done, and ready for many different uses. One of my favorites is to use the demi-glace sauce to make Hayashi Rice, or sometimes called Hashed Beef, which is a popular Western-style stew made with tender beef, onions, mushrooms.
What is Bouquet Garni (ブーケガルニ)?
It’s a fancy French word for a bunch of herbs, typically encased in a cheesecloth bag or tied together with string. It’s used for flavoring a stew, soup, or stock. The choice of herbs is up to you. For this recipe, I used the following herbs, but you can choose your own.
- bay leaf
- parsley
- peppercorn
- thyme
Fresh vs. Dried: Because dried herbs are generally more potent and concentrated than fresh herbs, you will need a lesser amount. The general rule is 3 to 1 or three parts fresh to one part dried (1 Tbsp = 3 tsp).
1 tablespoon fresh herbs = 1 teaspoon dried herbs
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Demi Glace
Video
Ingredients
For the Espagnole Sauce
- 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- ½ onion (3 oz, 85 g)
- 1 rib celery (3.5 oz, 100 g)
- 1 carrot (3 oz, 85 g)
- ½ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 Tbsp tomato paste
- 4 Tbsp red wine
- 8 cups beef stock/broth
For the Bouquet Garni
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 3 sprigs parsley
- 8 peppercorns
For the Brown Roux
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 4 Tbsp all-purpose flour (plain flour)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 425ºF (220ºC). For a convection oven, reduce the cooking temperature by 25ºF (15ºC).
To Make the Shortcut Espagnole Sauce
- Cut ½ onion, 1 rib celery, and 1 carrot into small chunks.
- Heat a Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. When it‘s hot, add 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil. Then, add the chopped onion, celery, and carrot.
- Season with ½ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Sauté for 3 minutes.
- Transfer the pot to the preheated oven and roast at 425ºF (220ºC) for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare the bouquet garni. You can use a disposable mesh tea bag (left image) or a cheesecloth (right).
- Here, I encase 1 bay leaf, 1 tsp dried thyme, 3 sprigs parsley, and 8 peppercorns in the cheesecloth.
- Tie the corners tightly.
- After 20 minutes, transfer the pot from the oven back to the stove over medium heat. Add 1 Tbsp tomato paste and mix well.
- Add 4 Tbsp red wine and 8 cups beef stock/broth and mix to combine.
- Add the bouquet garni. Bring it to a boil.
- Once boiling, lower the heat and simmer for 1½ hours, until roughly 3 cups of broth remain in the pot. You can skim the foam and scum during reducing. I fill water in a measuring cup with a spout to clean the fine-mesh skimmer.
- About 30 minutes before finishing the reduction process, start making the Brown Roux. Tip: If you are using this Demi-Glace for my Hayashi Rice recipe, you can start cooking the rice and marinating the beef.
To Make the Brown Roux
- In a small saucepan, melt 2 Tbsp unsalted butter over medium heat. Add 4 Tbsp all-purpose flour (plain flour).
- With a silicone spatula, combine well. At first, it will have a crumbly texture.
- Then, it will turn into foam and liquid. Continue to cook for 12–15 minutes, or until the color turns brown, like chocolate.
- Set aside and wait until the Espagnole sauce is finished.
To Combine the Espagnole Sauce and Brown Roux
- After cooking for 1½ hours, the Espagnole sauce has been reduced. Strain it through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl or measuring cup. You will need 3 cups of the sauce.
- Set the 3 cups aside for this recipe. If you end up with more than 3 cups of the Espangole Sauce, you can freeze the rest for future use.
- When the brown roux is ready, put the pot back on the stove over low heat. Gradually add the Espagnole sauce to the brown roux, a little at a time, and stir to combine well before you add more sauce.
- Once you have added all 3 cups and combined it well, the Demi-Glace is ready to use in your favorite recipe.
Hi Naomi, do you have a instant pot version of this?
Hi Katherine, Thank you for reading Nami’s post.
We do not currently have an instant pot version of this recipe, but you can follow this recipe and cook it in half the time.
We hope this helps!
Thank you for your recipe! I will give this a go sometime this week. I was just wondering what kind of red wine you used for this recipe? I have Pinot Noir available atm but I’m not sure if I should use that. What do you think?
Hi Dianne, Thank you very much for trying this recipe! Any red wine should work for this recipe, and Pinot Noir would work!
are there ready made demi glaze sauces?which brands do you recommend? thanks
Hi Pym,
How about Heinz Demi demi-glace sauce? You can purchase it from an Asian or Japanese grocery store.
http://www.heinz.jp/products/demi-glace/demiglace_sauce
We hope this helps!🙂
thank you still hard to find
I like your recipes easy and yummy !
Hi Maria! Thank you so much for your kind feedback! 🙂
Thanks for this recipe!
I’m planning to make Okayama’s typical Ebi Meshi, is this the right sauce for it, I wonder?
Hi Rogerio! Oh no, I visited Okayama (Kurashiki) last summer, but I didn’t try Ebi Meshi (I didn’t know until I googled!)… 🙁 But after I looked around a bit, it looks like the sauce is made with demi-glace, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, etc. Since I didn’t try, I had no idea the ratio of those condiments. We’ll go back to Okayama probably this summer, so I’ll remember trying this dish!
