How to Make Demi-Glace

By
Danilo Alfaro
Danlio Alfaro
Danilo Alfaro
Danilo Alfaro has published more than 800 recipes and tutorials focused on making complicated culinary techniques approachable to home cooks.
Learn about The Spruce Eats' Editorial Process
Updated on 02/13/24
Tested by Mary Jo Romano
Prep: 5 mins
Cook: 45 mins
Total: 50 mins
Servings: 8 servings
Yield: 2 cups

A demi-glace is a rich, brown sauce based in French cuisine that is either used on its own or as a foundation for other sauces. It's not a gravy or stock, although the latter is used to make demi-glace. There are quite a few steps involved with making demi-glace, and it's best if you emulate the classical French chefs and follow the traditional method in order to achieve its deep flavor and shiny finish.

Classic demi glace

The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack

This means you'll need to plan to do a lot of simmering, reducing, and straining, which may not be difficult, but it is time-consuming. What's great about this process, however, is that you don't need to do all of the steps at once. You can make the stock a few days or a week in advance if you like, or even longer if you freeze it. And preparing the Espagnole sauce beforehand, one of the French mother sauces, will also make this preparation seem less daunting.

This recipe doesn't call for you to season the finished demi-glace. This way, you can use it to make another sauce, which you would season during that cooking process. But if you're serving the demi-glace as a finished sauce, go ahead and season it to taste with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper at the very end.

what you'll need to make this demi-glace recipe
A Heavy Saucepan
A Pepper Mill
A Good Spatula

“Making demi-glace is a labor of love and worth it to make this liquid gold. This delicious sauce is invaluable in classical cuisine. The yield is small, perfect for me and my small gatherings but know the recipe is easily doubled.” —Mary Jo Romano

How to Make a Classic Demi-Glace/Tester Image
A Note From Our Recipe Tester

Ingredients

  • 1 bay leaf

  • 3 to 4 sprigs fresh thyme, or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

  • 3 to 4 fresh parsley stems

  • 7 to 8 whole black peppercorns

  • 2 cups brown sauce (Espagnole sauce)

  • 2 cups beef stock

  • Kosher salt, to taste

  • Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

    Ingredients to make demi glace

    The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack

  2. Place the bay leaf, thyme, parsley stems, and peppercorns in a square of cheesecloth. and tie the corners with a piece of kitchen twine. Leave one string long enough so that you can tie it to the handle of your pot to make it easier to retrieve.

    Bay leaf, thyme, parsley stems, and peppercorns on top of cheesecloth

    The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack

  3. Tie the corners together with a piece of kitchen twine to make a spice sachet. Leave one string long enough so that you can tie it to the handle of your pot to make it easier to retrieve.

    A sealed spice sachet

    The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack

  4. Combine the brown sauce and the beef stock in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then lower heat to a simmer.

    Brown sugar and beef stock simmering in a pot

    The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack

  5. Add the cheesecloth spice bundle, tying the string to the pot handle. Reduce the liquid until the total volume has reduced by half, about 45 minutes.

    Spice sachet added to the pot

    The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack

  6. Remove pan from heat, retrieve and discard the sachet.

    Beef broth and sugar mixture in a pot with the spice sachet removed

    The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack

  7. Carefully pour the demi-glace through a mesh strainer lined with a piece of cheesecloth. 

    Beef broth mixture being strained through a cheesecloth

    The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack

  8. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve as is or use to make another sauce.​

    A bowl of demi glace seasoned with salt and pepper

    The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack

Tip

You can make demi-glace with chicken stock instead of beef stock. As a matter of fact, the original demi-glace, which was called demi-Espagnole, was made using white stock (veal or chicken) in place of brown.

How to Use Demi-Glace

A good demi-glace will give you a tremendous amount of versatility in the kitchen, and boost the flavor of so many dishes. Additionally, it can be incorporated as a base ingredient for other sauces such as red wine or a mushroom sauce. Those sauces can then be used on steaks, roasts, and other meat-based dishes. You can also use small amounts of demi-glace in things like stir-fries, soups, and stews, to boost the flavors.

Variations

You may have seen shortcut products at the grocery store or online calling themselves demi-glace. If you're short on time but want a good result, why not try one of these methods instead. You'll have more control over the end result if you start with some home-grown shortcuts—with a few caveats.


  • If you are pressed for time or don’t have the patience, you can save about 8 hours by following a shortcut recipe for demi-glace, with the chief difference being that it uses store-bought beef broth rather than homemade beef stock. However, be aware the demi-glace will lack body—a good stock should jell when you chill it, but the store-bought stuff won’t do that because it lacks gelatin (which is derived from the collagen in the bones).
  • You can make an extremely decent beef stock at home with water and fresh beef bones from an Asian grocery store in an Instant Pot. (You can even buy demi-glace at some grocery stores and online, but shortcut methods we
  • Whether you make your own stock or use store-bought (or a combination), keep in mind that you’ll need a lot of it to complete this recipe from start to finish. You need 3 cups to make the Espagnole sauce and another 2 cups to make the demi-glace.

How to Store and Freeze Demi-Glace

You can store demi-glace in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to two weeks, or freeze it for up to 6 months. If you think you might want to use it in small increments along with 2-cup increments, vary the way you freeze it; ice cube trays work wonders in these situations.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
64 Calories
3g Fat
6g Carbs
4g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 8
Amount per serving
Calories 64
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 3g 4%
Saturated Fat 2g 10%
Cholesterol 8mg 3%
Sodium 339mg 15%
Total Carbohydrate 6g 2%
Dietary Fiber 1g 3%
Total Sugars 1g
Protein 4g
Vitamin C 3mg 15%
Calcium 31mg 2%
Iron 1mg 6%
Potassium 343mg 7%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)