My First True French Sauce

It was a pretty dreary cold day, and I had these incredible lamb chops. Acquired from the local organic butcher, they started as a rack, and were beautifully frenched by the staff into 6 chops. Sometimes you obtain these wonderful ingredients and you just know you need to make something fantastic to justify the quality.

So I dove in with my first attempt at a traditional French sauce, a jus lie (defined in the New Professional Chef as "a thickened sauce made from stock...[can be] used as a replacement for the classic grand sauce, demi-glace"). Yes, I could have made a demi-glace, but I thought I should start small. The sauce went well, for a first attempt.

I used my newly created jus lie to make a secondary garlic sauce for my simply broiled lamb chops. The secondary sauce, involving wine, tomato concasse, and garlic cloves poached multiple times, turned out really well, and was the right color and texture. I count my first traditional French sauce a resounding success.


Paired with some simple salted boiled potatoes and the amazing, luscious, 2001 Nicolis Amarone della Valpolicella, I never wanted to leave the table.