[…] is a really simple, weeknight-dinner-after-work recipe; I’d also highly, rarely suggest the Just One Cookbook demi-glace, that takes a few hours though is positively value […]
[…] is a very simple, weeknight-dinner-after-work recipe; I’d also highly, highly recommend the Just One Cookbook demi-glace, which takes a few hours but is absolutely worth […]
I found this recipe to make omurice and i was not disapointed. it was what I was after. only changes I made was: I forgot the tomato paste, I used Dashida (korean beef stock powder), I used rosemary as I forgot the recipes said thyme, I also had shiitake mushroom. I used the stuff left over after strained. and cooker it a bit more added soy sauce and then put htat over rice for bento. It was wonderful. thankyou.
Hi Laura! Hmm that sounds delicious! Thanks for trying this recipe! Your omurice must have been so yummy! 🙂
Hi Nami, thanks so much for posting this recipe. It looks like a very nice one and I’m looking forward to try it. I’m especially excited to use this on top of Omurice, like Kichi Kichi. A couple of questions.
1)Is Imagine Organic Beef Broth your favorite one for this recipe? I’ve tried other boxed beef broths and always found them a bit bland and off tasting – wondering if this is actually really different from all the others?
2)Is the 12-15 minutes of stirring to make the brown roux a realistic time range? I have read that making a brown roux can take up to an hour of stirring, so I’m just trying to have realistic expectations before I try this. So I’m wondering if this is really 12-15 minutes, or it could actually take much longer?
Thanks so much!!!
Hi Alex! To serve over the Omurice, maybe use less broth so it’s not too “watery”. 🙂
1) I’ve used Trader Joe’s or this brand. And yes each broth tastes slightly different. But I feel these are slightly “better”.
2) Realistic time. It depends on the amount of roux as well as the heat (and material of your pot), etc. Make sure to “cook” the flour well so it doesn’t taste the raw flavor of flour.
Thanks Nami!
Hi Nami! Will it be alright if I skip the red wine? I once cooked beef stew with it and it turned me off the taste forever. Or is there something I can substitute for it?
Hi Sarah, We recommend substitute the wine with broth or try a different brand of wine. We hope this helps!
I’m thinking that perhaps an even more streamlined way to make the Espagnole sauce might be to skip the beef broth. The broth costs about $5 each and you need to buy 2 of them. Why not just buy $10 worth of cheap beef cuts – shank, chuck, brisket or whatever to keep costs the same? Brown the vegetables in the oven, add tomato paste and red wine and bouquet garni, then throw that together with the meat into the Instant Pot and only half the liquid – 4 cups of water. Then pressure cook for 1 hour to bring out all the flavor. In theory, you wouldn’t need to reduce the stock at all after that since it’s already more concentrated. The only downside I can imagine is that the stock might be more cloudy since you can’t skim the foam, but I doubt it would be a problem. What do you think?
Hi Alex! Sounds good! Let me know how it goes! 🙂
I want to make hayashi rice but on the recipe, it doesn’t state how much demi-glace I need. I noticed, in the making demi-glace sauce, the end product was about 3 cups. So is that the amount I use when making hayashi rice?
Hi Christine! Thanks for mentioning! I edited the recipe so now it says 3 cups demi glace. Yes, we use all the demi glace you make from this recipe. 🙂
Hell dear .. many thanks for your beautiful recipe, but I am a Muslim what substitute for the red wine please.
Best regards,
Ebrahim Alqaldari
Hi Ebrahim! Probably use a broth instead? 🙂
I have a question. I don’t have an oven here in Japan to be able to roast the vegetables. What should I do?
Hi Tania! You can skip the roasting step – it’s nice to have, but sauteeing / browning vegetables give nice taste so you are not missing too much. 🙂
Can you store the Demi Glace for later use?
Hi Spuck! Yes, you can freeze it. 🙂
Hello Nami,
I’m viewing your new website on the iPad for the first time and it looks fantastic! I love the clean look and the categories showing all your delicious recipes.
Thanks for making this demi-glaze recipe. I will attempt this one day as I like hayashi rice. I used to be able to buy the instant roux packages in Japanese/Korean grocery stores but not anymore. I think they stop bringing them in 🙁 You are right about them being MSG-loaded though! 😉
Hi Kerry! I hope you didn’t get confused as it looks a bit different. 😀 Thank you for your kind words.
I wonder why they stopped importing those hayashi rice roux… maybe not as much demand (Japanese restaurants here don’t serve it either). Hope you enjoy this recipe. It’s a weekend project for sure, but it’s also a nice restaurant quality, far better than package one. Hope you enjoy!
I’ve always wanted to try and make Demi-Glace sauce ever since watching “Lunch Queen”. They served omurice with Demi-Glace sauce and it looked so amazing!! Can’t wait to give this recipe a go and satisfy my ultimate omurice craving once and for all!
Hi OomuriceO! I haven’t watched Lunch Queen, but sounds like a drama that I would be hungry watching it. 😀 Hope you enjoy this recipe!