Deliciously rich and velvety bordelaise sauce. This easy spin on the classic French sauce combines red wine, bone marrow, and herbs to create a silky glaze that’ll take your grilled steak to the next level.
If you’re looking for the perfect sauce to serve with steak then you can’t go far wrong with a bordelaise sauce.
Traditionally bordelaise sauce is a delicious mix of Bordeaux red wine, shallots, garlic, and beef stock or broth but this recipe goes one step further and adds smoked bone marrow to the mix to give it an even deeper flavor and velvety texture!
What is Bordelaise Sauce?
Bordelaise sauce is a classic French sauce hailing from the Bordeaux region, known for its rich and deep flavors. Traditionally, it’s made from red wine, bone marrow, butter, and shallots, which are all reduced to create a deep, velvety sauce.
Bordelaise sauce is best enjoyed with grilled steak or beef recipes, offering an incredible texture that offers a good contrast to the charr on grilled steak and a richness that pairs well with fattier smoked beef dishes.
How to Make Bordelaise Sauce
Elevate your next grilled steak dinner with this classic sauce. See our full recipe below with times and quantities, but the steps are as simple as:
- Sautée: In a large saucepan, gently heat the garlic, shallots and herbs
- Simmer: Add the Bordeaux wine and allow to simmer until the liquid has started to reduce
- Render: In a separate pan, add the smoked bone marrow to the beef stock and heat until the marrow’s fats have started to render
- Combine: Add the beef stock and bone marrow to the wine reduction, stirring to combine as it heats
- Reduce: At a rolling boil, continue to cook the sauce until it has reduced by half and has started to thicken
- Strain: Using a sieve, strain the sauce through a sieve into a clean saucepan
- Serve: Once thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, serve immediately with your chosen steak or barbecue smoked beef dish
Quick Tips
Follow these tips to ensure you get the best bordelaise sauce every time.
- Don’t Rush the Reduction Process: Get the reduction wrong and you’ll end up with a thin and flavorless liquid. Ensure you take your time with it, allowing the wine and beef stock to reduce properly to a thick and syrup-like consistency.
- Strain the Sauce Well: When straining the sauce, use a fine-mesh strainer (like this one on Amazon) and press down on the solids in order to extract as much flavor as possible. If the sauce seems too thin, continue to simmer it until it’s reduced further
Bordelaise Steak Sauce
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups Bordeaux Red Wine
- 2 cups beef stock
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 5 ½ oz smoked bone marrow
- 2 large shallots sliced
- ½ bulb garlic minced
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 3 sprigs thyme
- 1 sprig rosemary
- 3 tbsp black peppercorns
Instructions
- In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over a medium heat. Add in the garlic, shallots, herbs, salt, and peppercorns and cook for 5 mins while stirring frequently.
- Add your Bordeaux wine to the saucepan, turn up the heat and allow to simmer until the liquid has reduced by two-thirds.
- In a separate pan, add the smoked bone marrow to the beef stock and heat until the fats and liquids have rendered from the bone marrow.
- Add this beef stock and smoked bone marrow to the wine mixture, keep the heat high and stir continuously until it reaches a rolling boil.
- Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, keep it at that temperature and continue to cook until it has reduced by half and has started to thicken.
- Strain the sauce through a sieve and into a clean saucepan; discard the herbs, shallots, garlic, and any unrendered bone marrow.
- You want the sauce to be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon – if it’s not yet at that consistency, carry on reducing the sauce over a medium-high heat until it reaches the correct thickness.
